Diversity, Ancestry, and Evolution

Population genetics is the mathematical theory of genetic changes in a population from one generation to the next. The study of human population genetics today includes research on genetic diversity within and among populations, patterns of genetic ancestry and history in populations, the long-term evolution of the human species, and selection and genetic adaptation. Population genetics theory looks at genetic change in a population by focusing on the frequency of different alleles and on the way these frequencies change over time. This chapter reviews the application of population genetics theory and methods used to study genetic variation in human populations, present and past. It focuses on selected examples of some of the past and current studies of human population genetics conducted by anthropologists. The chapter provides a flavor of some of the three major avenues of research in human population genetics: population structure, population history, and natural selection.