Re: puzzle of the negrito: isolated archaic populations

Gerold Firl (
6 Dec 1996 22:33:25 GMT

In article <589qd4$>, (Philip Deitiker) writes:
|> (Gerold Firl) wrote:

|> >Remnant populations of small, frizzy-haired, forest-dwelling peoples
|> >still exist (or did within the last century) in isolated pockets
|> >throughout asia, from the phillipines, malaysia, indonesia, the
|> >andaman islands, and possibly india as well. Average height for men
|> >ranged from around 4 1/2 feet to just under 5, leading to the name
|> >"negrito", and begging the question of relations to the african
|> >pygmies. How did the negritos come to be?

|> Gerald, wake up! This one has actually been addressed. The population
|> found in the Solomon islands and adjacent areas turn out to be about
|> 45,000 year old isolates of the first groups to enter asia.

Aren't the solomon islanders melanesian? Both melanesians and negrito
have kinky hair, but it seems a bit premature to link them purely on
that basis.

Also, h. erectus first entered asia about a million years ago. There
has been a whole lot of evolution going on since. This area of the
world is one of the places which makes the out-of-africa/genocide
hypothesis look very questionable.

There is a
|> synapsis on this in Science, about a year ago. The gene studies
|> haven't been done for all, but I beleive three of the populations have
|> been identified. Ironically, I think the data shows that these peoples
|> are the most diverged from from current african populations, basically
|> showing that when it comes to genetic makeup, inheritiance can be
|> deceiving.

I'm not sure which populations you refer to - melanesian? negrito?
papuan? australian? vedda? And which african populations - negro or

It wouldn't be surprising if the blue-water island populations prove
to be modern, recent isolates. The polynesian settlements are *very*
recent, and open-ocean technology is viewed with scepticism anywhere
beyond 40,000 b.p. or so. Java, on the other hand, had residant
hominids a million years ago; during a glacial maximum, many of the
indonesian islands aren't islands anymore. Once the ice melts,
however, mountains turn into islands, providing a refuge for archaic
remnant populations; if this puzzle really has been solved, I'd love
to hear more about it.
