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Familial correlations of blood pressure corrected for age, sex, and body weight are described in, and compared among, four Samoan samples which differ in exposure to modern life. An initial assessment of the genetic effects on blood pressure variation is performed in the most traditional sample. The juvenile sibling correlation of systolic pressure increases with modernization, whereas the adult sibling systolic correlation decreases with modernization. It is suggested that there is an increased interfamilial and decreased intrafamilial variation in environment as modernization increases. The preliminary estimate of the additive genetic effects, .25, is discussed in terms of the environmental variation in traditional life.