SURNAMES AS GENETIC MARKERS IN POPULATION STUDIES

Surnames, information of cultural nature used to identify people and family groups, include simultaneously the genealogical and hereditary facet; the territorial (both geographic and socio-cultural) and temporal dimension. They represent on useful source for either specialistic or interdisciplinary analyses, and for the various disciplines which have the study of human groups as core issue of their researches (sociology, linguistics, history, demography, anthropology, genetics, etc.). Family names, their typology and distribution can provide information about the characteristics of human groups, and specifically about their internal structure, degree of isolation or openness, relationships with other Populations, and about their evolution. When transmitted through the male line, the surname behaves as a genetic marker, thereby allowing the use of all the methods peculiar of population genetics and biology. This Paper illustrates, by means of some examples, possible applications and opportunities offered by the use of surnames in the studies of human populations, along with the limits that they implicitly present.