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3 - Biocultural adaptation and population connectedness in the Asia-Pacific region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2009

By
Ryutaro Ohtsuka
Edited by
Ryutaro Ohtsuka  and
Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Ryutaro Ohtsuka
Affiliation:
National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba City, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan
Ryutaro Ohtsuka
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo
Stanley J. Ulijaszek
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

Introduction

This chapter focuses on physiological adaptations of speakers of Non-Austronesian (NAN) and Austronesian (AN) languages in space and time, with some reference to Aboriginal Australian populations. The language-based dichotomous classification of Oceanian populations into the NAN and AN language groups has been, in general, in agreement with biological traits observed in either (Kirk and Szathmary 1985; Hill and Serjeantson 1989; Attenborough and Alpers 1992; Yoshida et al. 1995; Ohashi et al. 2000, 2003). In relation to colonization histories, the descendants of first-wave migrants belong to the NAN language group. Their ancestors reached Sahul Land from Asia, subsequently some of them dispersing into present-day Australia, becoming Aboriginal Australians. Second-wave migrants and their descendants, represented by Lapita people, were and continue to be AN speakers. The Lapita people dispersed later from their homeland in island Melanesia in Near Oceania (Green 1991) into Remote Oceania, or islands in South East Melanesia as well as Polynesia and Micronesia. The extent of admixture of NAN and AN language groups in island Melanesia and later in wider Melanesia remains debated, however. As demonstrated by several studies (Serjeantson et al. 1983; Friedlaender 1987), genetic traits and languages do not always correlate, due to replacement of languages and/or pidginization or creolization of the languages themselves; for similar reasons, links between Aboriginal Australian languages and NAN languages have scarcely been found (Foley 1986).

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Health Change in the Asia-Pacific Region , pp. 44 - 63
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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