Ancient voyaging and Polynesian origins

The "Polynesian motif" defines a lineage of human mtDNA that is restricted to Austronesian-speaking populations and is almost fixed in Polynesians. It is widely thought to support a rapid dispersal of maternal lineages from Taiwan ~4000 years ago (4 ka), but the chronological resolution of existing control-region data is poor, and an East Indonesian origin has also been proposed. By analyzing 157 complete mtDNA genomes, we show that the motif itself most likely originated >6 ka in the vicinity of the Bismarck Archipelago, and its immediate ancestor is >8 ka old and virtually restricted to Near Oceania. This indicates that Polynesian maternal lineages from Island Southeast Asia gained a foothold in Near Oceania much earlier than dispersal from either Taiwan or Indonesia 3-4 ka would predict. However, we find evidence in minor lineages for more recent two-way maternal gene flow between Island Southeast Asia and Near Oceania, likely reflecting movements along a "voyaging corridor" between them, as previously proposed on archaeological grounds. Small-scale mid-Holocene movements from Island Southeast Asia likely transmitted Austronesian languages to the long-established Southeast Asian colonies in the Bismarcks carrying the Polynesian motif, perhaps also providing the impetus for the expansion into Polynesia.     

Melanesian and Asian origins of Polynesians: mtDNA and Y chromosome gradients across the Pacific

The human settlement of the Pacific Islands represents one of the most recent major migration events of mankind. Polynesians originated in Asia according to linguistic evidence or in Melanesia according to archaeological evidence. To shed light on the genetic origins of Polynesians, we investigated over 400 Polynesians from 8 island groups, in comparison with over 900 individuals from potential parental populations of Melanesia, Southeast and East Asia, and Australia, by means of Y chromosome (NRY) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. Overall, we classified 94.1% of Polynesian Y chromosomes and 99.8% of Polynesian mtDNAs as of either Melanesian (NRY-DNA: 65.8%, mtDNA: 6%) or Asian (NRY-DNA: 28.3%, mtDNA: 93.8%) origin, suggesting a dual genetic origin of Polynesians in agreement with the "Slow Boat" hypothesis. Our data suggest a pronounced admixture bias in Polynesians toward more Melanesian men than women, perhaps as a result of matrilocal residence in the ancestral Polynesian society. Although dating methods are consistent with somewhat similar entries of NRY/mtDNA haplogroups into Polynesia, haplotype sharing suggests an earlier appearance of Melanesian haplogroups than those from Asia. Surprisingly, we identified gradients in the frequency distribution of some NRY/mtDNA haplogroups across Polynesia and a gradual west-to-east decrease of overall NRY/mtDNA diversity, not only providing evidence for a west-to-east direction of Polynesian settlements but also suggesting that Pacific voyaging was regular rather than haphazard. We also demonstrate that Fiji played a pivotal role in the history of Polynesia: humans probably first migrated to Fiji, and subsequent settlement of Polynesia probably came from Fiji.     

Forging a biodiversity ethic in a multicultural context

New Zealand belongs to the Pacific region, a part of the world where human impacts have been both very recent and extreme in their effect. The New Zealand natural environment is rich in endemic taxa, but these are poorly equipped to cope with the effects of invasion by humans and exotic animals and plants. Polynesian immigrants brought to New Zealand a distinctive world view which gave rise to both tribal traditions and living traditions of the Maori. The resultant environmental ethic emphasises guardianship and stewardship, establishment of the right to use a resource, kinship obligations, and a balance between pairs of opposites. Nineteenth-century European colonists were ambivalent in their view of the environment, although a world view which emphasises dominion has tended to dominate. Two recent developments which are important factors in development of a multicultural biodiversity ethic are the enactment of the Resource Management Act 1991 and legal recognition of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The intersection of these developments provides an opportunity to develop a new approach to environmental ethics especially in conceptualising significance, consultative processes, and developing a holistic and ecocentric use of resources.     

