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Population prehistory of East Asia and the Pacific as viewed from craniofacial morphology: The basic populations in East Asia, VII
Abstract
Distance analyses were applied to 11 craniofacial measurements recorded in samples from East and Southeast Asia, Australia, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia for the purpose of assessing the biological affinities and possible origins of these populations. A clear separation between Australomelanesians and other populations from East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific is evident. The craniofacial variations suggest that the generalized Asian populations (Negritos, Dayaks, Lesser Sunda Islands, etc.) represent at least part of the morphological background of not only the majority of present Southeast Asians, but also the Neolithic Jomon people and their lineage in Japan, Polynesians, and western Micronesians. The original craniofacial features of Southeast Asians may have occurred as the result of convergent microevolution due to similar environmental conditions such as tropical rain forest. This supports the local-evolution hypothesis for modern Southeast Asian craniofacial features.
... Proponents of a large scale expansion of Neolithic farmers interpret these mid/late Holocene morphological variations as the result of gene flow with populations arriving from the North (Matsumura and Hudson, 2005;Hanihara et al., 2012;Matsumura and Oxenham, 2014). For others, diachronic morphological changes are the result of "modernization" processes (Bulbeck, 1982) through in situ microevolution, without involving significant episodes of gene flow with northern populations (Turner, 1987(Turner, , 1990Hanihara, 1993;Pietrusewsky, 2006Pietrusewsky, , 2010. ...
... The "regional continuity" (RC) model recognizes the initial (~50e60 ka) Pleistocene AMH diaspora (Figs. 1 and 2) as the single major demographic expansion in the course of the population history of SEA, excluding the existencedor significant influencedof later hypothetical dispersal(s) from outside the region (Turner, 1987(Turner, , 1990Hanihara, 1993). Critical to the support of the RC hypothesis are the observations that cranial phenotype data (Pietrusewsky, 2006(Pietrusewsky, , 2010 and genetic affinities (The HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium et al., 2009) between populations are broadly correlated to their geographic distances, a pattern consistent with a model of isolation-by-distance (Wright, 1943). ...
... Interestingly, few comparative morphological studies (Matsumura and Hudson, 2005;Matsumura and Oxenham, 2014) have supported admixture/replacement scenarios for the peopling of SEA. Instead, the majority of craniodental analyses (e.g., Bulbeck, 1982;Turner, 1987Turner, , 1990Hanihara, 1993;Pietrusewsky, 2010) have supported a long-term regional continuity model (from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene), without detecting a significant signal for AMH dispersals from outside SEA. Variations in sampling strategies (extant and/or extinct populations), morphometric procedures (size or shape variation of cranial and/or dental data), and various statistical approaches to phenotypic variability, probably resulted in these radically opposing views. ...
The population history of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in Southeast Asia (SEA) is a highly debated topic. The impact of sea level variations related to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and the Neolithic diffusion on past population dispersals are two key issues. We have investigated competing AMH dispersal hypotheses in SEA through the analysis of dental phenotype shape variation on the basis of very large archaeological samples employing two complementary approaches. We first explored the structure of between-and within-group shape variation of permanent human molar crowns. Second, we undertook a direct test of competing hypotheses through a modeling approach. Our results identify a significant LGM-mediated AMH expansion and a strong biological impact of the spread of Neolithic farmers into SEA during the Holocene. The present work thus favors a " multiple AMH dispersal " hypothesis for the population history of SEA, reconciling phenotypic and recent genomic data.
... The results showed that the skull has longer, narrower and lower cranium with a narrower facial bone and orbits than those from the modern Korean adults groups. The nasal aperture demonstrated an average width in the nasal index [19][20][21] (Table 1). In terms of appearance, it was assumed that the individual had horizontally long & vertically short head with inclined forehead from lateral view and narrower face from frontal view. ...
... In the current case, a more reliable craniometric analysis was possible due to the virtually restored skull and the obtained primary craniometric measurements. The cephalic index (CI), at 73.5, suggested a dolichocephalic trait differed from the average or modern Korean adults, who typically demonstrate the brachycephalic or mesochephalic type [19,20]. Reportedly, cranial indices among Koreans changed, from mesochephalic (CI = 77.6 ± 4.9) during the ancient period (4 th -7 th century) to brachychephalic (CI = 82.3 ...
... ± 5.4) during the Joseon period (1392-1910 CE) [22,32]. When considering these and the other relevant previous studies [19,20,22,32], the long and narrow cranium and narrower facial shape of the individual in this study should be regarded as an idiosyncratic characteristic of the skull and not a typical feature of East Asians in general or of Koreans in particular. Two hypotheses are possible. ...
In November and December 2013, unidentified human skeletal remains buried in a mokgwakmyo (a traditional wooden coffin) were unearthed while conducting an archaeological investigation near Gyeongju, which was the capital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BCE– 660 CE) of ancient Korea. The human skeletal remains were preserved in relatively intact condition. In an attempt to obtain biological information on the skeleton, physical anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, stable isotope and craniofacial analyses were carried out. The results indicated that the individual was a female from the Silla period, of 155 ± 5 cm height, who died in her late thirties. The maternal lineage belonged to the haplogroup F1b1a, typical for East Asia, and the diet had been more C3- (wheat, rice and potatoes) than C4-based (maize, millet and other tropical grains). Finally, the face of the individual was reconstructed utilizing the skull (restored from osseous fragments) and three-dimensional computerized modeling system. This study, applying multi-dimensional approaches within an overall bio-anthropological analysis, was the first attempt to collect holistic biological information on human skeletal remains dating to the Silla Kingdom period of ancient Korea.
... An alternative model to this demic expansion model is the continuity model, based largely on data from physical anthropology, which argues that the present day inhabitants of Southeast Asia evolved from earlier groups living within this region from the late Holocene onward (e.g., Bulbeck, 1982;Hanihara, 1993;Pietrusewsky, 1994Pietrusewsky, , 2006aTurner, 1990). ...
... As shown in previous craniometric analyses (e.g., Hanihara, 1993;Howells, 1973Howells, , 1989Pietrusewsky, 1990aPietrusewsky, , 1994Pietrusewsky, , 2000Pietrusewsky, , 2006a the results of this new multivariate analysis of craniometric data demonstrate the presence of two major divisions of modern and near modern humans inhabiting the wider Asian-Pacific region. All cranial series from Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and geographical island Melanesia, represent one of these divisions. ...
... Important among these is the work ofTurner (1990,1992), focusing on dental non-metric traits, and the recognition of two polar dental complexes, Sundadonty for Southeast Asia and Polynesia, and Sinodonty for the inhabitants of East Asia. Others whose work supports continuity in the region include Bulbeck (1982), Hanihara (1993), and Pietrusewsky (1994Pietrusewsky ( , 2006a. Generally, the distances closest to modern (non-Ainu) Japanese series are other Japanese series and those from Korea and Manchuria in northeast Asia. ...
In this study, stepwise discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis' generalized distance are applied to 27 landmark measurements recorded in 2,595 male crania representing 56 near modern cranial series from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), Mainland Southeast Asia (SEA), East Asia, Australia. and the Pacific. This new analysis examines models (e.g., agricultural colonization and continuity models) based on archaeological, historical linguistic, and biological data for understanding the modern inhabitants of ISEA and the adjoining regions beginning approximately 40,000 years ago. The results, including the inspection ofjackknifed classification results, canonical plots, and the construction of diagrams of relationship based on Mahalanobis' distances, indicate: The primary division is one between Asian-Pacific and Australian-Melanesian series. With the exception of the Southern Moluccas series, cranial series from ISEA form a separate branch that is closest to Mainland SEA series. Cranial series representing East and North Asia occupy a branch well separated from Southeast Asia, an association that argues for long term continuity within these regions rather than intrusion or replacement in Southeast Asia. ISEA is the likely homeland for the ancestors of the Polynesians and other inhabitants of Remote Oceania. Several interesting associations (e.g., New Zealand Maori and Southern Moluccas) between Remote Oceania and ISEA are discussed. This study demonstrates that human skeletal and dental remains are an important source of information for evaluating models based on archaeological and historical linguistic data and for evaluating the hotly debated LS1 hominin from Liang Sua Cave on Flores Island, Indonesia.
... As mentioned above, the Australo-Melanesians may have a remote common ancestor with subsequent Asian populations, possibly between 70 and 50 ka (Roberts et al., 19901, and the occupation of Australia would represent the first dispersal from Sundaland (Birdsell, 1977; Bowler, 1976; Brace and Hinton, 1981; T. Hanihara, 1992a T. Hanihara, , 1993a Howells, 1976; Omoto, 1984; Thorne, 1976; Turner, 1992). Subsequent to the period of occupation, there is no evidence of important cultural and biological influences from Southeast Asia until very late in the Holocene (Kirk, 1981). ...
... Brace and co-workers (Brace et al., 1989Brace et al., , 1990 Brace and Hunt, 1990) and Katayama (1990) have argued on the basis of cranial similarities that the Jomon population of Japan is ancestral to the Pacific islanders. However, other cranial and dental studies indicate that the Polynesians and Micronesians represent a late, Holocene, dispersal from Southeast Asia (T. Hanihara, 1993a; Harris et al., 1975; Howells, 1970 Howells, , 1973 Howells, , 1976 Howells, , 1989 Howells, , 1990 Kirch et al., 1989; Pietrusewsky, 1983 Pietrusewsky, , 1984 Pietrusewsky, , 1985 Pietrusewsky, , 1988 Pietrusewsky, , 1990a Turner, 1987 Turner, , 1989a Turner, , 1990a,b; Turner and Scott, 1977; Turner and Swindler, 19781, and T. Hanihara has argued that the similarities observed by Brace and Katayama may reflect the very close common ancestry of the Jomonese and Polynesians rather than an ancestral-descendant relationship (T. Hanihara, 1993a ). ...
... However, other cranial and dental studies indicate that the Polynesians and Micronesians represent a late, Holocene, dispersal from Southeast Asia (T. Hanihara, 1993a; Harris et al., 1975; Howells, 1970 Howells, , 1973 Howells, , 1976 Howells, , 1989 Howells, , 1990 Kirch et al., 1989; Pietrusewsky, 1983 Pietrusewsky, , 1984 Pietrusewsky, , 1985 Pietrusewsky, , 1988 Pietrusewsky, , 1990a Turner, 1987 Turner, , 1989a Turner, , 1990a,b; Turner and Scott, 1977; Turner and Swindler, 19781, and T. Hanihara has argued that the similarities observed by Brace and Katayama may reflect the very close common ancestry of the Jomonese and Polynesians rather than an ancestral-descendant relationship (T. Hanihara, 1993a ). It has been proposed that Austronesian speakers migrated from Southeast Asia to Melanesia between 6-3.5 ka (Bellwood, 1975Bellwood, , 1978Bellwood, , 1985 Serjeantson, 19841, from where (New Ireland, New Britain) the Lapita Cultural Complex expanded into Polynesia (Green, 1979; Kirch, 1986; Kirch and Green, 1987; Kirch et al., 1989; Pietrusewsky, 1985 ). However , Melanesian traits have been identified in some Lapita skeletons, suggesting that the Lapita population may have been of Melanesian rather than southern Mongoloid origin (Pietrusewsky, 1985Pietrusewsky, , 1989a Turner, 1989b ). ...
The study of modern human origins and the study of the origins of modern human diversity are intimately linked. The evolutionary models employed have implications both for interpreting the significance of morphological variation and evolutionary trends, and in terms of the processes that gave rise to such variation. Although controversial, available evidence is taken to indicate a single, recent origin of modern humans.
This paper explores the process of differentiation of modern populations in Asia and argues for morphological discontinuities in the late Pleistocene populations in the region. The intensely studied population history of Eastern Asia suggests that the evolution of the Mongoloid population complex may result from a process of differentiations, expansions, and dispersals, resulting in the development of regional morphological patterns. The relatively late appearance of regional morphological differentiation, especially in Northeast Asia, opens the possibility of the earliest Amerindians not being a typical “Mongoloid” population.
A more generalized Mongoloid morphology has been described for both North and South American Paleoindian remains. In this paper, the morphology of a robust, not typically Mongoloid, population in South America is investigated, and its implications for the homogeneity of Amerindians discussed. Since a derived, typically Mongoloid morphology cannot be attributed to the early Amerindian and Fueguian-Patagonian populations, it is argued either that the sinodont dental pattern was acquired in parallel in Asia and the Americas or that at least two migratory waves ancestral to Amerinds took place.
