Resumen de La Antropología Biológica de las poblaciones del pasado: Pasado, presente y futuro

Eric Crubézy, Bertrand Ludes, Daniel Rougé

• Thanks to genetics, past and present populations can be studied from now on through markers, and the separation existing between the study of the past and present populations seems to have disappeared. Nevertheless, paleogenetical studies are at the moment restricted to those places where temperature is relative low. At the moment, even for medieval sites in Europe where temperature is mild, it is not very common that markers other than those of mitochondrial DNA can be analyzed. However, it is necessary that several dozens of individuals can be studied with mitochondrial markers but also with nuclear ones (STR and Y-chromosome markers), so that the past populations can be truly approached. While we are waiting for the new techniques to come, it seems that the populations of sites where DNA is well conserverd can serve as an approach to biological anthropology. This approach to genetics raises the question of the future of our discipline in the Universities and the question of education of our students.