A Millennium of Human Activity at Makauwahi Cave, Māhāūulepū, Kauaūi

A cave system in the eolianite deposits of the Māhā′ulepū/Pā′ā area of Kaua′i, Hawai′i, contains a rich fossil record of prehuman Holocene conditions and also preserves a thousand-year record of human activity. Details concerning pre-Contact Polynesian life have been extracted from subaqueous middens and artifacts, including perishable materials such as wood, gourd, and cordage. Oral traditions concerning the cave and vicinity generally show good agreement with the archaeological and paleoecological record and provide rich stories said to derive from as early as the fourteenth century A.D. Fossil evidence highlights biotic and landscape changes before, during, and after initial Polynesian and subsequent European settlement. The approximate temporal coincidence of evidence for human arrival and last occurrence of some now-extinct species is too great to ignore the possibility that humans played a role in some extinctions of native taxa before European colonization. Old maps, an 1824 sketch, records of the Land Court Awards, and old photographs confirm stratigraphic inferences and oral accounts concerning demographic and ecological conditions of the early historical period. Feral livestock proliferated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with loss of vegetative cover to overgrazing, decline of most of the native flora, and subsequent dune reactivation. Sedimentation rates reach their peak later in the twentieth century after the establishment of agricultural and mining operations nearby.     

A population genetic study of the Banks and Torres Islands (Vanuatu) and of the Santa Cruz Islands and polynesian outliers (Solomon Islands)

As part of a multidisciplinary survey of populations in the Banks and Torres Islands of Vanuatu and the Southern and Central Districts of the Solomon Islands, nearly 2,400 persons have been tested for ABO blood groups and a number of serum protein and red cell enzyme genetic marker systems. For the ABO system, the populations are characterized in general by high gene O and low gene B frequencies except in two of the Polynesian Outlier Islands, Rennell and Bellona, which have high frequencies of B. Among the serum proteins, several alleles have distributions indicating significant movement of people between islands. These include Albumin ^{New Guinea} and the transferrin alleles Tf, and Tf, and Tf. Similar specific alleles for red cell enzymes also show distributions reflecting interisland population movement as well as contact with persons from outside the southern Pacific region. Examples are ACP in the acid phosphatase system, PGM and PGM, PGM and PGM, PGK⁴ and also HbJ^Tongariki. The data available for 11 polymorphic systems were used to generate genetic distances. Of the four Polynesian Outlier Islands, Anuta is most remote genetically, with Rennell and Bellona also relatively isolated. The fourth Polynesian Outlier, Tikopia, occupies a position genetically close to the Melanesian populations of the Banks and Torres Islands and the southern Solomons. The history of early European contact and voyaging in the Pacific, as well as archaeological and linguistic evidence and local legends, indicate that significant movements of people occurred between islands and provided opportunities for genes to be introduced from Europeans, Africans, and Asians. The genetic marker studies give evidence for genes from all these sources, though at a low level. Despite this admixture, the Polynesian Outlier and Melanesian populations have preserved their own distinctive genetic patterns.     

Gene flow and natural selection in oceanic human populations inferred from genome-wide SNP typing

It is suggested that the major prehistoric human colonizations of Oceania occurred twice, namely, about 50,000 and 4,000 years ago. The first settlers are considered as ancestors of indigenous people in New Guinea and Australia. The second settlers are Austronesian-speaking people who dispersed by voyaging in the Pacific Ocean. In this study, we performed genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing on an indigenous Melanesian (Papuan) population, Gidra, and a Polynesian population, Tongans, by using the Affymetrix 500K assay. The SNP data were analyzed together with the data of the HapMap samples provided by Affymetrix. In agreement with previous studies, our phylogenetic analysis indicated that indigenous Melanesians are genetically closer to Asians than to Africans and European Americans. Population structure analyses revealed that the Tongan population is genetically originated from Asians at 70% and indigenous Melanesians at 30%, which thus supports the so-called Slow train model. We also applied the SNP data to genome-wide scans for positive selection by examining haplotypic variation and identified many candidates of locally selected genes. Providing a clue to understand human adaptation to environments, our approach based on evolutionary genetics must contribute to revealing unknown gene functions as well as functional differences between alleles. Conversely, this approach can also shed some light onto the invisible phenotypic differences between populations.     