... For example, Turner (1987Turner ( , 1989Turner ( , 1990 using dental non-metric traits, has proposed that Southeast Asia was the ultimate source, rather than the recipient of a "southern Mongoloid" (Sundadont) population, that ultimately spread northward to give rise to a "northern Mongoloid" (Sinodont) dental complex. Others who have supported the continuity model include Bulbeck (1982), Hanihara (1993Hanihara ( , 1994, Pietrusewsky (1994Pietrusewsky ( , 1999Pietrusewsky ( , 2004Pietrusewsky ( , 2005Pietrusewsky ( , 2006a, Pietrusewsky and Douglas (2002) and Pope (1992). In contrast to these studies, the work of Matsumura (1995Matsumura ( , 2001Matsumura ( , 2006, Matsumura and Hudson (2005), and Matsumura et al. (2001) favor admixture models. ...
... As shown in previous craniometric analyses (e.g., Hanihara, 1993Hanihara, , 1994Howells, 1973Howells, , 1989Howells, , 1995Pietrusewsky, 1990aPietrusewsky, , 1994Pietrusewsky, , 1999Pietrusewsky, , 2000Pietrusewsky, , 2005Pietrusewsky, , 2006aPietrusewsky, , 2006b) the results of this new multivariate analysis of craniometric data demonstrate the presence of two major divisions of modern and near modern humans inhabiting the wider Asian-Pacific region. All cranial series from Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and geographical island Melanesia, represent one of these divisions. ...
... Important among these is the work of Turner (1987Turner ( , 1989Turner ( , 1990Turner ( , 1992aTurner ( , 1992b, focusing on dental non-metric traits, and the recognition of two polar dental complexes, Sundadonty for Southeast Asia and Polynesia, and Sinodonty for the inhabitants of East Asia. Others whose work supports continuity in the region include Bulbeck (1982), Hanihara (1993, Pietrusewsky (1994Pietrusewsky ( , 1999Pietrusewsky ( , 2004Pietrusewsky ( , 2005Pietrusewsky ( , 2006a, Pietrusewsky and Douglas (2002) and Pope (1992). ...
Stepwise discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis' generalized distance are applied to 27 landmark measurements recorded in 2,595 male crania representing 56 modern and near modern cranial series from Mainland and Island Southeast Asia, East Asia, Australia, and the Pacific. This analysis examines models (e.g., agricultural colonization and continuity models) based on archaeological, historical linguistic, and biological data that attempt to explain the presence of the modern inhabitants of Southeast Asia and the surrounding regions of East Asia, the Pacific, and Australia beginning approximately 40,000 years ago. The results, including the inspection of jackknifed classification results, canonical plots, and the construction of diagrams of relationship based on Mahalanobis' distances indicate: • The primary division is between Asian and Australian-Melanesian series. • With the exception of the Southern Moluccas series, Southeast Asian cranial series form a separate branch with island and mainland subgroupings. • Cranial series representing East Asia and North Asia occupy a branch well separated from Southeast Asia, an association that argues for long term continuity within these regions rather than intrusion or replacement in Southeast Asia. • Island Southeast Asia is the likely homeland for the ancestors of the Polynesians and other inhabitants of remote Oceania. • Several interesting associations (e.g., New Zealand Maori and Southern Moluccas) between Remote Oceania and Island Southeast Asia are discussed. This study demonstrates that human skeletal and dental remains are an important source of information for evaluating models based on archaeological and historical linguistic data and for evaluating the hotly debated LB1 hominin from Liang Bua Cave on Flores Island, Indonesia.
... Except for work by Matsumura and colleagues (e.g., Matsumura and Hudson, 2005), there has not been wide support of the admixture/replacement model from studies in physical anthropology. Rather, the majority of work in physical anthropology (e.g., Bulbeck, 1982;Turner, 1987Turner, , 1992Pope, 1992;Hanihara, 1993;Pietrusewsky, 2006) supports continuity between earlier and later inhabitants of the region. In this view the spread of farming is seen mainly as the result of the adoption and/or diffusion of agricultural technology by the descendents of in situ hunter-gatherers without necessarily the spread of new languages or genes. ...
... This striking separation between North/East Asian cranial series provides more support for models of long-term in situ evolution in these two regions rather than those that advocate replacement and discontinuity to account for the modern peoples of Eastern Asia. Similar conclusions have been reached by Turner (1987Turner ( , 1990 using dental morphology and Hanihara (1993) and Pietrusewsky (2006) using craniometric data. ...
... The close relationship between Jomon and Ainu crania series found in the present results supports numerous lines of evidence including molecular and earlier studies of skull morphology (e.g., Dodo, 1986;Turner, 1987;Dodo and Ishida, 1990;Yamaguchi, 1992;Hanihara, 1993;Omoto et al., 1996;Pietrusewsky, 2000) that view the Jomon (people who inhabited the archipelago for approximately 10,000 years beginning ca 12,000 years B.P.) as the ancestors of the modern Ainu. An earlier date (16,000 years B. P.) for the beginning of the Jomon Period is discussed in Habu (2004). ...
Stepwise discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis' generalized distance are applied to 28 landmark measurements recorded in 38 prehistoric and modern cranial series from Eastern Asia for interpreting biological relationships and population history. The cranial series are from Japan, China, Northern Asia, mainland Southeast Asia, and island Southeast Asia. The results of this analysis indicate a marked separation of East/North Asian and Southeast Asian cranial series, a finding that supports hypotheses of long-term continuity in northern and southern regions of Eastern Asia rather than models that suggest intrusion and replacement. The results also support a common recent origin of the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans in Northeast Asia. A major intrusion of people into the Japanese archipelago beginning in the Yayoi Period is further supported by these results. The relationships of Ainu, Jomon, Ryukyu Islanders, and Taiwan Aboriginals are discussed.
... Results of craniofacial facial measurement comparisons by Hanihara (1993aHanihara ( , 1993b) support this argument, demonstrating the microevolution of the facial features of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia over time. They argue that this has led to the formation of today's Southeast Asian physical features (Hanihara 1993a;Hanihara 1993b;Hanihara 2006). ...
... Results of craniofacial facial measurement comparisons by Hanihara (1993aHanihara ( , 1993b) support this argument, demonstrating the microevolution of the facial features of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia over time. They argue that this has led to the formation of today's Southeast Asian physical features (Hanihara 1993a;Hanihara 1993b;Hanihara 2006). Turner (1987Turner ( , 1990) has used nonmetric dental traits studies to build the Sundadont/Sinodont hypothesis to support the regional continuity model. ...
Disease and trauma affect both the individual and their community. In bioarchaeological research, skeletal remains of past populations can provide insights into how people lived and coped with illness and adversity. An individual from Nagsabaran, a Neolithic to Metal Period site in the Northern Philippines, was found to have a different burial treatment in comparison to the other adults discovered at the site, as well as a disabling ankylosed hip. This thesis develops an osteobiography which, among other things, estimates this individual‘s age, sex, stature and ancestry whilst also assessing patterns of dental wear, and evidence for dental calculus, linear enamel hypoplasia and skeletal abnormalities. A main outcome of this osteobiography, and associated differential diagnosis of the observed skeletal pathologies this individual manifested, found that care was required by the community to ensure his survival. The bioarchaeology of care model, developed by Tilley (2012), is used to understand the impacts of the conditions to the individual‘s day to day life and to the community. Results of the osteobiography may also provide support for the Island Southeast Asia express train model of dispersal. Nagsabaran has become important for understanding the history in the Philippines and Southeast Asia in general. This thesis contributes to the growing corpus of knowledge of the bioarchaeology of the Philippine archipelago.
... Except for work by Matsumura and colleagues (e.g., Matsumura and Hudson, 2005), there has not been wide support of the admixture/replacement model from studies in physical anthropology . Rather, the majority of work in physical anthropology (e.g., Bulbeck, 1982; Turner, 1987 Turner, , 1992 Pope, 1992; Hanihara, 1993; Pietrusewsky, 2006) supports continuity between earlier and later inhabitants of the region. In this view the spread of farming is seen mainly as the result of the adoption and/or diffusion of agricultural technology by the descendents of in situ hunter–gatherers without necessarily the spread of new languages or genes. ...
... The Ryukyu Island misclassifications suggest a much diversified population for the inhabitants of these islands with affinities to Hainan Island, Taiwan, and several Northern Asian series. The close relationship between Jomon and Ainu crania series found in the present results supports numerous lines of evidence including molecular and earlier studies of skull morphology (e.g., Dodo, 1986; Turner, 1987; Dodo and Ishida, 1990; Yamaguchi, 1992; Hanihara, 1993; Omoto et al., 1996; Pietrusewsky, 2000) that view the Jomon (people who inhabited the archipelago for approximately 10,000 years beginning ca 12,000 years B.P.) as the ancestors of the modern Ainu. An earlier date (16,000 years B. P.) for the beginning of the Jomon Period is discussed in Habu (2004). ...
Archaeologists have long debated the origins and mode of dispersal of the immediate predecessors of all Polynesians and many populations in Island Melanesia. Such debates are inextricably linked to a chronological framework provided, in part, by radiocarbon dates. Human remains have the greatest potential for providing answers to many questions pertinent to these debates. Unfortunately, bone is one of the most complicated materials to date reliably because of bone degradation, sample pre-treatment and diet. This is of particular concern in the Pacific where humidity contributes to the rapid decay of bone protein, and a combination of marine, reef, C4, C3 and freshwater foods complicate the interpretation of 14C determinations. Independent advances in bone pre-treatment, isotope multivariate modelling and radiocarbon calibration techniques provide us, for the first time, with the tools to obtain reliable calibrated ages for Pacific burials. Here we present research that combines these techniques, enabling us to re-evaluate the age of burials from key archaeological sites in the Pacific.
... In contrast to the traditional "Two Layer" model, some recent cranial and dental studies (eg. Turner 1989, Hanihara, 1993, Pietrusewsky 1992 propose that the evolution of many present-day Southeast Asians was by local adaptation, and not by significant admixture with new food producing communities expanding from a source somewhere in mainland East Asia. In terms of craniodental morphology a difficulty arises in distinguishing between in situ local modernisation and gene flow mediated change (so-called "Mongoloidisation" by Bulbeck, 1982). ...
... Specifically, East/North Asian groups commonly display a series of features, such as non-projecting noses, facial flatness, round eye sockets and brachycranic vaults, while these features are less intense in the Southeast Asian cranial series [10]. Regarding the present separation between northern and southern Asian groups, a number of scholars currently hold that these distinguished features were caused by long-term accumulated continuity within regions [10,30]. In the current study, the cranial measurements from Thailand showed no significant differences from those of modern Koreans. ...
The present research aims to examine the cranial index in a modern people of Thai ancestry. Ultimately, this study will help to create a databank containing a cranial index for the classifications of the people from Asia. In this study, 185 modern crania of people of supposed Thai ancestry were examined. They were collected from the Department of Anatomy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. The maximum cranial length and breadth were measured using standard anthropometric instruments based on Martin's methods. The cranial index was calculated using the equation ([maximum cranial breadth/maximum cranial length]×100). The mean cranial indices for the male and female skulls examined were 81.81±4.23 and 82.99±4.37, respectively. The most common type of skull in the modern Thai people in this study was the brachycranic type with a frequency of 42.7%, followed by the mesocranic (27.03%) and hyperbrachycranic types (25.59%). The rarest type observed in this study was the dolichocranic type (4.32%). The present study provides valuable data pertaining to the cranial index in a modern Thai population and reveals that modern Thai males and females belong to the brachycranic group. The results of this study will be of forensic anthropological importance to populations in close proximity to the location where the skulls studied here were sourced.
... This result coincides with earlier studies (Temple et al., 2008). The craniofacial studies indicate that the Yayoi shows similarity to the Northeast Asian groups in the Asian Continent where the climatic condition was colder than recent Japan (Brace & Seguchi, 2004;Dodo & Ishida, 1990;Hanihara, 1991Hanihara, , 1993Nakahashi, 1993;Omoto & Saitou, 1997;Pietrusewsky, 1999;Seguchi et al., 2007). Also, studies of odontometrics, dental morphology, and genetic studies suggest that the Yayoi people migrated into Japan from China, or possibly Korea (Brace & Nagai, 1982;Brace et al., 1989;Hammer et al., 2006;Igawa et al., 2009;Oota, Saitou, Matsushita, & Ueda, 1995). ...
Objectives:
We explore variations in body and limb proportions of the Jomon hunter-gatherers (14,000-2500 BP), the Yayoi agriculturalists (2500-1700 BP) of Japan, and the Kumejima Islanders of the Ryukyus (1600-1800 AD) with 11 geographically diverse skeletal postcranial samples from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America using brachial-crural indices, femur head-breadth-to-femur length ratio, femur head-breadth-to-lower-limb-length ratio, and body mass as indicators of phenotypic climatic adaptation. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that variation in limb proportions seen in Jomon, Yayoi, and Kumejima is a complex interaction of genetic adaptation; development and allometric constraints; selection, gene flow and genetic drift with changing cultural factors (i.e., nutrition) and climate.
Methods:
The skeletal data (1127 individuals) were subjected to principle components analysis, Manly's permutation multiple regression tests, and Relethford-Blangero analysis.
