Premium
Human Genetics, Paleoenvironments, and Malaria: Relationships and Implications for the Settlement of Oceania
Author(s) -
Clark Jeffrey T.,
Kelly Kevin M.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1525/aa.1993.95.3.02a00040
Subject(s) - austronesian languages , archipelago , prehistory , geography , settlement (finance) , archaeology , human settlement , ethnology , history , linguistics , philosophy , payment , world wide web , computer science
Lapita is a distinctive ceramic style that first appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago about 3600 B.P. and over the next few centuries spread throughout island Melanesia. For many prehistorians the distribution of Lapita sherds identifies the expansion of Austronesian‐speaking populations through Oceania. This article addresses the Lapita language question by exploring the implications of the relationship among gamma globulin (Gm) genetics, paleoenvironments, malaria, natural selection, and prehistoric settlement patterns. Archeological sites with Lapita ceramics are consistently located in coastal lowlands, which in some parts of Oceania would have been malarious areas. Drawing on recent evidence that Austronesian‐speaking populations in Near Oceania possess a genetic advantage over Non‐Austronesian speakers with regard to malaria, we contend that Austronesian speakers have been able to occupy—on a permanent basis—malarious coastal lowlands that were detrimental to Non‐Austronesian speakers. It follows, therefore, that the inhabitants of those Lapita sites spoke one or more of the Austronesian languages.