Polynesian genetic affinities with Southeast Asian populations as identified by mtDNA analysis.

Polynesian genetic affinities to populations of Asia were studied using mtDNA markers. A total of 1,037 individuals from 12 populations were screened for a 9-bp deletion in the intergenic region between the COII and tRNA(Lys) genes that approaches fixation in Polynesians. Sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes that identify specific mtDNA control region nucleotide substitutions were used to describe variation in individuals with the 9-bp deletion. The 9-bp deletion was not observed in northern Indians, Bangladeshis, or Pakistanis but was seen at low to moderate frequencies in the nine other Southeast Asian populations. Three substitutions in the control region at positions 16217, 16247, and 16261 have previously been observed at high frequency in Polynesian mtDNAs; this "Polynesian motif" was observed in 20% of east Indonesians with the 9-bp deletion but was observed in only one additional individual. mtDNA types related to the Polynesian motif are highest in frequency in the corridor from Taiwan south through the Philippines and east Indonesia, and the highest diversity for these types is in Taiwan. These results are consistent with linguistic evidence of a Taiwanese origin for the proto-Polynesian expansion, which spread throughout Oceania by way of Indonesia.     

Assessing intrasample variation: analysis of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) museum cranial collections example

Osteological studies both old and new have utilized various Polynesian cranial samples, individually or in combination, to assess the racial composition of prehistoric Polynesians as a group, with regards to other Pacific populations, or to represent the Polynesian peoples as a whole in various multivariate analyses of worldwide populations. However, few of these studies have assessed the degree of intrasample variation produced when data derived from skeletal samples from different Polynesian islands (populations) are pooled to represent "Polynesians" as a whole. A similar argument can be made when data derived from various museum skeletal samples of the same Polynesian population are pooled to produce a larger sample representing that particular Polynesian population (Murrill [1968] Cranial and postcranial skeletal remains from Easter Island; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press; Stefan [2002] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. [Suppl.] 34:147). This study examined Easter Island crania curated at various museums in North America, South America, and Europe to assess whether significant differences exist among the museum collections of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) skeletal material. A NORM statistical program (Schafer and Olsen [1997] NORM, version 1.01; University Park: Pennsylvania State University) for multiple imputation of incomplete multivariate datasets was utilized to estimate missing data. A variance comparison method, which utilizes variance/covariance matrices derived from "hypothesis" and "baseline/reference" samples (Key and Jantz [1990] Hum. Evol. 5:457-469; Key and Jantz [1990] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 82:53-59) was used to compare the Rapa Nui museum samples. This method is designed to test whether variability in a "hypothesis" museum sample exceeds "normal within-group variability" represented by the "baseline/reference" sample. The method was applied to six Rapa Nui museum samples (AANMW, MNHN-KB, MNHN-NAE, NHM, MH, and AMNH). The results indicate that the museum "hypothesis," male and female samples, exhibited little intrasample variability from the "baseline/reference" sample (MAPSE), though the samples were collected at different times and by different individuals. These results show the ability of multiple imputation and variance comparison methodologies to predict missing variables while maintaining the inherent variance/covariance structure and to discriminate sample variation in artificially assembled samples.     

Christians, Jews, and the Other in German Anthropology

National anthropologies, wrote George Stocking, can be seen as little "nations" that develop their own foreign policies, formulating distinctions between "us" and "them." American and German anthropological nations were both built on literary traditions of primitivism and exoticism, and both exalted the idea of culture. But they developed very different policies toward their interior others. The Indian was the romanticized precursor to American civilization, while the sophisticated, and thus more dangerous, other lay outside the borders. German Jews, because they participated in German intellectual life, were sophisticated internal savages and hence the most dangerous enemy.     