Results:
The results of Manly's tests indicate that body proportions and body mass are significantly correlated with latitude, and minimum and maximum temperatures while limb proportions were not significantly correlated with these climatic variables. Principal components plots separated "climatic zones:" tropical, temperate, and arctic populations. The indigenous Jomon showed cold-adapted body proportions and warm-adapted limb proportions. Kumejima showed cold-adapted body proportions and limbs. The Yayoi adhered to the Allen-Bergmann expectation of cold-adapted body and limb proportions. Relethford-Blangero analysis showed that Kumejima experienced gene flow indicated by high observed variances while Jomon experienced genetic drift indicated by low observed variances.
Conclusions:
The complex interaction of evolutionary forces and development/nutritional constraints are implicated in the mismatch of limb and body proportions.
... Increases in population numbers and densities, made possible by the agricultural revolution itself, are cited as being responsible for the demic diffusion of agriculture, people, languages, and material culture in Southeast Asia. An alternative model argues for biological continuity for the inhabitants of Southeast Asia from at least the Late Holocene without replacement by a major intrusion of people and cultures from a more northerly source in East Asia (e.g., Bulbeck 1982;Turner 1987Turner , 1990Hanihara 1993;. This model posits that the ideas for agriculture originated or were adopted in situ. ...
In this talk, I briefly discuss how I became involved with Ban Chiang and what we have learned, in the decades since, from our studies of the approximately 142 human skeletons (2100 B.C. - 200 A.D.) excavated in 1974 and 1975 by the Thai Fine Arts Department and University of Pennsylvania. Specifically, I discuss what we know about health, diet, life span, and lifestyle of some of the earliest inhabitants of Northeast Thailand, people who were in the transition from hunting and gathering lifestyle to one that increasingly relied on agriculture. I also discuss some of what we have learned about the biological relationships of the ancient inhabitants of Ban Chiang. Then, I will mention one particular burial from these excavations, BC Burial 23, given the nickname, “Vulcan”. My talk will end with on-going research and plans to repatriate the Ban Chiang skeletons to Thailand.
Much of the information discussed in this talk derives from our monograph on the human skeletons from Ban Chiang published by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in 2002 and other publications by me, Michele Toomay Douglas, and others over the years. In addition to the systematic recording of thousands of measurements and nonmetric observations and detailed descriptions of paleopathology, there have been more specialized chemical analysis of bone and teeth from Ban Chiang including isotope analysis and, most recently, attempts to obtain ancient DNA from these skeletons.
The results of an examination of a number of indicators of health (e.g., life expectancy, adult stature, linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH), cribra orbitalia (CO), trauma, infectious disease, and dental pathology) indicate that Ban Chiang/Southeast Asia does not follow the general global decline in health with increased sedentism and/or the adoption and intensification of agriculture. Some possible reasons for this are discussed in the talk. In addition to unusually good health, our studies also found no evidence for skeletal trauma from warfare and little evidence for interpersonal violence. These studies further suggest that individuals of both sexes led strenuous lives at Ban Chiang. Analyses of stable isotopes indicate evidence for temporal changes and gender differences in diet and support for a matrilocal residence pattern.
In addition to skeletal evidence for genetic affiliations within the spatial groups at Ban Chiang, the results of applying multivariate statistical procedures to cranial measurements support models of local continuity in the late lithic to Neolithic/Bronze Age of mainland Southeast Asia. These studies also indicate major differences between the inhabitants of Khok Phanom Di, a site in south central Thailand, and Ban Chiang. Broader biodistance analysis indicates connections between prehistoric and modern inhabitants of Southeast Asia, suggestive of long-term continuity rather than models that argue for intrusion and displacement.
Special mention is given to one of the Early Period burials from the 1974 excavations at Ban Chiang, nicknamed “Vulcan” after the Roman god of fire and metalworking. Osteological examination indicates this individual was a 45-50 year old male at the time of his death. Further features of his skeleton, including his relatively tall stature, are consistent with the designation as a skilled village craftsman and hunter who married into the community.
It has been a privilege to serve as the sole curator of the skeletons from the 1974 and 1975 excavations at Ban Chiang, which has meant that new studies, such as the DNA studies now in progress, could be undertaken allowing new research questions to be addressed. Currently, the skeletons for the 1974 and 1975 excavations at Ban Chiang, which are currently curated at the University of Hawaii, are being prepared for repatriation to Thailand. It is hoped that additional research on these remains will continue to uncover new information about the prehistoric people of Thailand and Southeast Asia.
... morphological studies of Jomon skeletal remains include traditional craniometric and dental studies of the Jomon in the larger scheme of population history of East Asia, with comparisons to groups in SE Asia, Australo-melanasia, and Polynesia (Brace et al. 1989;Hanihara 1991;Hanihara et al. 1993;Hanihara 1993Hanihara , 2006matsumura 2006;matsumura & Hudson 2005;Pietrusewsky 2006Pietrusewsky , 2010Turner 1976); origins of modern Japanese people (Brace & Nagai 1982;Brace et al. 1989;Hanihara 1984;Nakahashi 1993); metric and nonmetric investigation of the Japanese people, Ainu and Jomon using the Relethford-Blangero method (Hanihara 2010;Hanihara et al. 2008;ishida et al. 2009;Nakashima et al. 2010); and nonmetric investigations of Jomon and Ainu crania and teeth (dodo & Kawakubu 2002;Kaburagi et al. 2010;matsumura 2007;morita et al. 2012;Nakashima et al. 2010;Ossenberg et al. 2006;Shigematsu et al. 2004). multivariate analyses of Japanese crania go back as early as the mid 1960s (Howells 1966) and continued into the 1980s and early 1990s (Brace et al. 1989;Hanihara 1991). ...
Archaeological investigation of the Jomon Culture is extensive and well supported among the Japanese public. The distinct pottery that characterizes the Jomon has been well documented and physical anthropological description of skeletal remains in Japan has a long and extensive history. However, questions remain of Jomon peoples origins, biological contribution to modern Japanese and biological relationship to the agriculturalist people associated with the Yayoi culture. Morphological analyses of Jomon skeletal material have suggested ambiguous origins and interregional heterogeneity has been observed based on craniofacial variation. Ancient DNA of skeletal remains associated with the Jomon Culture indicates possible distinct genetic lineages associated with various locations throughout greater East and Southeast Asia. Here, we review the relevance of using ancient DNA and morphometrics to answer some of the above questions and challenge models based on the assumption that archaeological culture is equal to a shared biological history. Recent literature is reviewed and summarized in order to give the reader an idea of how basic assumptions of biological ancestry can be questioned using these new data. We end our discussion by suggesting further avenues of study and prospective research questions that could be asked in light of these new technologies.
... Harvati and Weaver (2006) similarly suggest that cranial morphology can retain a population history signal, allowing researchers to track neutral genetics. However, a potential complication arises when facial shape is considered because the face appears to retain climatic features (Hanihara 1993(Hanihara , 1996. This climatic signal may be present in arctic populations, and if so, could alter our results. ...
Different data types have previously been shown to have the same microevolutionary patterns in worldwide data sets. However, peopling of the New World studies have shown a difference in migration paths and timings using multiple types of data, spurring research to understand why this is the case. This study was designed to test the degree of similarity in evolutionary patterns by using cranial and dental metric and nonmetric data, along with Y-chromosome DNA and mtDNA. The populations used included Inuits from Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Greenland, and the Aleutian Islands. For comparability, the populations used for the cranial and molecular data were from similar geographic regions or had a shared population history. Distance, R and kinship matrices were generated for use in running Mantel tests, PROTEST analyses, and Procrustes analyses. A clear patterning was seen, with the craniometric data being most highly correlated to the mtDNA data and the cranial nonmetric data being most highly correlated with the Y-chromosome data, while the phenotypic data were also linked. This patterning is suggestive of a possible male or female inheritance, or the correlated data types are affected by the same or similar evolutionary forces. The results of this study indicate cranial traits have some degree of heritability. Moreover, combining data types leads to a richer knowledge of biological affinity. This understanding is important for bioarchaeological contexts, in particular, peopling of the New World studies where focusing on reconciling the results from comparing multiple data types is necessary to move forward. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
... The African sample had a significantly smaller clivus compared to the Asian sample (Kuroe et al., 2004). Hanihara has conducted numerous studies on craniofacial variation among human populations (Hanihara, 1992a;Hanihara, 1992b;Hanihara, 1993;Hanihara, 1996;Hanihara, 1997). While he did not include cranial base flexion among the variables of the studies, some general conclusions relating to the facial skeleton are of relevance to the present study, such as the finding of a clinal distribution of cranial features in the Afro-European and Australasian/East Asian regions. ...
... Data include twelve craniofacial measurements chosen in part based on previous studies demonstrating which variables account for the largest proportion of geographical variation (Hanihara, 1993;Pietrusewsky, 1990Pietrusewsky, , 2010 (Table 6). These data have been reduced and size-corrected (see Demeter, 2000;Demeter et al., 2003 for details). ...
In February 1934, Jacques Fromaget of the Geological Service of Indochina discovered the Tam Hang rockshelter during prospecting work in Northern Laos. During his excavations, the geologist discovered seventeen anatomically modern human skulls. Ten of these skulls have been recovered in association with six largely-complete skeletons. These fossils, which are dated by 14C to 15.7 ka, are used to address issues related to anatomical variation and migration in Southeast Asia during the Late Pleistocene. Excellent preservation of the skeletal material allows for estimation of body size and shape in a sample of young adults. Cranial metrics are also used to assess affiliations between Tam Hang and other Southeast Asian fossil samples in an effort to address questions about population migration. This fossil sample demonstrates that Late Pleistocene human activity may be productively addressed by continued work in the highlands of mainland Southeast Asia.RésuméC’est en février 1934, lors d’une mission de prospection, que Jacques Fromaget, géologue auprès du Service géologique d’Indochine, a découvert l’abri sous roche de Tam Hang. Le site se situe sur le versant sud-est de la Chaîne annamitique septentrionale au nord du Laos. Le géologue a mis au jour, lors de ses fouilles, dix-sept crânes d’anatomie moderne, parmi lesquels dix ont été préservés. Six d’entre eux sont associés à du postcrânien. L’étude de ces fossiles, datés de 15,7 ka par le 14C permet de mieux comprendre comment se sont opérées les migrations humaines en Asie du Sud-Est continentale durant le Pléistocène supérieur récent. L’excellent état de conservation de ces individus permet d’estimer la taille et la morphologie d’une population composée de jeunes adultes. Seules des recherches continues en Asie du Sud-Est continentale affineront nos connaissances sur les origines de l’Homme dans la région.
... An alternative model to this demic expansion model is the continuity model, based largely on data from physical anthropology, which argues that the present day inhabitants of Southeast Asia evolved from earlier groups living within this region from the late Holocene onward (e.g., Bulbeck, 1982; Hanihara, 1993; Pietrusewsky, 1994, 2006a;Turner, 1990). Where the modern human inhabitants of this immense island world came from and how they got there has long influenced research in this region. ...
In this study, stepwise discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis' generalized distance are applied to 27 landmark measurements recorded in 2,595 male crania representing 56 near modern cranial series from Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), Mainland Southeast Asia (SEA), East Asia, Australia. and the Pacific. This new analysis examines models (e.g., agricultural colonization and continuity models) based on archaeological, historical linguistic, and biological data for understanding the modern inhabitants of ISEA and the adjoining regions beginning approximately 40,000 years ago. The results, including the inspection of jackknifed classification results, canonical plots, and the construction of diagrams of relationship based on Mahalanobis' distances, indicate: The primary division is one between Asian-Pacific and Australian-Melanesian series. With the exception of the Southern Moluccas series, cranial series from ISEA form a separate branch that is closest to Mainland SEA series. Cranial series representing East and North Asia occupy a branch well separated from Southeast Asia, an association that argues for long term continuity within these regions rather than intrusion or replacement in Southeast Asia. ISEA is the likely homeland for the ancestors of the Polynesians and other inhabitants of Remote Oceania. Several interesting associations (e.g., New Zealand Maori and Southern Moluccas) between Remote Oceania and ISEA are discussed. This study demonstrates that human skeletal and dental remains are an important source of information for evaluating models based on archaeological and historical linguistic data and for evaluating the hotly debated LS1 hominin from Liang Sua Cave on Flores Island, Indonesia.
... These findings prompted Diamond (1988) to suggest the colonization of Polynesia via an " express train " from southern China. In contrast to this view of a rapid, intrusive expansion of Asian populations through Near Oceania into Remote Oceania are studies of biological markers that generally cluster Austronesian-speaking Melanesians with Papuan-speaking Melanesians to the exclusion of Austronesian-speaking Micronesian and Polynesians (O'Shaughnessy et al. 1990; Pietrusewsky 1990a; Pietrusewsky 1990b; Hanihara 1993; Martinson 1996 ). Furthermore , studies of alpha globin haplotypes (O'Shaughnessy et al. 1990; Martinson 1996) and mtDNA (Lum et al. 1994; Sykes et al. 1995; Lum and Cann 2000) reveal haplotypes derived from Near Oceania within Polynesian and MicronesianFigure 4. Map showing the 21 pairs of populations that are not significantly different at the 0.01 level. ...
