The politics of Taíno revivalism: the insignificance of Amerindian mtDNA in the population history of Puerto Ricans. A comment on recent research

This article responds to statements made most recently in the fall of 2005, namely, that Amerindian/Taíno mitochondrial DNA is an important factor in the genetic/biological history of Puerto Ricans. Based on demographic/historical evidence, the article raises questions about the claimed significance of findings that show that 61.3% of Puerto Rican islanders have Amerindian mitochondrial DNA, which is passed exclusively through the female line. It is noted that this type of genetic material could have been passed to a Puerto Rican alive today by a single Taíno/Amerindian female living in the 16th century, that (technically) a small Amerindian/Taíno founder population of only about 135 individuals could have generated the results judged to be significant, and that mitochondrial DNA is a very poor analytical tool for use in determining the actual biological history of ethnically mixed populations including Puerto Ricans, who are overwhelmingly European and African in origin according to well-documented historical evidence.