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Re: puzzle of the negrito: isolated archaic populations
Philip Deitiker (pdeitik@bcm.tmc.edu)
Fri, 06 Dec 1996 19:55:48 GMT
geroldf@sdd.hp.com (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. 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.
Philip
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