Religion influence on life history traits heritability

GAVRUS-ION, A; SJOVOLD TORSTEIN,; GONZÁLEZ JOSÉ, ROLANDO; MARTÍNEZ ABADÍAS, NEUS; ESTEBAN TORNE, E; ESPARZA, MIREIA

Congreso; XX Congreso de la SEAF; 2017

IntroductionReproductive fitness refers to the gene transfer from one generation to the subsequent one. Fitness traits or life history traits (LHT) include measurements of fertility and mortality and are influenced by both environmental and genetic factors. Economic, social and cultural factors influenced family size [1?3]. Although the influence of religion on pre-industrial populations has not been widely studied, some works in European post-industrial populations showed that religion (Catholicism and Protestantism) may affect fitness [4, 5].The main goal of this contribution is to determine the degree of differences in the heritability values of LHT between Protestants and Catholics to check the influence of religion on fitness. Material and methodsHallstatt is an Austrian village located at 75 km south-east of Salzburg and it is considered that it remained isolated until the end of the 19th century [6]. During the period of analysis, from 1507 to 1906, the main economic activity was salt mining and until the 16th century the main religion was Catholicism. By the time, Lutheranism acquired adherents and the Hallstatt population was split up into two communities, although Catholics outnumbered Protestants [7, 8].LHT have been determined for Catholic and Protestant records including lifespan, offspring, and age at birth of first and last child, reproductive span, and lifetime reproductive success. Heritabilities values have been estimated with SOLAR software [9]. Results and conclusionsComparison between heritability values can provide a statistical evidence of differences between Catholic and Protestant values. Since religion seems to be also a sign of socio-economic status in Hallstatt, it is interesting to see the influence of this variable over fertility in pre-industrial populations.