The cranial morphology of the Botocudo Indians,Brazil

The Botocudo Indians were hunter‐gatherer groups that occupied the East‐Central regions of Brazil decimated during the colonial period in the country. During the 19th century, craniometric studies suggested that the Botocudo resembled more the Paleoamerican population of Lagoa Santa than typical Native Americans groups. These results suggest that the Botocudo Indians might represent a population that retained the biological characteristics of early groups of the continent, remaining largely isolated from groups that gave origin to the modern Native South American variation. Moreover, recently, some of the Botocudo remains have been shown to have mitochondrial and autosomal DNA lineages currently found in Polynesian populations. Here, we explore the morphological affinities of Botocudo skulls within a worldwide context. Distinct multivariate analyses based on 32 craniometric variables show that 1) the two individuals with Polynesian DNA sequences have morphological characteristics that fall within the Polynesian and Botocudo variation, making their assignation as Native American specimens problematic, and 2) there are high morphological affinities between Botocudo, Early Americans, and the Polynesian series of Easter Island, which support the early observations that the Botocudo can be seen as retaining the Paleoamerican morphology, particularly when the neurocranium is considered. Although these results do not elucidate the origin of the Polynesian DNA lineages among the Botocudo, they support the hypothesis that the Botocudo represent a case of late survival of ancient Paleoamerican populations, retaining the morphological characteristics of ancestral Late Pleistocene populations from Asia. Am J Phys Anthropol 157:202–216, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Traditional Banana Diversity in Oceania: An Endangered Heritage

This study aims to understand the genetic diversity of traditional Oceanian starchy bananas in order to propose an efficient conservation strategy for these endangered varieties. SSR and DArT molecular markers are used to characterize a large sample of Pacific accessions, from New Guinea to Tahiti and Hawaii. All Pacific starchy bananas are shown of New Guinea origin, by interspecific hybridization between Musa acuminata (AA genome), more precisely its local subspecies M. acuminata ssp. banksii, and M. balbisiana (BB genome) generating triploid AAB Pacific starchy bananas. These AAB genotypes do not form a subgroup sensu stricto and genetic markers differentiate two subgroups across the three morphotypes usually identified: Iholena versus Popoulu and Maoli. The Popoulu/Maoli accessions, even if morphologically diverse throughout the Pacific, cluster in the same genetic subgroup. However, the subgroup is not strictly monophyletic and several close, but different genotypes are linked to the dominant genotype. One of the related genotypes is specific to New Caledonia (NC), with morphotypes close to Maoli, but with some primitive characters. It is concluded that the diffusion of Pacific starchy AAB bananas results from a series of introductions of triploids originating in New Guinea area from several sexual recombination events implying different genotypes of M. acuminata ssp. banksii. This scheme of multiple waves from the New Guinea zone is consistent with the archaeological data for peopling of the Pacific. The present geographic distribution suggests that a greater diversity must have existed in the past. Its erosion finds parallels with the erosion of cultural traditions, inexorably declining in most of the Polynesian or Melanesian Islands. Symmetrically, diversity hot spots appear linked to the local persistence of traditions: Maoli in New Caledonian Kanak traditions or Iholena in a few Polynesian islands. These results will contribute to optimizing the conservation strategy for the ex-situ Pacific Banana Collection supported collectively by the Pacific countries.     

Polynesian face and dentition: functional perspective

Widely dispersed throughout the Pacific, Polynesians are a biologically distinctive people in form and size of both body and head. Large-bodied and well-muscled, their body phenotype is suited to life in a thermolabile oceanic environment. Their craniofacial skeleton is large and robust, with mandibular size and form (the "rocker" mandible) being especially characteristic. In this paper the Polynesian variants of body form, and of facial size (including dentition) and form, are interpreted from a functional perspective.     

