Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T07:35:02.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
Get access

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).

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, B. (1983). Human geography of Papua New Guinea. Journal of Human Evolution 12, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, J. and Gosden, C. (1996). Spheres of interaction and integration. In Oceanic Culture History: Essays in Honour of Roger Green, ed. Davidson, J., Irwin, G., Leach, F., Pawley, A. and Brown, D.. Dunedin: New Zealand Journal of Archaeology, pp. 183–97.Google Scholar
Ataka, Y. and Ohtsuka, R. (2000). Resource use of a fishing community on Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea: comparison with a neighboring horticultural-fishing community. Man and Culture in Oceania 16, 123–34.Google Scholar
Attenborough, R. D. and Alpers, M. P. (eds.) (1992). Human Biology in Papua New Guinea: The Small Cosmos. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bayliss-Smith, T. P. (1977). Human ecology and island populations: the problem of change. In Subsistence and Survival: Rural Ecology in the Pacific, ed. Bayliss-Smith, T. P. and Feachem, R.. London: Academic Press, pp. 11–20.Google Scholar
Beizer, R. A. (1990). Prevalence of abnormal glucose tolerance in six Solomon Islands populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 81, 471–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bellwood, P. (1991). Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Halmahera Island Group, Maluku Utara, Indonesia. Mimeo.
Brown, P. and Podolefsky, A. (1976). Population density, agricultural intensity, land tenure and group size in the New Guinea highlands. Ethnology 15, 211–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Busfield, F., Duffy, D. L., Kesting, J. B., et al. (2002). A genomewide search for type 2 diabetes: susceptibility genes in indigenous Australians. American Journal of Human Genetics 70, 349–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Craig, P., Halavatau, V., Comino, E. and Caterson, I. (2001). Differences in body composition between Tongans and Australians: time to rethink the healthy weight ranges?International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 25, 1806–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daniel, M., Rowley, K. G., McDermott, R., Mylvaganam, A. and O'Dea, K. (1999). Diabetes incidence in an Australian Aboriginal population: an 8-year follow-up study. Diabetes Care 22, 1993–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniel, M., Rowley, K. G., McDermott, R. and O'Dea, K. (2002). Diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in Aboriginal Australians: prevalence and risk. Diabetes Research in Clinical Practice 57, 23–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denoon, D. (1997). Production in Pacific Eden? Myths and realities of primitive affluence. In The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders, ed. Denoon, D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deurenberg-Yap, M., Chew, S. K. and Deurenberg, P. (2002). Elevated body fat percentage and cardiovascular risks at low body mass index levels among Singaporean Chinese, Malays and Indians. Obesity Reviews 3, 209–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellen, R. F. (1993).The Cultural Relations of Classification: An Analysis of Nuaulu Animal Categories from Central Serum. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feil, D. K. (1987). The Evolution of Highland Papua New Guinea Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finney, B. R. (1994). Polynesian voyagers to the New World. Man and Culture in Oceania 10, 1–13.Google Scholar
Flach, M. and Rumawas, F. (eds.) (1996). Plant Resources of South-East Asia No. 9: Plants Yielding Non-seed Carbohydrates. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers.Google Scholar
Foley, W. (1986). The Papuan Languages of New Guinea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Friedlaender, J. S. (ed.) (1987). The Solomon Islands Project: A Long-term Study of Health, Human Biology, and Culture Change. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Glover, I. C. (1971). Prehistoric research in Timor. In Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia, ed. Mulvaney, D. J. and Golson, J.. Canberra: Australian National University Press, pp. 158–81.Google Scholar
Golson, J. (1977). No room at the top: agricultural intensification in the New Guinea Highlands. In Sunda and Sahul: Prehistoric Studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia, ed. Allen, J., Golson, J. and Jones, R.. London: Academic Press, pp. 601–38.Google Scholar
Golson, J. and Gardner, D. (1990). Agriculture and sociopolitical organization in New Guinea Highlands prehistory. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 19, 395–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gorman, G. (1977). A priori models and Thai prehistory: a reconsideration of the beginnings of agriculture in Southeastern Asia. In Origins of Agriculture, ed. Reed, C. A.. The Hague: Mouton, pp. 321–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, R. C. (1991). Near and Remote Oceania: disestablishing “Melanesia” in culture history. In Man and a Half: Essays in Pacific Anthropology and Ethnobotany in Honour of Ralph Bulmer, ed. Pawley, A.. Auckland: Polynesian Society, pp. 491–502.Google Scholar
Groube, L. M. (1989). The taming of the rain forests: a model for late Pleistocene forest exploitation in New Guinea. In Foraging and Farming: The Evolution of Plant Exploitation, ed. Harris, D. R. and Hillman, D. C.. London: Unwin, pp. 292–304.Google Scholar
Groube, L. M.(1993). Contradictions and malaria in Melanesian and Australian prehistory. In Sahul in Review: Pleistocene Archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and Island Melanesia, ed. Smith, M. A., Spriggs, M. and Frankhause, B.. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Australian National University, pp. 164–86.Google Scholar
Hanson, L. W., Allen, B. J., Bourke, R. M. and McCarthy, T. J. (2001). Papua New Guinea Rural Development Handbook. Canberra: The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Hide, R. (2003). Pig Husbandry in New Guinea: A Literature Review and Bibliography. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.Google Scholar
Hill, A. V. S. and Serjeantson, S. W. (eds.) (1989). The Colonization of the Pacific: A Genetic Trail. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Horai, S., Odani, S., Nakazawa, M. and Ohtsuka, R. (1996). The origin and dispersal of modern humans as viewed from mitochondrial DNA. Gann Monograph of Cancer Research 44, 97–105.Google Scholar
Horridge, A. (1995). The Austronesian conquest of the sea – upwind. In The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. Bellwood, P., Fox, J. J. and Trion, D.. Canberra: The Australian National University, pp. 134–51.Google Scholar
Houghton, P. (1991). Selective influences and morphological variation amongst Pacific Homo sapiens. Journal of Human Evolution 21, 49–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inaoka, T., Ohtsuka, R., Kawabe, T., Hongo, T. and Suzuki, T. (1996). Emergence of degenerative diseases in Papua New Guinea islanders. Environmental Sciences 4, 79–93.Google Scholar
Ingman, M. and Cyllensten, U. (2003). Mitochondrial genome variation and evolutionary history of Australian and New Guinea aborigines. Genome Research 13, 1600–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Intoh, M. (1997). Human dispersal into Micronesia. Anthropological Science 105, 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R. (1980). Hunters in Australian coastal savanna. In Human Ecology in Savanna Environments, ed. Harris, D. R.. New York: Academic Press, pp. 107–46.Google Scholar
Katayama, K. (1996). Polynesians the hypermorphic Asiatics: a scenario on prehistoric Mongoloid dispersals into Oceania. Anthropological Science 104, 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, H. (1992). The epidemiology of diabetes mellitus in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific: adverse consequences of natural selection in the face of sociocultural change. In Human Biology in Papua New Guinea: The Small Cosmos, ed. Attenborough, R. D. and Alpers, M. P.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 363–72.Google Scholar
King, H., Heywood, P., Zimmet, P., et al. (1984). Glucose tolerance in a highland population in Papua New Guinea. Diabetes Research 1, 45–51.Google Scholar
King, H., Finch, C., Collins, A., et al. (1989). Glucose tolerance in Papua New Guinea: ethnic differences, association with environmental and behavioural factors and the possible emergence of glucose intolerance in a highland community. Medical Journal of Australia 21, 204–10.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. (1988). