Bedik and Niokholonko of Senegal: Inter‐village relationship inferred from migration data

This study deals with matrimonial migration between eleven villages of a well‐defined area of East‐Sénégal, belonging to one of two ethnic groups: the Bedik and the Niokholonko. An attempt to relate the proportion of non‐migrants to physical properties of the communication network between villages shows no effect of the relative location of each village in this network. Fit of data to a gravitational model, an analysis of migrational flows between villages, as well as the computation of an index of genetic similarity between villages, all point to the primary importance of the ethnic barrier, geographical distance playing a lesser role. Multidimensional scaling methods applied to a measure of functional association proved to be a useful means to investigate possible dyssymmetry of exchanges, here primarily in favor of the Bedik.