The sex profile of skeletal remains from a cemetery of Chinese indentured labourers in South Africa

South African Journal of Science

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The sex profile of skeletal remains from a cemetery of Chinese indentured labourers in South Africa
 
Creator Gibbon, Victoria E. Štrkalj, Goran Paximadis, Maria Ruff, Paul Penny, Clem
 
Subject biological anthropology; history; genetic amelogenin; ancient DNA; gold mines; Chinese indentured labour; South Africa
Description For a short period of time in the early 20th century, indentured labourers from China were imported to work on the South African gold mines. The Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons contains 36 skeletons sourced from a Chinese cemetery of this time period on the site of the old Witwatersrand Deep Gold Mine. An earlier morphometric study on this collection recorded a high number of female individuals. However, the general historical records from the early gold mining era conflict with the results of this study, stating that very few Chinese females were among those to arrive in South Africa. In this study, the sex profile of this collection was analysed using molecular sex identification through the amelogenin gene. Results were obtained for 13 (41.93%) specimens, all of which were determined to be male – data that correspond well with the historical records.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Palaeontological Scientific Trust and Medical Research Endowment Fund, University of the Witwatersrand
Date 2010-08-02
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Molecular study and Historical Inquiry
Format application/pdf text/html text/xml
Identifier 10.4102/sajs.v106i7/8.191
 
Source South African Journal of Science; Vol 106, No 7/8 (2010); 4 pages 1996-7489 0038-2353
 
Language eng
 
Relation
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https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/view/191/397 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/view/191/395 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/view/191/396 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/downloadSuppFile/191/769 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/downloadSuppFile/191/770 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/downloadSuppFile/191/771 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/downloadSuppFile/191/772 https://journals.sajs.aosis.co.za/index.php/sajs/article/downloadSuppFile/191/773
 
Coverage South Africa 20th century Sex
Rights Copyright (c) 2010 Victoria E. Gibbon, Goran Štrkalj, Maria Paximadis, Paul Ruff, Clem Penny https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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