Anthropology Commons^™

Ethnic Identity And Genetic Ancestry In New Mexicans Of Spanish-Speaking Descent, Meghan Healy

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation focuses on a regional population, New Mexicans of Spanish-speaking descent (NMS), to explore the nature of identity-related substructure in admixed populations and its implications for research and policymaking. We looked at the relationship between ethnic/ethnoracial identity and genomic ancestry in NMS in two studies. In the first, we collected genomic ancestry data using 270 autosomal microsatellites in 98 New Mexicans who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino and provided more detailed information on their ethnoracial identities. We tested for genetic substructure in this sample along with 13 other admixed samples from the Americas. The New Mexican sample showed evidence …