Rattus exulans and the catastrophic disappearance of Hawai’i’s native lowland forest

Paleoenvironmental and archaeological investigations from the ’Ewa Plain of O’ahu provide insight into the problem of understanding lowland native forest loss in Hawai’i. Data from pollen analysis of a pond core record, avian paleontology, and archeology, document a precipitous decline of the native forest starting before Polynesian settlement on the ’Ewa Plain but after Polynesian colonization of O’ahu. It is hypothesized that rats, introduced by Polynesian colonizers, increased exponentially in the absence of significant predators or competitors, feeding on a largely endemic vegetation that had evolved in the absence of mammalian predators. Rats radiated ahead of human colonizers on O’ahu, eating their way through the vegetation, perhaps before the colonizers had encountered much of the pristine lowland forest into which the rats had radiated. This hypothesis is supported by several observations, including the almost complete absence of extinct or extirpated avian faunal remains in archaeological deposits, the present distribution of endemic vegetation in Hawai’i, rat ecology, population biology, and other evidence.

The Polynesian chin and mandible

We noted the similarity in mandibular profile between a 27,000-year-old skull from China and a 160-year-old Polynesian skull. Both had a more vertical ramus, a curved inferior border, and no chin. The European mandible has a greater gonial angle, an antegonial notch, and a chin. Is the presence of a chin sufficient to distinguish European mandible from Polynesian? Can the gonial angle and ramus shape do so? A blind study of fifty mandibles of both groups and both sexes revealed that each feature alone can differentiate the sexes, but the combination is required, to differentiate European and Polynesian, and loosely group their provenances.     

The historic biogeography and community ecology of Polynesian pigeons and doves

The species richness, taxonomic diversity, and geographic distribution of pigeons and doves (Columbidae) have been altered irreversibly in Polynesia by 3500 years of human activity. Natural (without human influence) columbid faunas are estimated primarily by studying prehistoric bones. In all Polynesian island groups studied (except outlying Easter Island, Hawaiian Islands, or New Zealand), the prehistoric columbid faunas had more species, more genera, and more species per genus than modern faunas from the same island. Congeneric species pairs or triplets occurred on many islands for Ducula , Ptilinopus , and Gallicolumba. The losses of Polynesian columbids include the extinction of at least 9 species in the genera Ducula , Ptilinopus , Macropygia , Caloenas , Gallicolumba , and Didunculus as well as the extirpation of numerous island populations of extant species. If not for human impact, a typical East Polynesian island would support at least 5–6 species of columbids in 3–4 genera (compared to 0–3 species in 0–3 genera today). A typical West Polynesian island would support at least 6–7 species in 4–5 genera (compared to 1–6 species in 1–5 genera today). Since all Polynesian pigeons and doves are frugivorous and/or granivorous, their decline in recent millennia probably has affected the composition of Polynesian forests by limiting inter- and intra-island dispersal of plant propagules.     

Honeyeater (Meliphagidae) pollination and the floral biology of PolynesianHeliconia (Heliconiaceae)

The primary pollinator of Polynesian heliconias,Heliconia laufao andH. paka, is the Wattled Honeyeater,Foulehaio carunculata. This report is the first documentation of pollination by honeyeaters in the genusHeliconia and the first record ofF. carunculata as a pollinator of a plant species. The Polynesian heliconias bear inflorescences that produce 2–4 hermaphroditic flowers per day for a period of 2–3 months. Each flower secretes abundant nectar (125–184 l) with low sugar concentration (15–18% sucrose-equivalents, weight per weight basis) which is available at anthesis just before dawn. Ninety percent of flower visits occur between anthesis and mid-morning. The honeyeaters perch on inflorescence bracts, and probing of the flower results in pollen deposition on the head and bill from where pollen is transferred between flowers. No statements on compatibility can be made forHeliconia paka; however,Heliconia laufao appears to be self-compatible. Calculations of energetic values of nectar of the Polynesian heliconias and Daily Energy Expenditures ofF. carunculata suggest that populations ofH. laufao andH. paka serve as rich energy resources for their pollinators.     

Fatty acid composition of the depot fats of the Polynesian rat,Rattus exulans,Tokelau Islands

The fatty acid composition of the stomach contents, adipose tissue, and perinephric fat of Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans Peale), from the Tokelau Is indicated that the dietary fat consisted mainly, if not exclusively, of coconut oil. Lower ratios of lauric : myristic acids were found in the depot fats of the Polynesian rats than in the dietary coconut oil. These results were consistent with chain elongation of lauric to myristic acid after ingestion, as previously reported in rats and other mammals.     

Brief communication: mitochondrial DNA variation suggests extensive gene flow from Polynesian ancestors to indigenous Melanesians in the northwestern Bismarck Archipelago

Archaeological, linguistic, and genetic studies show that Austronesian (AN)-speaking Polynesian ancestors came from Asia/Taiwan to the Bismarck Archipelago in Near Oceania more than 3,600 years ago, and then expanded into Remote Oceania. However, it remains unclear whether they extensively mixed with indigenous Melanesians who had populated the Bismarck Archipelago before their arrival. To examine the extent of admixture between Polynesian ancestors and indigenous Melanesians, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variations in the D-loop region and the cytochrome oxidase and lysine transfer RNA (COII/tRNA(Lys)) intergenic 9-bp deletion were analyzed in the following three Oceanian populations: 1) Balopa Islanders as AN-speaking Melanesians living in the northwestern end of the Bismarck Archipelago, 2) Tongans as AN-speaking Polynesians, and 3) Gidra as non-Austronesian-speaking Melanesians in the southwestern lowlands of Papua New Guinea. Phylogenetic analysis of mtDNA sequences revealed that more than 60% of mtDNA sequences in the Balopa Islanders were very similar to those in Tongans, suggesting an extensive gene flow from Polynesian ancestors to indigenous Melanesians. Furthermore, analysis of pairwise difference distributions for the D-loop sequences with the 9-bp deletion and the Polynesian motif (i.e., T16217C, A16247G, and C16261T) suggested that the expansion of Polynesian ancestors possessing these variations occurred approximately 7,000 years ago.     

A Polynesian motif on the Y chromosome: population structure in remote Oceania

The Polynesian motif, a mitochondrial DNA marker of ancestral Polynesian communities, has filled a critical role in reconstructions of remote Oceanic history. Although the motif provides an effective narrative for Polynesian females, no equivalent male history is available from paternal lineages. Here, we describe a Y-chromosome binary polymorphism with absolute Polynesian affinity. We illustrate its unique spatial and temporal connections to early Polynesian communities, and through an analysis of associated short tandem repeat variation, we describe the first clear genealogic structure within Polynesia. Unlike the eastern and western regions advocated by archeology, we identify a tripartite structure comprising interaction spheres in the west (Tonga and Samoa), center (Tahiti), and east (Rapanui/Easter Island). Such patterning, a product of early regional contact and subsequent isolation, signals the conflicting roles of mobility and seclusion in Polynesian prehistory.     

Microcosmic Histories: Island Perspectives on "Global" Change

The Pacific Islands, particularly the Polynesian islands, provide excellent model systems for understanding the human dimensions of global change. This is due to their uniquely microcosmic aspect. Little worlds unto themselves, islands are natural history's best shot at something approaching the controlled experiment. The human choices that have led to particular outcomes on these islands teach us that nothing is inevitable or predetermined. The more we understand how our predecessors fashioned the earth we have inherited, the better we may be able to achieve a "sustainable" relationship with our planet, our own little microcosm within the cosmos.