The human colonization of Remote Oceania, the vast Pacific region including Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia beyond the northern Solomon Islands, ranks as one of the greatest achievements of prehistory. Many aspects of human diversity have been examined in an effort to reconstruct this late Holocene expansion. Archaeolinguistic analyses describe a rapid expansion of Austronesian-speaking "Lapita people" from Taiwan out into the Pacific. Analyses of biological markers, however, indicate genetic contributions from Pleistocene-settled Near Oceania into Micronesia and Polynesia, and genetic continuity across Melanesia. Thus, conflicts between archaeolinguistic and biological patterns suggest either linguistic diffusion or gene flow across linguistic barriers throughout Melanesia. To evaluate these hypotheses and the general utility of linguistic patterns for conceptualizing Pacific prehistory, we analyzed 14 neutral, biparental genetic (short tandem repeat) loci from 965 individuals representing 27 island Southeast Asian, Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian populations. Population bottlenecks during the colonization of Remote Oceania are indicated by a statistically significant regression of loss of heterozygosity on migration distance from island Southeast Asia (r = 0.78, p < 0.001). Genetic and geographic distances were consistently correlated (r > 0.35, p < 0.006), indicating extensive gene flow primarily focused among neighboring populations. Significant correlations between linguistic and geographic patterns and between genetic and linguistic patterns depended upon the inclusion of Papuan speakers in the analyses. These results are consistent with an expansion of Austronesian-speaking populations out of island Southeast Asia and into Remote Oceania, followed by substantial gene flow from Near Oceanic populations. Although linguistic and genetic distinctions correspond at times, particularly between Western and Central-Eastern Micronesia, gene flow has reduced the utility of linguistic data within Melanesia. Overall, geographic proximity is a better predictor of biparental genetic relationships than linguistic affinities.
... Although the magnitude and nature of these differences in adults has been extensively documented in metrical analyses (e.g. Howells, 1973 Howells, , 1989 Froment, 1992; Hanihara, 1993a Hanihara, , 1993b Hanihara, , 1996 Relethford, 1994), little is known about the ontogenetic processes that produce these divergent forms (Lieberman, 2000). Thus, this study explores the ontogenetic basis of population-specific craniofacial variation in 10 distinct groups of modern humans. ...
This study examines interpopulation variations in the facial skeleton of 10 modern human populations and places these in an ontogenetic perspective. It aims to establish the extent to which the distinctive features of adult representatives of these populations are present in the early post natal period and to what extent population differences in ontogenetic scaling and allometric trajectories contribute to distinct facial forms. The analyses utilize configurations of facial landmarks and are carried out using geometric morphometric methods. The results of this study show that modern human populations can be distinguished based on facial shape alone, irrespective of age or sex, indicating the early presence of differences. Additionally, some populations have statistically distinct facial ontogenetic trajectories that lead to the development of further differences later in ontogeny. We conclude that population-specific facial morphologies develop principally through distinctions in facial shape probably already present at birth and further accentuated and modified to variable degrees during growth. These findings raise interesting questions regarding the plasticity of facial growth patterns in modern humans. Further, they have important implications in relation to the study of growth in the face of fossil hominins and in relation to the possibility of developing effective discriminant functions for the identification of population affinities of immature facial skeletal material. Such tools would be of value in archaeological, forensic and anthropological applications. The findings of this study underline the need to examine more deeply, and in more detail, the ontogenetic basis of other causes of craniometric variation, such as sexual dimorphism and hominin species differentiation.
When it was published in 1996 Bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia was the first book to examine the biology and lives of the prehistoric people of this region. Bringing together the most active researchers in late Pleistocene/Holocene Southeast Asian human osteology, the book deals with major approaches to studying human skeletal remains. Using analysis of the physical appearance of the region's past peoples, the first section explores issues such as the first inhabitants of the region, the evidence for subsequent migratory patterns (particularly between Southeast and Northeast Asia) and counter arguments centering on in situ microevolutionary change. This second section reconstructs the health of these people, in the context of major economic and demographic changes over time, including those caused by the adoption or intensification of agriculture. Written for archaeologists, bioarchaeologists and biological anthropologists, it is a fascinating insight into the bioarchaeology of this important region.
The Archaeology of Human Bones provides an up to date account of the analysis of human skeletal remains from archaeological sites, introducing students to the anatomy of bones and teeth and the nature of the burial record. Drawing from studies around the world, this book illustrates how the scientific study of human remains can shed light upon important archaeological and historical questions. This new edition reflects the latest developments in scientific techniques and their application to burial archaeology. Current scientific methods are explained, alongside a critical consideration of their strengths and weaknesses. The book has also been thoroughly revised to reflect changes in the ways in which scientific studies of human remains have influenced our understanding of the past, and has been updated to reflect developments in ethical debates that surround the treatment of human remains. There is now a separate chapter devoted to archaeological fieldwork on burial grounds, and the chapters on DNA and ethics have been completely rewritten. This edition of The Archaeology of Human Bones provides not only a more up to date but also a more comprehensive overview of this crucial area of archaeology. Written in a clear style with technical jargon kept to a minimum, it continues to be a key work for archaeology students.
It is generally accepted that the earliest human ancestors grew more like apes than like humans today. If they did so, and we are now different, when, how and why did our modern growth patterns evolve? Originally published in 2003, this book focuses on species within the genus Homo to investigate the evolutionary origins of characteristic human patterns and rates of craniofacial and postcranial growth and development, and to explore unique ontogenetic patterns within each fossil species. Experts examine growth patterns found within available Plio-Pleistocene hominid samples, and analyse variation in ontogenetic patterns and rates of development in recent modern humans in order to provide a comparative context for fossil hominid studies. Presenting studies of some of the newer juvenile fossil specimens and information on Homo antecessor, this book will provide a rich data source with which anthropologists and evolutionary biologists can address the questions posed above.
This thesis examines variation in the modern human facial skeleton from an ontogenetic perspective, to establish the extent to which different growth patterns contribute to distinct facial forms. It then compares these patterns with those of Neanderthals. The analyses are carried out using tools from Geometric Morphometries. The thesis is divided into four sections. The first examines the nature of facial growth in one modern human population. A single allometric growth vector is found, which is stable in the absence of several commonly missing landmarks, and predictable from the morphology of limited skeletal units within the face. The second section examines differences in facial shape between modern human populations. It finds that modern human populations can be separated based on facial shape alone, irrespective of age or sex. Additionally, some populations have distinct facial growth vectors. It concludes that population-specific facial morphologies develop through distinctions in facial shapes at birth that are further accentuated during growth, and differences in the allometric growth process. The third section studies the ontogeny of sexual dimorphism in the facial skeleton of modern humans. From this study it appears that sexual dimorphism in the shape of the human facial skeleton is established early and maintained at all stages of growth. Additionally, sexual dimorphism in facial form develops through two separate processes: an overall shift of the relationship between size and shape in the growth component in the male, and/or an extension of this component in the male. The final section examines differences between modern humans and Neanderthals. It finds Neanderthal growth to differ significantly from that of all modern human populations. It is the conclusion of this thesis that the shape of the facial skeleton is primarily species-specific, secondarily population-specific, and thirdly sex- specific. Differences in shape are established by birth and then carried through and often accentuated by diverse growth patterns. The growth vector itself differs between species and populations, but not within populations.
The physical similarities between Native Americans and Asian populations began to draw attention of early naturalists, who have speculated in the earliest chronicles of a possible relation of descent among these peoples. Based on a typological-racialist approach, physical anthropologists suggested, at the beginning of the twentieth century, that Native Americans presented a high degree of morphological homogeneity, consisting of exclusively Asian biological origin. Debates since the first half of the twentieth century, enriched by the development and relative popularization of protein polymorphisms studies, have relegated anthropometric research to a marginal position in the debate over the origins of New World Man. This scenario was only changed in the 1970s, when W. Howells began his extensive production of comparative craniometric studies. In this context, the skeletal material originated from Lagoa Santa started to occupy, since the 1990s, a prominent position in the debate about the first Americans, fomenting a new interpretive model for the origins of man in the Americas. This model is based upon the close cranial morphological similarity of the Lagoa Santa specimens with recent African and Australo-Melanesian populations rather than with other groups like recent Asian or Native Americans.
The arrival of Man in the New World has long been occupied a prominent position in studies of the fields of archaeology and related sciences, such as biology and biological anthropology. The debates on the subject were intensified, however, since the discovery of the oldest cultural manifestations of the Americas, the Clovis points, in the late 1920s. In South America, the study of the human occupation of the Lagoa Santa region has generated controversy since the early works of Lund in the nineteenth century. Recently, the project “Origins” deepened the archaeological research in Lagoa Santa, focusing its actions in thematic axes that resulted in extensive scientific production about the origins of the first Native Americans.
This iconoclastic work on the prehistory of Japan and of South East Asia challenges entrenched views on the origins of Japanese society and identity. The social changes that took place in Japan in the time-period when the Jomon culture was replaced by the Yayoi culture were of exceptional magnitude, going far beyond those of the so-called Neolithic Revolution in other parts of the world. They included not only a new way of life based on wet-rice agriculture but also the introduction of metalworking in both bronze and iron, and furthermore a new architecture functionally and ritually linked to rice cultivation, a new religion, and a hierarchical society characterized by a belief in the divinity of the ruler. Because of its immense and enduring impact the Yayoi period has generally been seen as the very foundation of Japanese civilization and identity. In contrast to the common assumption that all the Yayoi innovations came from China and Korea, this work combines exciting new scientific evidence from such different fields as rice genetics, DNA and historical linguistics to show that the major elements of Yayoi civilization actually came, not from the north, but from the south.
This chapter simultaneously deals with the effects of differential selection and with population history. It reviews three studies of either neutral or malaria selected autosomal loci to illustrate the contribution of population origins, gene flow, and disease selection to genetic variation. Neutral genetic diversity within populations generally decreases with distance from Southeast Asia (with the exception of Austronesian speaking populations of Vanuatu), resulting in a clustering of Melanesian populations regardless of linguistic affiliation. The malaria resistant B3Δ27 allele is currently restricted to coastal areas of Papua New Guinea, reflecting its origin with the Lapita colonists and a paucity of gene flow from the coast to inland areas. Within Vanuatu, a North-South gradient of malaria endemicity has resulted in corresponding gradients of resistance and susceptibility conferring alleles. Nearly all of the α-thalassemia alleles of Vanuatu are of inferred New Guinea origin, consistent with an accumulation of alleles from Near Oceania over time.
Significant differences in facial form between the Jomon and the post-Jomon series of the Yayoi, Medieval, and Early Modern period have been interpreted in terms of the gene flow from the Asian continent or the reduction of masticatory stress through the Jomon to the Early Modern period. However, the developmental process that produced these differences in facial form between the two groups has remains unknown. In this study we examined the factors contributing to differences in facial form by studying the developmental patterns of facial form using data from 311 subadult individuals from the middle-late Jomon (c. 5000-2500 BP) to the Early Modern period (1900-1950 AD). We found statistically significant differences in facial form among the temporally defined groups at early stages of development. Differences in upper facial height between the Jomon and the post-Jomon series were significant during both childhood (3-6 years, P < 0.05) and adolescence (12-20 years, P < 0.01). Differences in simotic index and bigonial breadth between the Jomon and the post-Jomon series were significant, beginning in childhood (P < 0.05), and differences in symphyseal height between the series were significant during both infancy (0-3 years, P < 0.05) and adolescence (P < 0.01). Based on previous ethnographical data, studies on the wear of the deciduous dentition in the Jomon and post-Jomon populations, and stable isotope analyses for reconstructing weaning diets in Jomon and Medieval children, it seems to be the first-stage juvenile stage (6-9 years) when the differences in masticatory load among the chronological groups become conspicuous enough to act on the functional adaptation of facial bones. Therefore, the patterns of group differences which begin in infancy or childhood and become remarkable in adolescence do not contradict the former explanation that the gene flow from the Asian continent largely contributed to the change of facial form during the transition between the Jomon and Yayoi periods.
This study examines cranial shape variation of modern and near-modern southeast Asians in a global context, expanding on earlier studies by utilising geometric morphometric techniques to gain new perspectives. The three-dimensional co-ordinates of 54 landmarks from six southeast Asian and five comparative populations (143 individuals) were analysed using the shape analysis software, Morphologika. Variation of cranial shape was examined by calculating Procrustes distances between samples; a cluster analysis was then used to summarise phenetic relationships. Principal components analysis and thin plate splines allowed for the statistical and visual exploration of shape differences. Results of the Procrustes distances, cluster analysis and PCA show a distinct separation between the southeast Asian samples and comparative samples from northeast Asia, Australia, Africa and the United Kingdom. Observed shape differences include rendered images and thin plate splines depicting a relative globular shaped vault, f...
