A comparison of the incidence of minor nonmetrical cranial variants in Australian aborigines with those of Melanesia and Polynesia

The incidence of 30 minor non-metrical cranial variants in Australian Aborigines discussed in a previous publication is compared with incidence in crania from Melanesia and Polynesia. With the qualification that the sample sizes from Melanesia and Polynesia are rather small, the data indicate that the differences between Australia and Melanesia and Polynesia exceed those between the three areas into which Australia was divided. The area of Australia made up of the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia has more association with Melanesia than Polynesia as expected, while the more southern regions of Australia have more association with Polynesia than Melanesia perhaps by migrations from Asia. Because the southern Australian Aborigines are now largely extinct, it seems difficult to prove this.     

Physical variation and history in Melanesia and Australia

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 Melanesians 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 crossings of the water barriers from Old Melanesia.     

Independent histories of human Y chromosomes from Melanesia and Australia

To investigate the origins and relationships of Australian and Melanesian populations, 611 males from 18 populations from Australia, Melanesia, and eastern/southeastern Asia were typed for eight single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci and seven short tandem-repeat loci on the Y chromosome. A unique haplotype, DYS390.1del/RPS4Y711T, was found at a frequency of 53%-69% in Australian populations, whereas the major haplotypes found in Melanesian populations (M4G/M5T/M9G and DYS390.3del/RPS4Y711T) are absent from the Australian populations. The Y-chromosome data thus indicate independent histories for Australians and Melanesians, a finding that is in agreement with evidence from mtDNA but that contradicts some analyses of autosomal loci, which show a close relationship between Australian and Melanesian (specifically, highland Papua New Guinean) populations. Since the Australian and New Guinean landmasses were connected when first colonized by humans > or =50,000 years ago but separated some 8,000 years ago, a possible way to reconcile all the genetic data is to infer that the Y-chromosome and mtDNA results reflect the past 8,000 years of independent history for Australia and New Guinea, whereas the autosomal loci reflect the long preceding period of common origin and shared history. Two Y-chromosome haplotypes (M119C/M9G and M122C/M9G) that originated in eastern/southeastern Asia are present in coastal and island Melanesia but are rare or absent in both Australia and highland Papua New Guinea. This distribution, along with demographic analyses indicating that population expansions for both haplotypes began approximately 4,000-6,000 years ago, suggests that these haplotypes were brought to Melanesia by the Austronesian expansion. Most of the populations in this study were previously typed for mtDNA SNPs; population differentiation is greater for the Y chromosome than for mtDNA and is significantly correlated with geographic distance, a finding in agreement with results of similar analyses of European populations.     

Melanesian origin of Polynesian Y chromosomes

BACKGROUND: Two competing hypotheses for the origins of Polynesians are the 'express-train' model, which supposes a recent and rapid expansion of Polynesian ancestors from Asia/Taiwan via coastal and island Melanesia, and the 'entangled-bank' model, which supposes a long history of cultural and genetic interactions among Southeast Asians, Melanesians and Polynesians. Most genetic data, especially analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation, support the express-train model, as does linguistic and archaeological evidence. Here, we used Y-chromosome polymorphisms to investigate the origins of Polynesians. RESULTS: We analysed eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and seven short tandem repeat (STR) loci on the Y chromosome in 28 Cook Islanders from Polynesia and 583 males from 17 Melanesian, Asian and Australian populations. We found that all Polynesians belong to just three Y-chromosome haplotypes, as defined by unique event polymorphisms. The major Y haplotype in Polynesians (82% frequency) was restricted to Melanesia and eastern Indonesia and most probably arose in Melanesia. Coalescence analysis of associated Y-STR haplotypes showed evidence of a population expansion in Polynesians, beginning about 2,200 years ago. The other two Polynesian Y haplotypes were widespread in Asia but were also found in Melanesia. CONCLUSIONS: All Polynesian Y chromosomes can be traced back to Melanesia, although some of these Y-chromosome types originated in Asia. Together with other genetic and cultural evidence, we propose a new model of Polynesian origins that we call the 'slow-boat' model: Polynesian ancestors did originate from Asia/Taiwan but did not move rapidly through Melanesia; rather, they interacted with and mixed extensively with Melanesians, leaving behind their genes and incorporating many Melanesian genes before colonising the Pacific.     

