Open AccessLack of correspondence between Asian-Papuan genetic admixture and Austronesian language dispersal in eastern Indonesia
Author(s) -
Tim Denham,
Mark Donohue
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.1209616109
Subject(s) - biological dispersal , austronesian languages , geography , hominidae , evolutionary biology , anthropology , biology , linguistics , biological evolution , genetics , demography , sociology , population , philosophy
Xu et al. (1) argued that a west-east cline of Asian-Papuan genetic admixture across eastern Indonesia “is in excellent agreement with inferences” (ref. 1, p. 4574) regarding the expansion of Austronesian languages from Taiwan across Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) from circa 4,000 y ago. They identify two major genetic populations within ISEA, “Asian” and “Papuan,” which allegedly reflect Austronesian language expansion and New Guinea influences, respectively. However, humans initially occupied ISEA over 50,000 y ago, yet no trace of their genetic signal seemingly survives in modern-day populations. This erasure of preexisting ISEA ancestry in their study contradicts previous findings (2) and requires inclusion of …
Accelerating Research
Robert Robinson Avenue,
Oxford Science Park, Oxford
OX4 4GP, United Kingdom
Address
John Eccles HouseRobert Robinson Avenue,
Oxford Science Park, Oxford
OX4 4GP, United Kingdom