Lewontin 1972 The Apportionment of Human Diversity Apportionment Check and Recalculation Winther 2022

Data and recalculations of Lewontin (1972), per Winther, R.G. 2022. Lewontin (1972). In Lorusso, L and Winther, RG. Remapping Race in a Global Context. London: Routledge. In redoing all of his calculations, I find that Lewontin made calculation errors (including rounding errors or omitting diversity component values) for all the genes he analyzed, and understated the among races diversity component, according to even just his own calculations. I show that “Lewontin’s Distribution” of, respectively, within populations, among populations but within races, and among races diversity apportionment is properly 86%/7%/7%.

Methods
1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: Original tables for the allele frequencies of each of the 17 genes were consulted and checked. Especially Giblett (1969) and Mourant (1954) were useful. Moreover, values of various measures were also taken from Table 3 of Lewontin (1972). 

Based on this data, all diversity apportionments for the 17 genes/loci of Lewontin’s classic study were recalculated. Recalculation methodology is described in two sections of Winther (2022): “The Measure of Diversity” and “The Results.”    

2. Methods for processing the data: Basic Excel functions (e.g., average; binary logarithm) greatly helped in redoing all of Lewontin’s original calculations and checking them for accuracy.   

3. Instrument- or software-specific information needed to interpret the data: Excel. 

4. All data was solely handled by the author.