HLA-DRB1 frequencies of non-Austronesian-speaking Gidra in south New Guinea and their genetic affinities with Oceanian populations

DNA typing of HLA-DRB1 genes was conducted for 192 samples from the Gidra who speak one of the non-Austronesian languages and inhabit the southern lowlands of New Guinea. Comparison of the allele frequencies with those of eight other Oceanian populations reveals that the Gidra are genetically closest to the non-Austronesian-speaking Goroka and, next, to the Aboriginal Australian groups, but are remote from the Austronesian-speaking groups in mainland New Guinea and the rest of Melanesia. This finding clearly supports the hypothesis that non-Austronesians and Aboriginal Australians are descendants of the first-stage migrants to Oceania. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Colonial and postcolonial museum collecting in Papua New Guinea

This essay contrasts early and later colonial collecting by anthropologists and museum scientists in Melanesia with the postcolonial collecting in which I participated in the 1980s under the auspices of the Australian Museum (1987). My contention is that museum collections made during early colonialism took place in a relatively hierarchical and androcentric context of moral difference. In subsequent phases of the colonial era, as well as in the ongoing postcolonial period, anthropological collecting sought, and continues to seek, egalitarian and gender inclusive dialogue with vendors; in part by drawing from local metaphors and idioms to express status inclusivity.     

Anthropology in the New Melanesia

Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia: Mortuary Ritual, Gift Exchange, and Custom in the Tanga Islands. Robert J. Foster
Nation Making: Emergent Identities in Postcolonial Melanesia. Robert J. Foster     

The impact of the Austronesian expansion: evidence from mtDNA and Y chromosome diversity in the Admiralty Islands of Melanesia

The genetic ancestry of Polynesians can be traced to both Asia and Melanesia, which presumably reflects admixture occurring between incoming Austronesians and resident non-Austronesians in Melanesia before the subsequent occupation of the greater Pacific; however, the genetic impact of the Austronesian expansion to Melanesia remains largely unknown. We therefore studied the diversity of nonrecombining Y chromosomal (NRY) and mitochondrial (mt) DNA in the Admiralty Islands, located north of mainland Papua New Guinea, and updated our previous data from Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia with new NRY markers. The Admiralties are occupied today solely by Austronesian-speaking groups, but their human settlement history goes back 20,000 years prior to the arrival of Austronesians about 3,400 years ago. On the Admiralties, we found substantial mtDNA and NRY variation of both Austronesian and non-Austronesian origins, with higher frequencies of Asian mtDNA and Melanesian NRY haplogroups, similar to previous findings in Polynesia and perhaps as a consequence of Austronesian matrilocality. Thus, the Austronesian language replacement on the Admiralties (and elsewhere in Island Melanesia and coastal New Guinea) was accompanied by an incomplete genetic replacement that is more associated with mtDNA than with NRY diversity. These results provide further support for the "Slow Boat" model of Polynesian origins, according to which Polynesian ancestors originated from East Asia but genetically mixed with Melanesians before colonizing the Pacific. We also observed that non-Austronesian groups of coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia had significantly higher frequencies of Asian mtDNA haplogroups than of Asian NRY haplogroups, suggesting sex-biased admixture perhaps as a consequence of non-Austronesian patrilocality. We additionally found that the predominant NRY haplogroup of Asian origin in the Admiralties (O-M110) likely originated in Taiwan, thus providing the first direct Y chromosome evidence for a Taiwanese origin of the Austronesian expansion. Furthermore, we identified a NRY haplogroup (K-P79, also found on the Admiralties) in Polynesians that most likely arose in the Bismarck Archipelago, providing the first direct link between northern Island Melanesia and Polynesia. These results significantly advance our understanding of the impact of the Austronesian expansion and human history in the Pacific region.     

Use of the sago palmMetroxylon warburgii in the Polynesian Island,Rotuma

The manufacture of edible starch products from sago palms of the genus Metroxylon is common to indigenous people throughout Melanesia but is unknown in Polynesia, even in areas where Metroxylon species occur. We here report the use of Metroxylon as a starch source in the isolated Polynesian island of Rotuma. In Rotuma, Metroxylon warburgii (Heim) Beccari grows wild, but is likely the result of an aboriginal introduction from Melanesia. Samoan ethnohistorical accounts indicate that Metroxylon warburgii was introduced to Samoa from Rotuma. Rotuman manufacture of starch from M. warburgii appears to date from pre-European times as indicated by written accounts of early visitors to Rotuma and Rotuman oral histories. We provide details of the process of starch manufacture in Rotuma and speculate on possible means by which this technology was transferred from Melanesia to Rotuma.     

