Genetic, Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on Human Diversity in Southeast Asia

The following sections are included:

• PREFACE

• CONTRIBUTORS

• CONTENTS

Integrating archaeology, historic linguistics and genetics when investigating major trends in world prehistory is one of the most alluring, but at the same time, one of the most testing of objectives. One only has to review some of the writings on prehistory by linguists or geneticists, to be cautious of making similar pronouncements in reverse. Circular arguments are easily entered into where disciplines coincide. Thus a possibility advanced by a linguist may be taken to support an archaeological overview, only for the latter to be adopted with enthusiasm by the same linguist in support of the original proposition. Again, a linguist might identify a split between two proto-languages, and make a reasoned guess on when this occurred, only to find that same guess adopted as valid by a prehistorian. The logical resolution to this situation is to take results of each discipline separately when treating the same issue, and then investigate any signs of congruence. In this manner, there is likely to be a fertile relationship, in which hypotheses based on one source of information can be tested on the basis of another. This is elegantly to be seen in Pawley's linguistic reconstruction of what a Polynesian house would have looked like, to be confirmed in due course by Green (Green and Pawley in press) through archaeological excavation.

This paper will adopt this approach in considering one of the six themes covered by this book, and two others more briefly.

Since language is the defining trait of our species, human evolution and linguistic evolution are obviously closely intertwined. Recent studies in genetics suggest that anatomically modern humans emerged at a very late date, perhaps 50 kys (Bertrapetit 2000; Thompson 2000). This dating is consistent with the onset of an unprecedented degree of cultural innovations, in both quality and quantity, as revealed in the archaeological record (Klein 1999). We share the belief with many students of human prehistory that the evolution of anatomically modern humans, the emergence of language, and the burst of cultural innovations, including extensive cave art and sailing across broad expanses of water are events which are all closely linked to each other…

The long term effects of a transition to agriculture have attracted much attention in archaeological circles, following the publication of Renfrew's controversial book, Archaeology and Language in 1987. His thesis – which was first advanced by Ammerman and Cavallli-Sforza (1984) – was that agriculture, involving as it does sedentary communities, is an economy with a built in propensity for population growth. A growing population will usually involve the foundation of new settlements, and thus an expansion of the area occupied by agricultural communities. Since people take with them their language and genes, it should be possible to trace this process through archaeology, language and human biology. It has long been known that early farmers expanded into Europe from the Balkans by exploiting the loose soils for the cultivation of wheat and barley, and the raising of domestic stock. This process, Renfrew argues, most readily explains the present distribution of Indo-European languages. It has been tested through the analysis of blood groups, which appear to be supportive…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Materials and Methods

• Results and Discussion
  • The phylogeny
  • The out of Africa signature
  • Synopsis of East Asian Y-chromosome haplogroups
  • The YAP+/M145A Group III
  • The YAP+/M145A Group IV
  • Re-evaluating the geographic origin of YAP+
  • The origin of the YAP+/M145 A branch in the Y chromosome genealogy

• Acknowledgements

• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• Materials and Methods

• Results and Discussion

• Acknowledgement

• References

The Y chromosome, like mitochondrial DNA, is inherited in a sex-specific manner. This allows a variety of insights into sex-specific differences among populations. One such difference, which has attracted some attention, is the potential asymmetry in male versus female migration rates. Cultural variation in the rules of postmarital residence is expected to influence migration rate differences between the sexes. Here, we report on Y-chromosomal data from four populations inhabiting northern Thailand that follow differing rules of postmarital residence. Variation on the paternally inherited Y chromosome is highest in the Karen, an uxorilocal population — consistent with a higher male than female migration rate as expected under uxorilocality. Data from the maternally transmitted mitochondrial genome will be added in future studies, to more precisely quantify rates of female versus male migration. A survey of variation in the X-chromosomal G6PD gene revealed two previously characterized variants in the Karen and Yao (Iu Mien) populations.

Gene frequencies for five polymorphic protein-coding loci namely phosphoglucomutase I, adenosine deaminase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, haptoglobin and transferrin were used to calculate genetic distances between pairs of populations. The genetic relationships among eight ethnic groups from Malaysia and eight ethnic groups from other parts of Southeast Asia were obtained by clustering based on their genetic distances using UPGMA. Two major clusters were obtained, one containing three non-Mongoloid ethnic groups, Indians, Senoi and Aetas and the other containing 13 Mongoloid ethnic groups, Kadazan, Malays, Chinese, Bataks, Land Dayaks, Iban, Visayan, Tagalog, Paiwan, Aboriginal Malays, Ifugao, Atayal and Bunun.

The following sections are included:

• Chinese Human Genome Diversity Project and National Cell Line Repository

• A Study of the Populations in East Asia Using Microsatelite Markers

• Acknowledgements

• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• A Recent African Homeland of East Asians
  • Autosome markers
  • Y chromosome haplotypes

• Controversy in Interpreting Genetic and Archaeological Evidence

• The Northward Diaspora in East Asia

• East Asian Contributions to the New World

• Central Asian Admixture in East Asia

• Conclusions

• References

The following sections are included:

• The Genetic Trail

• Acknowledgements

• References

The following sections are included:

• Archaeology

• Language

• Morphology

• The Colonization of Remote Oceania

• The Express Train

• The Entangled Bank

• Eden in the East

• mtDNA Analyses

• Autosomal and Y-Chromosome Polymorphisms

• Conclusions

• References

The following sections are included:

• INDEX