The memory of Yaqui population movements and their genetic trace

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationships between Yaquis and other populations, and the circumstances under which such relationships have occurred. Since this group has had a wide mobility throughout the national and also international territory, a brief discussion is made about the definition on kinship provided by the Yaqui history and customs. Taking into account this information the genetic data obtained are interpreted. Genetic distances from mitochondrial DNA shows that this indigenous group is close to non-indigenous populations of central Mexico, they get apart from the desert north, and in relation to the Y chromosome its heritage includes both European and southeastern Mexican origins. We point out then that the trajectory of the population movements that the Yaqui history attests was precisely what led its current inhabitants to seek to maintain kinship within the group, although at the genetic level their inheritance shows a kinship with populations of Europe and the Yucatan peninsula.