Language and Culture on the North Coast of New Guinea

Statistical analysis of variability in assemblages of material culture obtained at different villages on the North Coast of New Guinea indicates that similarities and differences among these assemblages are most strongly associated with geographic propinquity, irrespective of linguistic affinities. When assemblage similarity is adjusted for the effect of distance, diversity in material culture appears unrelated to the linguistic relationships of these communities. This study shows that similarity in material culture assemblages can mask marked heterogeneity in language. Language, however, is frequently used to index people in Melanesia on the assumption that language is a useful key to their other human characteristics. This analysis does not lend support to this common practice, and it has implications for how prehistoric cultural complexes in Melanesia are defined and interpreted.     

Globin genes in Micronesia: origins and affinities of Pacific Island peoples.

DNA polymorphisms and copy-number variants of alpha-, zeta-, and gamma-globin genes have been studied in seven Micronesian island populations and have been compared with those in populations from Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Micronesians are not significantly different from Polynesians at these loci and appear to be intermediate between Southeast Asians and Melanesians. There is evidence of significant Melanesian input into the Micronesian gene pool and of substantial proto-Polynesian contact with Melanesia.     

Two possible cases of trephination from Australia

Cranial surgery has been performed for thousands of years among a wide range of cultures. Although the extent of its use has varied, ethnographically the operation has almost always been used as a form of medical treatment following cranial trauma or as a remedy for head pain. This paper describes two cases of cranial trauma on Australian Aboriginal remains from widely separated areas of the continent. The position and morphology of the trauma, as well as other associated features, suggest that these individuals underwent some form of surgical procedure. The features are similar to those found on accepted cases of trephination from elsewhere. If these individuals did undergo some sort of trephination, they are the first to be reported from Australia. Confirmation of the diagnosis would also increase our understanding of the geographical range of the technique in this part of Oceania, which was known previously only from parts of Melanesia.     

Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An Exploration of the Comparative Method.

Gender in Amazonia and Melanesia: An Exploration of the Comparative Method. Thomas A. Gregory and Donald Tuzin. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. 392 pp.     

The colonization of the Pacific: the story according to human leukocyte antigens.

The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) distributions in 16 Pacific populations have been collated from published and unpublished reports. Gene frequency and linkage disequilibrium relationships among groups show that Australians and Papuans share a common ancestry, that coastal Melanesia has about 16% Austronesian admixture, and that Fiji is truly intermediate between Melanesia and Polynesia. In Polynesia, Cook Islanders show closer affinity with populations of Western Polynesia than with Maoris and Easter Islanders, in contrast to their linguistic affiliations, but otherwise HLA distributions show a clear division between the populations of Eastern and Western Polynesia. This study emphasizes the contribution the HLA system can make to anthropological studies and has provided a version of colonization of the Pacific compatible with theories based on prodigious efforts in many disciplines.     

Phylogeny and biogeography of the sandalwoods (Santalum, Santalaceae): repeated dispersals throughout the Pacific

Results of the first genus-wide phylogenetic analysis for Santalum (Santalaceae), using a combination of 18S-26S nuclear ribosomal (ITS, ETS) and chloroplast (3' trnK intron) DNA sequences, provide new perspectives on relationships and biogeographic patterns among the widespread and economically important sandalwoods. Congruent trees based on maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods support an origin of Santalum in Australia and at least five putatively bird-mediated, long-distance dispersal events out of Australia, with two colonizations of Melanesia, two of the Hawaiian Islands, and one of the Juan Fernandez Islands. The phylogenetic data also provide the best available evidence for plant dispersal out of the Hawaiian Islands to the Bonin Islands and eastern Polynesia. Inability to reject rate constancy of Santalum ITS evolution and use of fossil-based calibrations yielded estimates for timing of speciation and colonization events in the Pacific, with dates of 1.0-1.5 million yr ago (Ma) and 0.4-0.6 Ma for onset of diversification of the two Hawaiian lineages. The results indicate that the previously recognized sections Polynesica, Santalum, and Solenantha, the widespread Australian species S. lanceolatum, and the Hawaiian species S. freycinetianum are not monophyletic and need taxonomic revision, which is currently being pursued.     