Cranial and dental morphology is assessed for a range of late Pleistocene through Holocene human remains in Southeast Asia (SEA). It is found that the majority of Pleistocene, including Hoabinhian (Mesolithic), samples exhibit Australo-Melanesian characteristics. This suggests that the first modern human colonizers of mainland SEA and the Australian sub-continent were potentially ancestors of modern day Australo-Melanesian peoples. Some traits exhibited by the putative Pleistocene founding populations were retained, even as late as the pre-Neolithic pottery using cultures of northern Vietnam. Ostensibly due to major NE Asian migrations into SEA, marked population change on the mainland is clear in northern Vietnam, and a major morphological gap exists between earlier populations and emergent Metal period communities, which resemble recent SE Asians. Our work supports the “dual layer” hypothesis, or demic diffusion model, for the origin of modern SE Asian peoples. Moreover, it seems clear that the Neolithic hosted the major events that gave rise to modern SEA populations.
An excavation at the cave site of Hang Cho in northern Vietnam resulted in the discovery of a terminal Pleistocene human skeleton in a relatively good state of preservation. The material culture from this site belongs to the pre-ceramic Hoabinhian period. An AMS radiocarbon date on a tooth sample extracted from this individual gives a calibrated age of 10450 ± 300 years BP. In discussions of the population history of Southeast Asia, it has been repeatedly advocated that Southeast Asia was occupied by indigenous people akin to present-day Australo-Melanesians prior to the Neolithic expansion of migrants from Northeast Asia into the area. Cranial and dental metric analyses were undertaken in order to assess the biological affinity of early settlers in this region. The results suggest that the Hang Cho skeleton, as well as other early or pre-Holocene remains in Southeast Asia, represent descendants of colonizing populations of late Pleistocene Sundaland, who may share a common ancestry with present-day Australian Aboriginal and Melanesian people.
The excavation of the Man Bac site (c. 3800-3500 years BP) in Ninh Binh Province, Northern Vietnam, yielded a large mortuary assemblage. A total of 31 inhumations were recovered during the 2004-2005 excavation. Multivariate comparisons using cranial and dental metrics demonstrated close affinities of the Man Bac people to later early Metal Age Dong Son Vietnamese and early and modern samples from southern China including the Neolithic to Western Han period samples from the Yangtze Basin. In contrast, large morphological gaps were found between the Man Bac people, except for a single individual, and the other earlier prehistoric Vietnamese samples represented by Hoabinhian and early Neolithic Bac Son and Da But cultural contexts. These findings suggest the initial appearance of immigrants in northern Vietnam, who were biologically related to pre- or early historic population stocks in northern or eastern peripheral areas, including Southern China. The Man Bac skeletons support the 'two-layer' hypothesis in discussions pertaining to the population history of South-east Asia.
The upper bicuspid tooth has two well defined ridges which demonstrate various morphological characteristics offering a differentiation in philogenetic typing. These ridges are known as disto-sagital crests and are also termed Uto-Aztec premolars due to the fact that such formations have been observed only in the Uto-Aztec lingual groups in the Southwestern U.S. and part of Mesoamerica. In this particular report the dental trace is specific to a right upper bicuspid pertaining to a pre-Hispanic skull exhumed from the Las Locas Cemetery located in Quibor, Lara State, Venezuela
The physical anthropology literature reveals considerable disagreement on whether discrete biological races, or subspecies, exist within Homo sapiens, and which races to recognize if they do exist. The authoritative work on zoological taxonomy by Mayr and Ashlock defines a subspecies as ‘an aggregate of phenotypically similar populations…inhabiting a geographical subdivision of the [species’] range and differing taxonomically from other populations of that species' (1991: 43). Our analysis of cranial average measurements, in combination with other biological data, indicated that the autochthonous populations of the southwest Pacific would be more likely to satisfy Mayr and Ashlock's definition than any other division of humanity. Five tests (using individual cranial measurements) were then performed to confirm (or falsify) the hypothesis that the southwest Pacific indigenes would qualify as a distinct race. In all cases, the test results tended in the direction of confirmation of the hypothesis, but it was not always clear that the results were sufficiently strong to qualify as full confirmation. One positive result however clearly emerged: Australian crania dated to approximately 10,000 years ago cannot be considered specifically Australian, based on their measurements, but they can be regarded as distinctly southwest Pacific.
When it was published in 1996 Bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia was the first book to examine the biology and lives of the prehistoric people of this region. Bringing together the most active researchers in late Pleistocene/Holocene Southeast Asian human osteology, the book deals with major approaches to studying human skeletal remains. Using analysis of the physical appearance of the region's past peoples, the first section explores issues such as the first inhabitants of the region, the evidence for subsequent migratory patterns (particularly between Southeast and Northeast Asia) and counter arguments centering on in situ microevolutionary change. This second section reconstructs the health of these people, in the context of major economic and demographic changes over time, including those caused by the adoption or intensification of agriculture. Written for archaeologists, bioarchaeologists and biological anthropologists, it is a fascinating insight into the bioarchaeology of this important region.
Nonmetric cranial variation and facial flatness of the Pacific and circum-Pacific populations are investigated. The peoples of the Marianas, eastern Polynesia and Hawaii form a cluster and show affinities in terms of nonmetric cranial variation with the Southeast and East Asians rather than with the Jomon-Ainu, a view which is widely supported by others. Facial flatness analysis also indicates that Polynesians have different patterns of facial prominence as compared with the Jomon-Ainu. These results increase the difficulty of accepting the Jomon-Pacific cluster proposed by Brace and his coworkers. Although genetic and nonmetric cranial variation reveal relatively close relationships, the Mariana skeletons are markedly different in facial flatness and limb bone morphology from those of Polynesians. Am J Phys Anthropol 104:399–410, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The traditional explanation for biological and cultural diversity among Malayan Orang Asli has been separate waves of migration of already differentiated populations. According to this view, the original colonizers of the peninsula were Semang Negrito nomadic hunter-gatherers, followed by Senoi swiddeners, and later by trading and farming Melayu Asli groups. Geoffrey Benjamin has proposed an alternative model stressing in situ differentiation from a common ancestral population, and implying different causes for biological variation. In the present article, the author examines the interplay of environmental, historical, and sociocultural factors suggested by the in situ model. The differentiation of subsistence modes structured the amounts and patterns of gene flow through associated marriage patterns and the opportunities for genetic drift. Similarly, the differing ecologies of foragers and farmers affected malaria incidence and consequently the frequency, distribution, and pattern of spread for malarial protective genes such as hemoglobin E and ovalocytosis.
Morphological variations of the deciduous dentition are as useful as those of the permanent dentition for determining the biological affinities of human populations. This paper provides material on morphological variations of deciduous teeth of the prehistoric Japanese population from the Late and the Latest Jomon Period (ca. 2000–ca. 300 B.C.).
The expression of nonmetric traits of the deciduous teeth in the Jomon sample shows a closer affinity with modern Japanese and Native American samples than with American White, Asiatic Indian, and African samples. However, the frequency of shoveling in deciduous upper incisors in the Jomon sample is lower than those in modern Japanese and Native American samples. The Jomon sample also expresses a much higher frequency of cusp 6 in deciduous lower second molars than seen in modern Japanese, Ainu, and Native American samples. The frequency in the Jomon sample is equal to that in the Australian Aboriginal sample, which shows cusp 6 most frequently among the samples compared.
A somewhat low incidence of incisor shoveling in the Jomon sample was also reported in the permanent dentition (Turner [1976] Science 193:911–913, [1979] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 51:619–635, [1987] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 73:305–321, [1990] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 82:295–317; T. Hanihara [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 88:163–182, 88:183–196). However, the frequency of cusp 6 in the Jomon sample shows no significant difference from those of Northeast Asian or Native American samples in the permanent dentition (Turner [1987] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 73:305–321; T. Hanihara [1992] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 88:1–182, 88:183–196). Evidently, some nonmetric traits express an inter-group difference only in the deciduous dentition.
Distance analysis and factor analysis, based on Q-mode correlation coefficients, were applied to 23 craniofacial measurements in 1,802 recent and prehistoric crania from major geographical areas of the Old World. The major findings are as follows: 1) Australians show closer similarities to African populations than to Melanesians. 2) Recent Europeans align with East Asians, and early West Asians resemble Africans. 3) The Asian population complex with regional difference between northern and southern members is manifest. 4) Clinal variations of craniofacial features can be detected in the Afro-European region on the one hand, and Australasian and East Asian region on the other hand. 5) The craniofacial variations of major geographical groups are not necessarily consistent with their geographical distribution pattern. This may be a sign that the evolutionary divergence in craniofacial shape among recent populations of different geographical areas is of a highly limited degree. Taking all of these into account, a single origin for anatomically modern humans is the most parsimonious interpretation of the craniofacial variations presented in this study.
Metric craniofacial variation was studied in a number of skeletal samples that originated from the Mariana Islands and circum-Pacific regions. The broad comparisons including East/Southeast Asians, Polynesians, Melanesians, and Australians confirm the relationships between Mariana Islanders and East/Southeast Asians on the one hand and Polynesians on the other hand. A transformation of Melanesians into western Micronesians is not supported. The result of the principal component analysis indicates that the cranial morphological pattern of Mariana people shares the intermediate characteristics between those of typical East/Southeast Asians and several groups falling as outliers to more predominant Asian populations.
The peopling of the New World has been the focus of anthropological attention since the last century. Proponents of multiple migration models have claimed that patterns of variation among extant New World populations reflect ancient, discrete migrations to the Americas during the terminal Pleistocene. Although multiple migration models appear to explain patterns of both past and present craniometric variation, this interpretation rests on a number of key assumptions that require further investigation. We examined a series of Paleoindian (n = 11) and Archaic (n = 384) crania from North and South America, and compare these early samples to a large world-wide sample of late Holocene (n = 6,742) remains to assess within- and among-group variability in early samples, and to determine how patterns of variation could be viewed as a reflection of both population history and population structure. Analyses included univariate and multivariate analysis of variance, principal component analysis, calculation of biological distances, and multivariate allocation methods. We also performed model-bound analyses of these data, including Relethford-Blangero analysis and calculation of F(ST). Our results indicate that under the assumptions of migration/founder models, the data are consistent with Paleoindians having derived from an undifferentiated Asian population that was not ancestral to modern American Indians. This view can be accommodated into existing models of multiple founders (migrations) in the New World. However, the assumptions required for such an interpretation are not realistic, and the diversity of early populations could as easily reflect population structuring processes such as genetic drift, demographic growth, and other phenomena. When the data were analyzed controlling for the effects of genetic drift (i.e., with smaller long-term effective population sizes for Paleoindians), the Paleoindian samples were no longer distinct from modern Native American populations. Other factors that need to be considered include processes involved in craniofacial change and adaptation during the past 10,000 years. Finally, patterns of variation in the North and South American Paleoindian samples are different, suggesting that the process of New World colonization is more complex than previously assumed.
Mannose 6-phosphate/insulin-like growth factor II receptor (M6P/IGF2R) tumor suppressor- gene mutation is an early event in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) formation in the United States, but its role in hepatocarcinogenesis in Japan is unclear. We therefore determined M6P/IGF2R mutation frequency in HCCs from patients who resided in the southern, central, and northern regions of Japan. Ten single nucleotide polymorphisms were used to identify HCCs and dysplastic liver nodules with M6P/IGF2R loss of heterozygosity. The retained allele in these tumors was also assessed for point mutations and deletions in the M6P/IGF2R ligand binding domains by direct sequencing of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplified DNA products. Fifty-eight percent (54 of 93) of the patients were heterozygous at the M6P/IGF2R locus, and 67% (43 of 64) of the HCCs and 75% (3 of 4) of the dysplastic nodules had loss of heterozygosity. The remaining allele in 21% of the HCCs contained either M6P/IGF2R missense mutations or deletions, whereas such mutations were not found in the dysplastic lesions. In conclusion, M6P/IGF2R is mutated in HCCs from throughout Japan with a frequency similar to that in the United States. Loss of heterozygosity in dysplastic liver nodules provides additional evidence that M6P/IGF2R haploid insufficiency is an early event in human hepatocarcinogenesis.
