BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE: PRELIMINAR CLASSIFICATION Of lIS ANCIENT POPULATION.

Abstract

A hundred and four skulls of aborigenes of the Buenos Aires Province presenting thirty eight cranial metrical variations have been studied by the application of numerical techniques with the programs ofNT-SYS (Numerical Taxonomy System ofMultivariate Statistical Programs). The resulting grouping, based on the similitude of the entities, shows that there are not any marked differences as far as the 96 % of the specimens could be considered as a unique biological entity. The differences are found in many features that have a discriminating value. This value is relative but important and it shows graded differences of size. The skulls belonging to the different groups, subgroups or isolated groups do not show either a standard form or the practice of certain deforming plastic. The results enable us to set forth altemative hypothesis conceming the formation of the populations that inhabited the present territory of the Buenos Aires Province.