Evolutionary history of a widespread Indo-Pacific goby: the role of Pleistocene sea-level changes on demographic contraction/expansion dynamics

Compared to endemics, widespread species are of particular interest to retrace recent evolutionary history. These species have a large population size which provides a clearer genetic signature of past events. Moreover, their wide geographic range increases the potential occurrence of evolutionary events (expansion, divergence, etc.). Here, we used several coalescent-based methods to disentangle the evolutionary history of a widespread amphidromous goby (Sicyopterus lagocephalus), in the light of sea-level variations during the Pleistocene. Using 75 samples recovered from three biogeographic regions (Western Indian Ocean, Melanesia and Polynesia), we analysed a portion of the cytochromeb gene and confirmed three major haplogroups, each specific to a region. Furthermore, we found that: (1) the Melanesian haplogroup was the oldest while the two peripheral regions hosted daughter haplogroups; (2) two centrifugal colonisation events occurred from Melanesia to the periphery, each synchronised with periods of strong paleo-ENSO episodes; (3) the demographic contraction-expansion events were linked to Pleistocene sea-level changes; (4) Melanesia and Polynesia acted as efficient refuges during the Last Glacial Maximum. These results highlight the importance of studying widespread species to better understand the role of climate changes and paleo-oceanography on the evolution of biodiversity.     

Lygosomine phylogeny and the origins of Australian scincid lizards

Aim Australian scincid lizards represent three distinct groups within the cosmopolitan clade Lygosominae, the Egernia, Eugongylus and Sphenomorphus groups. This paper presents a time‐calibrated phylogeny for Lygosominae that provides the necessary temporal framework for assessing the contributions of immigration from Asia and of Gondwanan inheritance in the derivation of the Australian scincid fauna. Location Australasia, Asia, Africa. Methods Phylogenetic relationships and divergence times were inferred from novel BDNF, c‐mos and PTPN12 sequences (2408 aligned sites). Results Lygosomine monophyly is well supported, and there is strong support for monophyly of the Egernia, Eugongylus and Sphenomorphus groups. A sister‐group relationship of Tribolonotus (distributed in Melanesia and the Papuan Region) and the Egernia group is strongly supported in both Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses. Australian representatives of the Sphenomorphus group compose a significantly supported clade estimated to have originated c. 25 Ma. An age of c. 18 Ma is inferred for a strongly supported clade comprising Australian representatives of the Egernia group; this clade diverged from Corucia zebrata (confined to the Solomon Islands) c. 25 Ma and from Tribolonotus c. 54 Ma. A well‐supported clade including all Australian Eugongylus group taxa sampled is estimated to have arisen c. 20 Ma. Main conclusions The Australian Sphenomorphus group is nested within the more inclusive Sphenomorphus group (distributed primarily in Asia and Australasia), suggesting comparatively recent descent from a colonizing Asian ancestor; the divergence times inferred here indicate that colonization occurred during the mid Cenozoic, subsequent to the rifting of Australia from Antarctica. An Oligocene origin of the extant Eugongylus group fauna of Australasia (the basal members of which are distributed in the Southwest Pacific) indicates that Eugongylus group lygosomines also dispersed to Australia relatively recently. The Egernia group diverged from Tribolonotus in the Early Eocene; however, extant Egernia group lygosomines originated only during the Late Oligocene, implying extensive pruning of stem taxa (i.e. extinction). As a result, inferences of the timing of dispersal into Australia are associated with substantial uncertainty, although independent palaeontological evidence suggests that the Egernia group entered Australia prior to the Oligocene, immediately after (or perhaps before) the separation of Australia and Antarctica.     

Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents, and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s–1930s

Hunting the Gatherers: Ethnographic Collectors, Agents, and Agency in Melanesia, 1870s–1930s. Michael O'Hanlon and Robert L. Welsch. eds. Salem: Peabody Essex Museum,2001 .268 pp.     

The origins of subsistence agriculture in Oceania and the potentials for future tropical food crops

Subsistence agriculture in the Pacific Islands has a complex prehistory centered on western Melanesia. Based on an analysis of cultigen provenience, a sequential model of a three-tiered crop structure of indigenous agricultural systems has been derived: (1) The independent early domestication of endemic species in the New Guinea region; (2) introduction of species from Southeast Asia; (3) the advent of American crop plants. The temporal sequence has archaeological and linguistic confirmation of 10 000 years ago for the beginnings of agriculture, 6000 years for Southeast Asian introduction, with the sweet potato contributing in Polynesia in prehistory, and in Melanesia only in post-Columbian times. Recent research directed toward issues of domestication in New Guinea and subsistence prehistory in Australia on three genera,Canarium, Colocasia andIpomoea, exemplify under-recognized resources with quite different potentials for economic botany. Unlike past exploitation of indigenous plant resources, future users of plants such as those exemplified, and especially where commercialization is involved, cannot avoid addressing intellectual property rights that pertain to species domesticated, selected or conserved by peoples of the non-industri-alized world.     

Affinities among Melanesians,Micronesians, and Polynesians: a neutral biparental genetic perspective

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.