View source for Question: What effect did the 90% death rate in the New World after European contact have on genetics and its relationship to the Book of Mormon?

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==Question: What effect did the 90% death rate in the New World after European contact have on genetics and its relationship to the Book of Mormon?==
===Approximately ninety percent of the Amerindian population died out following contact with the Europeans===
Approximately ninety percent of the Amerindian population died out following contact with the Europeans; most of this was due to infectious disease against which they had no defense. <ref>Suzanne Austin Alchon, 'A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective,' Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, c2003. 
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===It may be that eliminating 90% of the pre-contact gene pool has significantly distorted the true genetic picture of Lehi's descendants===
Since different genes likely provide different resistances to infectious disease, it may be that eliminating 90% of the pre-contact gene pool has significantly distorted the true genetic picture of Lehi's descendants.  Studies of pre-Columbian human remains have not shown any extinct haplotypes&mdash;as one would expect given the small contribution made by a Lehite colony.  Gene ''frequency'', however, could well have been altered by such a dramatic die-off, suggesting that caution should be used in assuming that modern Amerindian populations are an identical match for pre-Columbian gene frequencies.
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[[pt:Pergunta: Que efeito a taxa de morte de 90% no Novo Mundo após contato Europeu tem na genética e sua relação com o Livro de Mórmon?]]
[[Category:Questions]]