Isonymy and repeated pairs of surnames among the Muslims of Manipur, India

Biological and Social Determinants of Fertility Behaviour among the Jat Women of Haryana State, India

Fertility is a way through which human beings biologically replace themselves in order to continue their existence on earth. The present paper therefore attempts to study the factors affecting fertility among the Jat women of Haryana state. A household survey was conducted in 15 villages of Palwal district in which the concentration of Jats was found to be highest and 1014 ever married women were interviewed. Age at marriage, present age, education status, family type, and preference for male child were the most important factors that affected fertility in the studied population. Age at menarche, age at first conception, occupation status, use of birth control measures, and household per capita annual income did not affect the fertility in the studied population.

Secular trends in the relationship between surnames in a population: Study of a border town

The study of surnames in a territory over time is an opportunity to obtain knowledge of the evolution of allelic frequencies. Geographic and cultural factors influence the renovation of surnames and reflect accelerations or delays in the gene flow. Political borders may also condition the genetic structure of a population. Using isonymy, this paper studies the evolution (from 1750 to 2006) of the frequencies of surnames and the components of inbreeding in Olivenza, a border town whose sovereignty was transferred from Portugal to Spain in 1801. After the change in dominion the number of Portuguese surnames fell sharply and the expected values for a population so close to Portugal recovered only after a long period of time. The results indicate that although the border has made population movement more difficult, and has therefore had an impact on the rate of gene exchange, a certain gene flow with Portugal persisted.