The canarians of San Antonio de los altos, Edo, Miranda, Venezuela. Isolation and marriage unions between 1900 at 1981
Castro de Guerra, D.; Zambrano, O.
Acta Cientifica Venezolana 48(3): 167-172
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5504 PMID: 9640676 Document Number: 474942
We present results of a study on isolation and endogamy in San Antonio de Los Altos a Venezuelan town founded in 1683 by 41 Spanish families of Canarian origin. The study was done with the. civil marital records registered during the years 1905 to 1981. The results show that the same few surnames cover an important proportion of individuals in all the periods studied, which suggests that these belong to the traditional families. An important endogamy is revealed through the frequencies of surnames, birth places of spouses, and the isonymy analysis, which decrease after 1960 with the rupture of the isolate. The higher Fn values and the predominance of some types of isonymy suggests the existence of preferential unions. Geographic isolation and some economic factors, such as the property of the land, could have favoured the isonymy and endogamy observed among surnames of the founders of the town.