Anthropometric variation and population structure of the island of Pag, Croatia

Human Biology, Apr 1994 by Smolej-Narancic, N, Chaventre, A, Rudan, P

Our specific purpose here is to present data on phenotypic and underlying genetic anthropometric variation for the island of Pag (northern Dalmatia, Croatia) and to relate the data to past and present migration patterns, geography, and linguistics. The small, fairly environmentally homogeneous island of Pag has experienced differential migration into its various regions throughout its history, and consequently, reproductive isolation of the villages from each other and from the mainland has occurred to varying degrees. Significant anthropometry-geography-linguistics relationships would provide evidence of the action of geographic and cultural isolating factors in the formation of the population's genetic structure .

Pag is a part of the Dalmatian population system, which has been under extensive biological and cultural study since 1971 (Rudan 1972, 1980; Chaventre and Rudan 1982; Bennett et al. 1983; Rudan, Angel et al. 1986, 1987; Rudan, Simic et al. 1987; Rudan, Finka et al. 1990; Rudan, Bennett et al. 1990; Simi and Rudan 1990; Simic et al. 1990). Anthropometric data have been collected throughout the northern and middle Dalmatian area (Smolej et al. 1983, 1984; Rudan, Roberts et al. 1986; Rudan, Angel et al. 1987; Rudan Finka et al. 1990; Rudan, Bennett et al. 1990; Smolej-Narancic and Simic 1989; Smolej-Narani et al. 1989, 1990). The ultimate objective of the ongoing holistic anthropological research is to clarify the microevolutionary and sociocultural processes responsible for the population structure and differentiation in the Dalmatian portion of the Balkan peninsula.

ISLAND OF PAG

Several previous reports have dealt with the geographic, demographic, and linguistic characteristics and the historical background of Pag in detail (Sujoldzic et al. 1987; Sujoldzic 1990). In what follows we briefly summarize these sources. Pag is part of the northern Dalmatian island group (eastern Adriatic, Croatia). It is parallel to Velebit, a mainland mountain massif, and is separated from Velebit by the Pag and Velebit channels (Figure 1). (Figure 1 omitted.) The island is of uneven shape and width and covers an area of 284.6 km sup 2. It is a little less than 60 km long and provides relatively homogeneous physical ecology for its populations. There are three main roads on the island today: Pag-Novalja-Lun, Pag-Povljana, and Pag-Gorica-Dinjiska, The road system was constructed after World War II along the previously existing system of roads and footpaths.

Previous investigations of the island population have suggested the existence of marked heterogeneity among the populations of particular villages as a result of different directions of migration over the past few centuries. The ancestral Slavic (Croatian) inhabitants of the island, who settled on Pag between the sixth and eighth centuries, spoke the Chakavian dialect of the Croatian language, traditional on the Dalmatian coast. However, Pag was subject to the influence of the Stokavian dialect through the continuous migration of Croatian Stokavian-speaking settlers from the mainland to the southeastern part of Pag. Particularly significant migrations occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the population from the Ravni Kotari region of the interior fled from Turkish invaders to the islands of the Zadar region. Thus, since the seventeenth century, Pag has had an older Croatian substratum (Chakavian) and a newer superstratum (Stokavian).

The population structure of Pag was probably influenced not only by its shape but also by its administrative division into two parts since the eleventh century. Its northwestern part with Lun and Novalja administratively belonged to the island of Rab and the Rab Bishop's jurisdiction (today only Lun administratively belongs to Rab), whereas the southeastern part together with the town of Pag belonged to Zadar and the Nin Diocese.

According to the official census of 1981, 7457 inhabitants live in 13 settlements on Pag. Despite the fact that part of the population emigrated from the island during this century, the population size constantly rose from 1857 to 1948. Emigration from the island to the mainland and overseas was greatest at the turn of the twentieth century, when the economically important wine industry collapsed because of a phylloxera epidemic. Despite the difficult economic conditions, the constant increase in population size in the island's villages from 1857 to 1948 was mainly the result of high natural population increase and immigration of new inhabitants from the mainland to the island. The main reason for immigration was the rapid development of the sea-salt industry in the southeastern part of Pag in the nineteenth century, when the Austrian authorities monopolized the production of sea-salt on Pag. This significant economic activity played a specific role in the employment opportunities on the island. Since 1948 there has been a slow but steady decline in population size because of emigration from the island to urban centers on the main coast. During the last 20 years, decreased natality and increased mortality have led to negative natural population growth. The age structure of the population is characterized by a decrease of younger age groups, an increase in older age groups, and generally equalization in all age groups according to age and sex.