Abstract

ACRECHE, Noemí; ALBEZA, María Virginia  and  CARO, Fabiana. Biodemography in the City of Salta: Its Population in the mid 19th Century. Andes [online]. 2011, vol.22, n.2. ISSN 1668-8090.

This paper analyses, from Genetic Demography, the population of the City of Salta in the mid 19th century, based on original documents of the provincial census of 1865. In this way, it was possible to rebuild this population structure, incorporating statistics with a biological and historical explanation. From the revision of the archives, it was possible to determine that the population of Salta was 9,844, distributed in 1,270 dwellings and making up 1,492 homes, of which only 10 were inhabited. The male fraction represents the 45% and the female fraction the 55% of the population, with a sex ratio of 81.83, which is higher than the value calculated for the city (77.43) and lower than the one calculated for the province in 1865 (101.75). The average age of the population is 21.82(SD = 16.60), being 99 years old the maximum registered age; furthermore, in women, it is 22.69 (SD = 16.60) and 20.76 (SD = 16.50) in men, being significant the difference between sexes (p = 0.05). In this city, the percentage of children under the age of 4 represents the 14.48%, while the habitants older than 60 years old constitute the 1.67%, which does not exceed the 7% barrier stated by the United Nations. For this reason, this population could be considered a young population. The Children/Women Relationship (CWR), used as approximate indicator of fecundity when no safe data was available, was estimated for the city and the result was 491.718. This vale is higher than the one registered for the province (323.16); however, it would be indicating a low fecundity. In the city, the migrants represent the 11.10 % of the total population (N = 9,844), and who come from neighbouring countries make the biggest migratory contribution. Only the 18.50%of men forms the reproductive population. The Effective Migration Rate (m = 0.182) is low, while the Reproductive Isolation Coefficient (CAR = 292.17) is high. The number of Population Effectives (N = 1607.54) would be indicating the continuation of the long-term genetic variability. From the value of N the Effective Migration and Reproductive Isolation Coefficient, it is possible to reckon that this population was not subject to the effects of genetic drift.

Keywords : Genetic Demography; Effective Size; Effective Migration; Reproductive Isolation Coefficient; Genetic Drift.

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