The Chipaya of Bolivia: Dermatoglyphics and ethnic relationships

Abstract

Dermatoglyphic data on 15 traits (digital arches, digital radial loops, digital ulnar loops, digital whorls, I loops, Ir loops, H loops, H loops, III loops, IV loops, mainline C absence, total ridge count, a-b ridge count, atd angle, and mainline index) are presented for 141 Chipaya Indians of Bolivia. Ethnic relationships of these Indians to nine South American Indian tribes (Alacaluf, Atacameño, Aymara, Cashinahua, Chácobo, Chama, Chané, Quechua, and Sirionó) are explored by means of a genetic distance analysis using 21 alleles. Genetic distances are complemented with linguistic and geographic distances between the Chipaya and the other tribes. Genetic distances were found not to be significantly correlated with linguistic and geographic distances. Combining the information available, it is concluded that the Chipaya are most likely ethnically related to the Arawak speakers of the tropical forest.