The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of cranial base orientation on the morphology of the craniofacial system in human populations. Three geographically distant populations from Europe (72), Africa (48) and Asia (24) were chosen. Five angular and two linear variables from the cranial base component and six angular and six linear variables from the facial component based on two reference lines of the vertical posterior maxillary and Frankfort horizontal planes were measured. The European sample presented dolichofacial individuals with a larger face height and a smaller face depth derived from a raised cranial base and facial cranium orientation which tended to be similar to the Asian sample. The African sample presented brachyfacial individuals with a reduced face height and a larger face depth as a result of a lowered cranial base and facial cranium orientation. The Asian sample presented dolichofacial individuals with a larger face height and depth due to a raised cranial base and facial cranium orientation. The findings of this study suggest that cranial base orientation and posterior cranial base length appear to be valid discriminating factors between different human populations.
This article uses metric and nonmetric dental data to test the "two-layer" or immigration hypothesis whereby Southeast Asia was initially occupied by an "Australo-Melanesian" population that later underwent substantial genetic admixture with East Asian immigrants associated with the spread of agriculture from the Neolithic period onwards. We examined teeth from 4,002 individuals comprising 42 prehistoric and historic samples from East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Melanesia. For the odontometric analysis, dental size proportions were compared using factor analysis and Q-mode correlation coefficients, and overall tooth size was also compared between population samples. Nonmetric population affinities were estimated by Smith's distances, using the frequencies of 16 tooth traits. The results of both the metric and nonmetric analyses demonstrate close affinities between recent Australo-Melanesian samples and samples representing early Southeast Asia, such as the Early to Middle Holocene series from Vietnam, Malaysia, and Flores. In contrast, the dental characteristics of most modern Southeast Asians exhibit a mixture of traits associated with East Asians and Australo-Melanesians, suggesting that these populations were genetically influenced by immigrants from East Asia. East Asian metric and/or nonmetric traits are also found in some prehistoric samples from Southeast Asia such as Ban Kao (Thailand), implying that immigration probably began in the early Neolithic. Much clearer influence of East Asian immigration was found in Early Metal Age Vietnamese and Sulawesi samples. Although the results of this study are consistent with the immigration hypothesis, analysis of additional Neolithic samples is needed to determine the exact timing of population dispersals into Southeast Asia.
In November 2002, during the second season of work by a Vietnamese-French-Japanese team, we discovered a human molar and a fragment of an occipital bone in the late Middle to Late Pleistocene cave of Ma U'Oi (Bacon et al., Geobios. 37 (2004) 305). The layer from which this material comes is the same as that in which a human lower molar was found in 2001. Both molars can be attributed to archaic Homo, and both exhibit archaic and modern traits. En Novembre 2002, lors de la seconde campagne de fouille conduite par une equipe vietnamienne-franco-japonaise, nous avons decouvert une molaire et un fragment d'os occipital humains dans la grotte Pleistocene moyen a superieur de Ma U'Oi (Bacon et al., 2004). Le niveau d'ou provient ce materiel est le meme que celui ou avait ete trouvee en 2001, une molaire inferieure. Les deux molaires peuvent titre attribuees a Homo archaique et presentent toutes les deux, a la fois des caracteres modernes et archaiques. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Few Late Pleistocene human remains have been found in Southeast Asia and the morphological features of the people of that age are still largely unknown due to the virtual lack of human remains in the area. Recent excavations at the Moh Khiew Cave in Thailand resulted in the discovery of a Late Pleistocene human skeleton in a relatively good state of preservation. An AMS radiocarbon date on the charcoal sample gathered from the burial gave a result of 25,800 +/- 600 BP, implying that the inhabitants of Moh Khiew Cave resided in a part of Sundaland during the last glacial age. In debates on the population history of Southeast Asia, it has been repeatedly advocated that Southeast Asia was occupied by indigenous people akin to present-day Australo-Melanesians prior to an expansion of migrants from Northeast Asia into this area. Morphometric analyses were undertaken to test the validity of this hypothesis. In the present study, cranial and dental measurements recorded from the Moh Khiew remains are compared with those of early and modern samples from Southeast Asia and Australia. These comparisons demonstrate that the Moh Khiew specimen resembles the Late Pleistocene series from Coobool Creek, Australia in both cranial and dental measurements. These results suggest that the Moh Khiew skeleton, as well as other fossil remains from the Tabon, Niah and Gua Gunung sites, represents a member of the Sundaland population during the Late Pleistocene, who may share common ancestry with the present-day Australian Aborigines and Melanesians.
Discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis' Generalized Distance are applied to 35 measurements recorded in 2,264 human crania representing Japanese, Asian, Australian Aboriginal and Pacific groups for assessing the historical-biological relationships of these populations. The results of three separate analyses involving 9, 21 and 43 samples, respectively, are presented. Modern Japanese are distinct members of a larger East Asian community that includes Chinese, Mongolians and Southeast Asians. Jomon and Ainu crania are distinct from modern Japanese and other East Asian populations. Modern and Shang Dynasty Chinese form a coherent group distinct from Japan. Broader comparisons group East Asians (including Japan), Southeast Asians, Polynesians and Micronesians in marked opposition to a population complex containing Australian Aboriginal and Melanesian samples. A Japan- Southeast Asian connection is demonstrated. Although a direct link between modern Japanese and Polynesians-Micronesians is unsubstantiated, there is little doubt that Polynesians are of Southeast Asian origin. Connections between Japan and Southeast Asia require additional scrutiny. Relatively few variables, notably differences in various facial width measures, cranial vault length and palate size are responsible for group separation. Multivariate statistical procedures remain a powerful investigative tool for describing craniometric variation in human populations and for generating hypotheses concerning historical-biological relationships between these groups.
Introduction In recen t years considerabl e atte ntion h as focused on th e Kh orat Plat eau regio n of North east Thailand . H ere, arch aeological discoveri es have pro vided some of the earliest possible evid en ce for agric ult ure and metallurgy for South east Asia; discov eri es wh ich ha ve import ant implications for Southeast Asian and World prehistory. Non Nok Tha and Ban Ch ian g, low-lying mound sites bUilt" up through success ive hab itation and cemetery construction b eginning in the fourth mill en ium B.C., ar e tw o of the best known examples to-date. The Non Nok Tha site wa s excavate d in 1967 and 1968. The excavations at Ban Chian g took pl ace in 19 74 and 1975. Both sites con tain elaborate ceram ic ware, evidence for casting of metal (first bronze and then iron) and the presence of several an imal (cow , p ig, and dog) and plant (rice) dom est icate s. As recently de monst rated at Ban Ch iang, water buffalo an d the in troduction of iron for the manu facture of tools ar e furth er sug gestive of a successful adaptation to a pla ins environment based on wet rice cultivation (HIGHAM & KIJNGAM 19 79, p. 225). A more detailed dis cuss ion of the se two sites is pre sented lat er. In addition to a rich archaeological record (including flora and faunal remains) a sub stantial number of inhumation burials have been excava ted from the two sites. This assemblage, tot allin g 315 individuals, repre sents one of th e lar gest and be st provenanced samples of pr ehistoric human skeletal rem ains now available from Southeast Asia . A s yet, no clear p icture ha s emerged as to who th ese early pioneers of the Khorat Plat eau were, where they cam e fro m, nor how th ey ar e related (if at all) to th e modern-day inh abi tants of thi s region . So far , a preliminary analysis (PIETR USEWS KY 19 78) of th e cran ial remains from th e first year's (1974) excavatio n at Ban Chia ng and a detailed ost eological repo rt (PIETRUSEWSKY 197 4) on th e mat erial from th e 1966 excavation s at Non N ok Tha have app eared in the literature. The m ajor emph asis of th e pr esent pa per is to report on some of th e human skeletal mat erial from the 1975 excava tions at Ban Ch iang whi ch, alon g with the first year's ma terial, is cur ren tly under investigation at th e University of Hawaii. More specifically, in thi s paper, mul tivariate procedures are applied to metrical and non-metrical data record ed on cranial rem ains from Ban Ch ian g for a comparison with oth er pr ehist oric material from Southeast A sia and a number of near cont emporary samples from ma inland an d island Southeast Asia and the Orient. An assessment of historical-bio logical relationsh ips of these prehistoric and more modern samples is made on the ba sis of th ese two general classes of cranial morphology . M aterials a nd m ethods The ma terial cons ists of four prehistoric and eigh teen near contemporary cranial samples from Southeast Asia and the Orient. Table 1 indicates the number of crania mea sured, the dates and places wh ere the material wa s examined, and th e pro venance of each sample. The age and sex of each spe cimen wa s determined by visua l examination ba sed on criteria now in gene ral use in forens ic anthropology (ANDERSON 19 69; BASS 1971 ; BROTHWELL 1963 ; KROGMAN 1962; STEWART 1979; EL-NAJJAR & MCWILLIAMS 1979) . Only complete or substantially complete adult male specim ens we re selected for record 1 An earlier version of th is p a per was read a t th e 49 th A n n ua l M ee ting of th e American Assoc ia tion of Ph ysical Anth ropologist s at N ia gar a Fa lls , N ew Yor k, Ap ril 18, 19 80.
Mult ivariate statistica l procedure s, including stepwise discriminant function analysis and Gen eralized Distance, are applied to measure ment s recorde d in male crania from Co n Co Ngua , a recent ly excavat ed Neolithic site in nort hern Vietn am. Comparisons with previ ously examined Neolithic and Bro nze-age crania from Sou theast Asia and E ast Asia, and near con temporar y cranial samples from Asia and the Pacific, are used to assess the historical-biological relationships and origins of the se populations. Craniometric result s indicate marked similarities be tween the new Neolithic materia l from Vietnam and prev iously described Neolithic cra nial samples from Indochina and Thail and . Broader comparisons further suggest the re has bee n long-stand ing biological con tinuity within Southeast Asia since at least Neolithic times. There is lit tle or no suppor t for a major Mongo loid invasion comme ncing wit h the development of Neolithic cultures in Southeast Asia. O ne unexpected result of the pre sent study is a close biological con nect ion bet ween the Neolithic inh abitants of mainland Southeast Asia and the more recent inhab itan ts of Polynesia wh ich has implications for interpreting the ancestra l-descendant relationships of the se pop ulations. Introduction In November of 1984 the author, through th e auspices of the Vietnam Comm ittee for Social Sciences of the Socialist Republic of Viet nam and the U.S. Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam, was allowed to visit the Archaeological In stitute in H anoi. During this visit, a detailed examination of some of the hum an paleontological specimens found in the Institute was initiated . This paper reports on a cran iometric stud y of Neolithic hum an crani a from a recently excavated site , Con Co Ngua in Th anh Hoa Province . Add it ional prehistoric specimens, including pre-Hoabinhian crania, were exa mined during this initial visit , but will not be reported he re. The major objectives of this paper are to assess the biological relationships and origins of the prehistoric inhabitants of Southeast Asia and the surro unding region. Using multivariate statistical pro cedures, this newly examined material from Vietnam is com pared with data previously record ed in Neolithic and near contemporary crani a fro m Indochin a, Southeast Asia and th e Pacific . Material and Methods Neolithic and Bronze-age Samples In 1979-80 Vietnamese arch aeologists excavated the remains of approximately one hundred and four individuals at Con Co Ngua [Horse Mound] , a Neolithic site located along the Ma River in Trung Son District, Thanh Hoa Province in northern Vietnam (VINH, 1980). The burials and associated cultural mate rial have been dated to approxirna © Editrice II Sedicesimo . Firenze ISSN 0393·9383
Multi variate statistical analyses of craniometric data from Microne sia, c ircum Micron esian Pacific , South east Asia , and East Asia, suggest an cas t-west division within Micro nesia. Other co mparisons indicate , however, that while there may have been closer ties bet ween Western Micronesian and Southe ast or East Asian popul ations on the one hand and affinities be tween Eastern Microne sian and Polynesian popul ations on the other, there is a basic continuity within all the Micron esian peoples. The analysis docs not support the bel ief that either the Microne sian or the Polynesian populations were der ived from Melanesian popul ations ,
Stepwise discriminant function analysis and Mahalanobis's generalized distance are applied to 36 measurements recorded in crania from Australasia and Oceania for assessing biological relationships and possible origins of these populations. Craniofacial variation in Australia is found to be clinal. There is extreme diversity in the Murray River Valley and southern Queensland cranial series. Multiple origins of the Australians are not supported by these results. Although selection and other processes cannot be completely ruled out, gene flow and restrictions to the exchange of genes can explain most of the morphological patterning observed. Breadth and length dimensions of the vault, interorbital breadth, biorbital breadth, palate length, and upper facial height are among the most important discriminators. Viewed within the broader context of Asia and the Pacific, Australians represent a biologically distinct population, one sharing ancestral ties with Melanesians but not with the recent populations of Asia and the rest of the Pacific. The latter represent a second major population complex.
