Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

This study examines four population groups "of uncertain racial origin" (p. iii), using consistent sampling and assay techniques, to determine the genetic contribution from Caucasoid, Black, and Amerind sources and to determine whether there were distinctive genes or haplotypes. The author defines his objective as follows: ". .. to define the genetic structure, the degree of genetic diversity, and the probable ancestral gene pools that contributed to the present isolate. The data were then to be compared to information about other population isolates to look for analogous mechanisms in the evolution of breeding groups, particularly those of multiracial origin" (p. x). He explains that true random sampling was not possible and that the individuals studied volunteered their informed consent.Chapter VIII, "The Coastal Mestizos," presents research on a pseudonymous group ". . . who believed themselves to be a caucasoid-Amerind isolate descended from early English colonists who intermarried with friendly Hatteras Indians" (p. 105). Spees began the field study with their "enthusiasm and support" in 1973 (p. 105). Over 100 of the individuals lived near a former swamp; so some of his tables divide the subjects into two groups, "Swamp" and "Nonswamp." He collected blood samples, detailed genealogies, and historical information on 140 Coastal Mestizos during three field trips in 1972.Spees provides detailed descriptions of the studies he conducted, under the headings of HLA, Red Cell Antigens, and Serum Immunoglobulin Allotypes. He includes numerous tables, including a comparison of gene frequencies of Coastal Mestizos with Cherokee Indians, Durham Caucasoids, and Durham Blacks. He discusses Multiparous Sera; Immunoglobulin Allotype Frequencies; Blood Group Frequencies; Gm and Gm-Am Haplotype Frequencies; ABO Frequencies; Rh Frequencies; Duffy Frequencies; Kidd frequencies; Kell Frequencies; MN Frequencies; and Diego Frequencies. In discussing his results, he states, ". . . one has to be wary of serological inconsistencies and the sampling problems in this study" (p. 134). He presents percentages of Caucasoid, Amerind, and Negroid contributions for both the Swamp and the Nonswamp group. He concludes that "a more extensive study of this population is warranted, in order to better define the leucocyte, immunoglobulin, and erythrocyte genetic polymorphisms" (p. 135).