Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

406 Jean Bourgeois-Pichat
censuses from the beginning of the French occupation of the territory. The
computer provides a document in which each inhabitant appears as many
times as he or she was included in a census, and in the case of each census the
characteristics recorded are available. Consequently, by following a given
individual throughout the course of his or her life, any particular census can be
corrected by another.
Comparison in time is not the only kind possible. One can also compare at a
single given date documents drawn up by various administrations.
Population genetics
171. W e now propose to touch on present research in population genetics.
In the early stages of population genetics three names stand out: R. A. Eisher,
J. B. S. Haldane and S. Wright. In the direction indicated by them, important
research was carried out by mathematicians who gradually became more interest-
ed in refining equations than in studying their biological significance. Present-
day research relies on ever more elaborate mathematical techniques but becomes
less and less applicable to actual cases. The danger is all the greater in that the
concepts used are often ambiguous: the fact that such highly technical problems
as the ‘genetic load’ or the calculation of ‘lethal equivalents’ have given rise to
passionate controversy shows how important it is that an attempt should be
made to clarify ideas and terms.
Over the last twenty years, a new approach has been provided by G. MalCcot.
His replacement of questions of population genetics in their proper mathemati-
cal context, that of probability, has given rise to research concerned more
particularly at the present time with a clarification of concepts.
Simultaneously with this theoretical research, practical work ‘on the spot’ is
in progress with the object of measuring the genic or genotypical structures of
actual populations ; this work is particularly directed to the ‘experimental popu-
lations’ constituted by isolates, that is, more or less isolated human groups, in
respect of which there is some hope of being able to furnish figures in support of
theoretical parameters - selection coefficients, consanguinity coefficients, pan-
mixian deviation, etc.
But the findings of such research are often unreliable. Since these measure-
ments relate to populations, it is becoming increasingly clear that use should be
made in them of demographic techniques; current research is concerned with
clearly defining the kind of contribution that population genetics may expect
to receive from demography.
X. A FEW CLOSING REMARKS
172. From the foregoing it will undoubtedly have been noted that the objec-
tives pursued by demographic research have a bearing on the daily life of in-
dividuals. This is not always the case with the other human sciences, whose lines
of research seem sometimes to be far removed from everyday life.