Multivariate procedures are applied to metrical and non-metrical data recorded on early metal age crania from Ban Chiang, Northeast Thailand, for a comparison with prehistoric and more modern samples from Southeast Asia, Mainland East Asia, and the Pacific. While craniometric analyses (Mahalanobis' D2 and stepwise discriminant function analysis) fail to show any associations between Ban Chiang and the remaining samples, distances based on the percentage frequencies of discrete traits of the skull suggest a relatively close relationship between Ban Chiang and two other prehistoric samples from Southeast Asia. Slightly different results were obtained when a recently suggested (Green & Suchey, 1976) modification of Berry & Berry (1967) distance statistic was applied to these non-metrical data. Because of the limited size of the present sample and the different results obtained when discrete traits and cranial measurements are used, the continued use of metrical and non-metrical kinds of data is recommended.
The dental features of 4 geographical samples from the Nansei Island chain were compared with those of East and Southeast Asian samples. The series from Amami-, Okinawa-, and Sakishima-Islands exhibit inter-regional difference in both metric and non-metric dental features, pointing to some clinal variation in the Nansei Island chain. The original morphology is supposed to be represented by Jomonese. This clinal variation may reflect the post-Yayoi biocultural microevolution and admixture with the sinodont populations from main-island Japan. The sundadont ancestors of Jomonese have likely arrived from Sundaland via the now-submerged East Asian continental shelf in and after the late Pleistocene. One of the main routes for peopling of the Japanese Archipelago might have been through the Nansei Island chain.
Metric and non-metric dental variation among several Ainu samples was analyzed. Recent Ainu samples from Hokkaido and Sakhalin form a tight cluster. The sample from the people of the Okhotsk culture, or Omisaki sample, shows a quite dispersed arrangement. Extending the comparisons to include East and Southeast Asian and the Pacific samples validates the relatively homogeneous dental pattern of recent Ainu. The Omisaki sample has dental characteristics similar to those of sinodont populations. Discriminant function analyses based on metric and non-metric data indicate that some Omisaki individuals are classified as part of the members of sundadont populations, and others as those from sinodont populations. These findings suggest that the people of the Okhotsk culture were likely migrants from the north. However, they might have exerted little genetic influence on the formation of the physical characteristics of recent Ainu. The results obtained in the present study re-confirm that Ainu may be direct descendants of the Neolithic Jomon people. They share the ancestral ties with the generalized Asiatic populations, as represented by Negritos. It is quite likely that members of the late Pleistocene Sundaland populations could have colonized the continental shelf of East Asia, extending to Hokkaido and Sakhalin in the north and western Micronesia and Polynesia in the east.
Late Pleistocene Sundaland is thought to be the geogenetic centedr from which all the Pacific populations have radiated. As early as 30, 000-40, 000 years B. P., the ancestral "Proto-Australoid" of Southeast Asia might have moved into Wallacea as well as Sahulland and evolved under the particular selective forces. In the tropical rain-forest of Sundaland, this "Proto-Australoid" might have evolved into the "Proto-Malay", one of whose descendants might be modern Negritos of the Philippines. On the other hand, a late Pleistocene population occupying the Sundaland was probably the direct ancestor of the Proto-Mongoloid population, which might be the lineage leading to the Neolithic Jomon population and modern Ainu. The final populating of the Pacific was by Polynesians and Micronesians extending from Southeast Asia.The population history described above emphasizes the necessity of broad comparisons and investigations in studies on the origin and affinities of modern Japanese. In this study, the dental measurements of some geographically isolated populations in Japan whose ancestors could be traced back to the Southeast Asian Proto-Mongoloid population were compared with those of the Neolithic Jomon population, Negritos, Australian Aborigines, Polynesians, Micronesians, and Melanesians.The results obtained indicate that there may be a dichotomous relationship between Japanese and the Pacific populations (Micronesians and Polynesians). The dental characteristics of Negritos have something in common with those of the two population groups. The basic population of native Japanese are discussed based on such findings.
Dental characteristics of Aeta, one of the Negrito tribes in westcentral Luzon, the Philippines, were compared with those of Japanese, Ainu, PimaIndians, Australian Aborigines, Filipinos, American Caucasoids and American Blacks. The overall tooth size of Negritos is smallest among the populations compared and closest to Ainu. As regards the shape factor of the dental measurements, they are closely related to Mongoloid populations as revealed by Q-mode correlation coefficients. These findings are almost parallel to the results obtained by principal component analysis. On the other hand, Bsquare distances based on seven non-metric crown characters show close affinity between Negritos and Ainu. The frequency distribution of the crown characters in both populations well corresponds to the "Sundadont" pattern defined by TURNER (1987).The results obtained from the present study, together with TURNER'S (1978, 1979, 1987, 1989) dental anthropological model of the late Pleistocene population history in southeast Asia, support the hypothesis proposed by OMOTO (1984, 1986) who suggested that Negritos might have shared an ancestral stock with Semang of Malaysia and evolved in the upper Pleistocene times under the environment of tropical rain-forest in Sundaland.
Non-metric dental traits of modern human populations reflect not simply phenotypic plasticity but also reflect genetic change. In the present study, sevendiscrete crown characters were observed.The biological relationships of eleven populations from the Pacific, East Asia and North America are assessed through the application of some distance analyses.The results obtained reveal that the dental characteristics of modern mainland Japanese, the Aeneolithic Yayoi population and Pima-Indians share the classic northern components. Some geographically isolated populations in Japan show, on the other hand, closer affinities to the Neolithic Jomon population, Negritos and the Pacific populations than to modern mainland Japanese.This is evidence that modern Japanese show considerable magnitude of admixture with one of the groups of the Aeneolithic Yayoi population who migratedfrom the northern part of Asia during the Yayoi period and the succeeding age.On the other hand, the Proto-Mongoloid population of late Pleistocene Southeast Asia gave rise to the Neolithic Jomon population, and then to native Japanese.As far as the dental characteristics are concerned, Negritos may be one of the possible representatives of groups through which the basic population in Japan have passed. Based on these findings, a dental anthropological model of population diversification in East Asia and the Pacific was discussed.
The number of migrants to Japan during the period of 1, 000 years from the Aeneolithic Yayoi to early historic ages (ca. 300 B. C. to ca. 700 A. D.) were estimated by means of 2 models of simulation. One is the population growth model and the other the morphological change model. Both models provide almost the same estimates which suggest the number of the migrants might have been much greater than was expected. The total number of migrants from the Asian Continent is estimated to be more than a million by the 7th century and the proportion of the populations of native Jomon and migrant lineages was supposed to be roughly 1:9 or 2:8 in the protohistoric Kof un and early historic ages, at least in west Japan. Although the models applied in the present study are still immature, the results obtained seem to represent considerable significance for further analyses on the formation processes of the Japanese population.
Morphological patterns of similarity and difference derived from an assessment of metric and non-metric dental characters in a series of Jomonese and their lineage in Japan, Southeast Asians, Micronesians, and Polynesians were presented. Despite the marked difference of phenotypic features, the dentitions of Negritos, Dajaks, and Filipinos show close resemblance to each other. The original dental traits of Southeast Asians may have occurred by the result of convergent microevolution under the similar environmental condition such as tropical rain-forest. Diachronic comparison of Southeast Asian dental samples supports the local evolution hypothesis for modern Southeast Asian dental characters. Dental traits of Micronesians and Polynesians are more like those of Southeast Asians than those of Jomonese and their lineage. The present findings do not favor the Neolithic Jomonese as the most likely source for the present people in Micronesia and Polynesia. Jomonese may be linked with the Pacific populations through the common gene pool derived from somewhere in Southeast Asia.
New dental anthropological evidence on the questions of Ainu and
Japanese origins illustrates the utility of diachronic dental
information obtained from skeletal populations for microevolutionary and
human origins investigations. Data from skeletal and dental collections
of Shang Dynasty Chinese and from Jomon period and recent Ainu Japanese,
together with information on recent Japanese dentition from published
accounts, indicate a correlation between the ancient Chinese and modern
Japanese and between the prehistoric Jomon people and the Ainu.
Tooth size in Oceania varies from a minimum equivalent to the figure for the pre-Chinese inhabitants of Taiwan to a maximum equivalent to the figure for large-toothed Australian Aborigines. The minimum figure is found among the easternmost and weternmost inhabitants, and the maximum figure occurs in the highlands of New Guinea. Elsewhere, intermediate figures are evident, and it is apparent that the populations in which they can be observed display phenotypes that are intermediate in pigmentation and hair form between those on the Asian mainland and those whose identification with an equatorial habitat can be traced back into the Pleistocene. In addition, it is evident that the small-toothed populations speak languages that are most closely related to hypothetical Proto-Austronesian While the largest-toothed populations speak languages that are not related to Austronesian at all. To the extent that tooth size rises above the level of that found in the most typical Autronesian-speakers, the language deviates from hypothetical Proto-Austronesian. This suggests that the original population of New Guinea and some adjacent islands continued in situ from well back into the Pleistocene. Within the last 4,000 years, populations which had been shaped by long-term residence on the Asian mainland moved out into the Pacific via Taiwan and the Philippines. Superior navigation and resource utilization capabilities allowed them to colonize previously uninhabited islands maintaining much of their original phenotype, but where they encountered the earlier inhabitants on the larger Melanesian landmasses they display the effects of cultural and phenotypic mixing in proportion to the contribution of the two main parent populations.
Shape variations in the dentition and the cranium were analyzed for sevenSaguinus forms of the hairy-face tamarin by applying the factor analysis method. The results obtained for the dental and cranial measurements
were almost consistent with each other.
The magnitude of the difference in shape factors between theS. nigricollis group and theS. midas group is appreciably larger than that between the former group and theS. mystax group. If the ancestral geographic centre of origin is postulated as being within the region which is inhabited by the livingS. nigricollis group, the morphological distances between any pairs of groups correlate well with the geographic distances between them.
Concerning the dental and cranial morphologies, the physical changes in the three species group probably took place in two
directions; that is, from theS. nigricollis group to theS. mystax group, and from theS. nigricollis group to theS. midas group.
The forms belonging to each species group are more closely related to each other, with the exception ofS. imperator in theS. mystax group. The uniqueness ofS. imperator was clearly demonstrated by factor analysis and distance analysis. In theS. mystax group, although still hypothetical,S. imperator may have been related only through the basic ancestral stock toS. labiatus andS. mystax.
The prehistory of Oceania is best approached through the cooperation of a number of disciplines, including archaeology, physical anthropology, linguistics, ethnology, and ethnobotany, to name perhaps the major five. As a result of intensified cooperation over the past decade, it is now possible to write a prehistory of Oceania with which other scholars might agree at least in general terms. This paper is such an attempt, and refers particularly to the tropical islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.
Comparative morphology has long been vexed by conflicting considerations of size and shape (relative size); a subsidiary consideration has been the effect of allometry (shape change with size) on results and interpretations.
A review of history and opinion indicates the lack of universal acceptance of the following points: the inherent relatedness and/or separability of size and shape; the greater importance (anatomically, functionally, and/or taxonomically) of shape than size; the existence of residual size effects (allometry) after canceling the gross linear size factor from morphometric data; the failure of covariance matrix inversion to negate size always; the dimensionless quality of shape variables; the effect of logarithmic transformation; and the inadvisability of simple ratios.
Two morphometric data sets (primate postcranial proportions, hominoid maxillary premolar odontometrics) encompassing significant size and taxonomic diversity in primates enable illustration and examination of these points.
Although determination of optimum procedures is problematic, accuracy of classification and partition of variance among known morphogroups are criteria that can be applied. Intergroup distances generated after inversion of the covariance matrix show little improvement over raw size distances, unlike the shape distances expressed by shape vector (ratio), double-centered, Penrose, common part removed, and Q-mode correlation methods; very slight further improvement is accomplished using pooled within-group adjustment to remove residual size (allometric) effects. No improvement emanates solely from log transformation of measurements. Significant problems are indicated by the results obtained with interspecific regression residuals: particularly, large and small forms in the analysis become unrealistically similar. Also, regression-corrected distances still correlate with size even though the univariate residual values, by definition, do not.
The high rate of crown caries (8.6%; 119/1,377 teeth) and other oral pathologies in 101 central Japan Middle to Late Jomon Period (ca. 1000 B.C.) crania indicate a level of carbohydrate consumption consistent with an agriculture hypothesis. Because Jomon dental crown and root morphology shows strong resemblances with past and present Southeast Asians, but not with ancient Chinese or modern Japanese, Jomon agriculture could be of great antiquity in the isolated Japanese islands. These dental data and other assembled facts suggest that ancestral Jomonese might have carried to Japan a cariogenic cultigen such as taro before the end of the Pleistocene from tropical Sundaland by way of the now-submerged east Asian continental shelf.
The eight diagnostic morphological traits of the Sundadont and Sinodont divisions of the Mongoloid dental complex are identified. Intra-and intergroup variation for these crown and root features is plotted. The univariate frequency distributions provide useful evidence for several suggestions about East Asian prehistory, dental microevolution, and intergroup relationships. The case for local evolution of Sundadonty is strengthened by finding Australian teeth to be very similar to this pattern. Australian Aboriginal teeth are also generally like those of Jomonese and some Ainus, suggesting that members of the late Pleistocene Sundaland population could have initially colonized Sahulland as well as the continental shelf of East Asia northward to Hokkaido.
Using tooth number in Green geckos from the Seychelles it is shown that growth influences can perturb an analysis of geographic variation in two ways. First, the pervasive influence of growth results in a high within-group correlation between characters as each character is repeatedly measuring similar aspects of the phenotype. Second, there can be a bias in the growth stage of the sample such that one population is represented mainly by juveniles whilst another is represented mainly by adults. The former source of perturbation (correlation) is shown to be more influential than the latter (bias). Growth is negated, either by bivariate regression using the pooled-within group slope, or by multiple-group principal component analysis. The relative advantages of these procedures is discussed but in practice they gave extremely similar results. When growth is negated in this way the choice of final ordination technique is unimportant. When growth is not negated then the choice of technique is extremely important. Techniques that take account of the within-group covariance (canonical variates) give results that are similar to the growth-free analyses even when growth is not negated. Several facets of morphometrics such as logarithmic transformation, assessing the contribution of characters and pooling irrespective of group are critically discussed.
Island Southeast Asia extends across both the equatorial and the intermediate tropical zones of world climate, and it also spans a region of complex and geologically unstable land and sea relationships. The Sundaland region in the west and the isolated islands of Wallacea in the east both witnessed complex trajectories of human movement and evolution during the Pleistocene. The record of human evolution in Sundaland is still affected by uncertainties over phylogeny, dates, and archaeological correlations. Initial human settlement across Huxley''s Line into Wallacea cannot at present be proven to be older than the Late Pleistocene. Stone tool industries dating to within the past 40,000 years are described, including new discoveries which indicate a surprising level of technological virtuosity. Human populations of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene are also considered in terms of skeletal and genetic data, particularly with respect to the rather controversial antecedents of the present, mainly Mongoloid, population. The article terminates its coverage at about 2000 B.C., within the period characterized by the expansion of speakers of Austronesian languages and by the expansion of agriculture into a porous and often-resistant network of hunter-gatherer societies. The archaeological and ethnographic records of the region bear witness to a continuous but dwindling existence of hunting and gathering right through to the present day. While the results of archaeology occupy a central position in the reconstruction of Southeast Asian prehistory, a proper understanding can be achieved only if a multidisciplinary standpoint is adopted.
Multidimensional scaling can be considered as involving three basic steps. In the first step, a scale of comparative distances between all pairs of stimuli is obtained. This scale is analogous to the scale of stimuli obtained in the traditional paired comparisons methods. In this scale, however, instead of locating each stimulus-object on a given continuum, the distances between each pair of stimuli are located on a distance continuum. As in paired comparisons, the procedures for obtaining a scale of comparative distances leave the true zero point undetermined. Hence, a comparative distance is not a distance in the usual sense of the term, but is a distance minus an unknown constant. The second step involves estimating this unknown constant. When the unknown constant is obtained, the comparative distances can be converted into absolute distances. In the third step, the dimensionality of the psychological space necessary to account for these absolute distances is determined, and the projections of stimuli on axes of this space are obtained. A set of analytical procedures was developed for each of the three steps given above, including a least-squares solution for obtaining comparative distances by the complete method of triads, two practical methods for estimating the additive constant, and an extension of Young and Householder's Euclidean model to include procedures for obtaining the projections of stimuli on axes from fallible absolute distances.
Two types of data, anthropometric and gene frequencies, may be used to reconstruct human evolution. Previous research, reconstructing the history of racial differentiation on the basis of gene frequencies, indicated that the major separation between human groups was that between Africans and Europeans on one side and peoples from Australia, East Asia and Americas on the other. A similar attempt by Howells ('73b), based on skull measurements in 17 ancient populations, in agreement with earlier anthropometric data, showed the major separation to be between Africans and Australians on one side and Europeans, Asians and Americans on the other. Climate could be a contributing factor to the observed differences in skull and anthropometric measurements. Howells' data showed high correlations with several climatic indicators. Carrying out the phylogenetic analysis after elimination by linear regression of the effects of climate has resolved to a great extent the discrepancy between anthropometric and gene frequency data.
The dental crown morphology and size of 48 male West Nakanai, New Britain, Melanesians is described and compared with other Pacific and Asian dental samples. The West Nakanai dentition is like those of other Melanesians, much less like those of Polynesians and Micronesians, and very dissimilar to teeth of modern and Neolithic Southeast Asians. It is suggested that the origin of the modern Melanesian dental pattern (large but simplified teeth) was probably in Melanesia, not Southeast Asia as the orthodox view of a Hoabinhian-Australmelanesian relation claims.
Local biological variation is marked in Melanesia. Some of it may result from gene flow from Micronesia, but the essential variation appears to result from isolation due to social fragmentation, and to genetic drift in place. In different regions, the variation may correspond well with language relationships, and probably constitutes differentiation which has been preserved over a considerable period, especially since the arrival of horticulture and development of village farming. However, none of this patterning suggests distinct waves of migration into Melanesia. Variation among Australian aboriginal groups is smaller, though far from absent. It may reflect a hunting culture together with social customs allowing more intertribal marriage than is typical of Melanesia. While phenotypically Australians and Melanesias differ, cranially they are closely allied, as against other major human groups. It is suggested that the genetic and phenotypic variety is old, that it existed in the previous home of the Australo-Melanesians (Old Melanesia, comprising present Indonesia and the Phillipines) at least back to 40,000 years ago, and that much of the variation in Melanesia and Australia, including their differences, results from the sampling process involved when different groups out of the original populations made early corssings of the water barriers from Old Melanesia.
Individuals of the following Asian populations were surveyed for the presence of a 9-base-pair deletion of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA): Ainu, Japanese, Korean, Negrito, and Vedda. Although the variation was detected in every population except the Vedda, the frequencies of the variation differed widely among the populations, suggesting a geographic cline.
Five evolutionarily significant dental traits were identified from a B-square distance analysis of nine crown characters recorded for several populations of East Asia and Oceania. Intergroup variation in these traits distinguishes three major divisions of the Mongoloid dental complex: sundadonty, sinodonty, and the dental pattern of Australian Aborigines. The Australian crown features may be characterized as having high frequencies of evolutionarily conservative characters. Negritos, one of the probable representatives of indigenous inhabitants of Southeast Asia who may have shared a common ancestor with Australians, possess the more derived sundadont dental pattern. As far as the five crown traits treated here are concerned, Australian dental features may be described as conforming to a "proto-sundadont" dental pattern, applying Turner's terminology. This pattern may represent a microevolutionary step prior to the emergence of the sundadont and sinodont patterns.
The origins of the four major geographical groups recognized as Australomelanesians, Micronesians, Polynesians, and East and Southeast Asians are still far from obvious. The earliest arrivals in Sahulland may have migrated from Sundaland about 40,000-50,000 years B.P. and begun the Australomelanesian lineage. The aboriginal populations in Southeast Asia may have originated in the tropical rain forest of Sundaland, and their direct descendants may be the modern Dayaks of Borneo and Negritos of Luzon. These populations, the so-called "Proto-Malays," are possible representatives of the lineage leading to not only modern Southeast Asians, but also the Neolithic Jomon populations in Japan. The present study suggests, moreover, that the Polynesians and western Micronesians have closer affinities with modern Southeast Asians than with Melanesians or Jomonese.
Cranial metric and discrete traits were collected from adult individuals of the terminal Late Archaic Duff site cemetery (33 LO 111). Comparisons of cranial metric traits among eight terminal Late Archaic samples including the Duff site sample showed that all samples shared the same generalized variance and by inference the same pattern of shape variation. Some significant size differences were found but these were interpreted as reflecting only minor differences in the underlying polygenic system or differences in environmental interactions. The overall similarity in cranial metrics among the terminal Late Archaic samples strongly suggests that they represent populations that, at least, shared a recent common ancestor. Analysis of discrete trait variation in all the terminal Late Archaic samples showed that the biological distances between samples are associated significantly with the between-sample geographical distances. This association accounts for approximately 25% of the variation in discrete trait frequencies. These results along with the results of the analysis of cranial metrics indicate that all of the terminal Late Archaic samples considered here are related, but geographically nearer samples are more closely related than distant ones.
Dental and craniofacial measurements were collected for 57 samples from Asia, the Pacific, the aboriginal western hemisphere, and Europe. The craniofacial dimensions include many that are not obviously under the control of specific selective forces. Similar configurations for these in different samples should yield indications of recency of common ancestry according to the logic expressed by Darwin and evident in the relationships indicated by nuclear DNA comparisons. Dental dimensions, however, vary according to the length of time that different intensities in selective forces have been in operation. The craniofacial measurements were transformed into C scores and used to generate Euclidean distance dendrograms. When all the material was used to generate a single dendrogram, the European and Amerindian samples sorted into two regionally identifiable clusters, and the Asian and Pacific material sorted into the three clusters identified in separate previous studies: a Mainland Asian cluster, a Jomon-Pacific cluster and an Australo-Melanesian cluster. Since these clusters are based on variation in traits that are basically nonadaptive in nature, no hierarchical ranking is possible. The clusters simply reflect degree of relationship. This technique holds forth the promise of producing a nonracial assessment of the relationships of all the peoples of the world, past and present.
Craniofacial variables for modern and prehistoric Japanese were subjected to multivariate analysis to test the relationships of the people of Japan with mainland Asian and Oceanic samples. The modern Japanese are tied to Koreans, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and the Yayoi rice agriculturalists who entered Japan in 300 B.C. Together they make up a Mainland-Asia cluster of related populations. The prehistoric Jomon foragers, the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, are the direct ancestors of the modern Ainu, who made a recognizable contribution to the warrior class--the Samurai--of feudal Japan. Together, they are associated with Polynesians and Micronesians in a Jomon-Pacific cluster of related populations. Jomon-to-Ainu tooth size reduction proceeded at the same rate as that observable in the post-Pleistocene elsewhere in the Old World.
The Lapita Cultural Complex, radiometrically dated to between 3,600 and 2,500 B.P., is regarded on archaeological evidence as ancestral to modern Austronesian-speaking cultures of eastern Melanesia and Polynesia. To date, there has been a lack of human skeletal and dental material from Lapita sites; thus, the present sample from Mussau Island, although small, offers an opportunity to present some preliminary observations of their importance to Oceanic prehistory. The present analysis, based mainly on teeth, suggests that the Mussau Island Lapita people had slightly closer affinities with Indonesian than with Melanesian populations. These results correspond well with linguistic and archaeological evidence regarding the origin of the Lapita Cultural Complex.
The purpose of this communication is to provide a summary description and analysis of 28 dental traits studied in a number of skeletal samples that originated in eastern Asia. The objectives of the analysis are to define the nature of Mongoloid dental variation, use it to measure Asian intergroup relationships, and develop in greater detail and with larger samples a dental anthropological model of the late Pleistocene and Holocene population history of eastern Asia.
A variety of quantitative measures of distance and similarity have been used in physical anthropology, often without sufficient prior testing of their usefulness and understanding of their meaning. A variety of such coefficients were compared by applying them to an odontometric sample. It was found that Penrose's size-shape dichotomy extends not only to his coefficients but to all other similarity measures as well, such as the coefficient of racial likeness, generalized distance, canonical variates, and Q-mode correlation. Only size differences were detected by the C.R.L., Penrose's size distance, D2, and canonical variates, and as a result these methods failed to produce an accurate classification. Penrose's shape distance and Q-mode correlation coefficients produced better results due to their determination of similarity on the basis of more important shape and morphological differences. The D2 and canonical variates methods were converted to shape measures through Q-mode standardization of the raw data, whereupon they also produced more meaningful results.
Empiric evidence indicates that the general distribution of the cephalic index is explicable in terms of climatic adaptation. Based on a sample of 339 populations, the magnitude of the index is statistically different between zones of predominantly dry heat, wet heat, wet cold and dry cold. There is an inverse relationship between the mean cephalic index and temperature. It is argued that the occupation of cold climates is one of the circumstances increasing the frequency of brachycephaly through time.
During the population genetic surveys of the aboriginal Negrito groups of the Philippines, "rare" variants of carbonic anhydrase-1 (CA1), adenylate kinase (AK) and esterase D (ESD) were discovered with remarkably high frequencies. The variant CAS1 isozyme discovered among the Mamanwa tribe of northeastern Mindanao was electrophoretically indistinguishable from the "Guam" variant. Subsequent study of peptide mapping and amino acid analysis showed that they are in fact identical. The frequency of the variant allele was estimated at 0.20-0.25. The AK variant had an estimated frequency of 0.07 among the Aeta of Luzon. The fact that these variants occur sporadically in wide areas in the western Pacific suggests that they have been spread by gene diffusion from the aboriginal populations of this area, from which the present Negrito probably are derived.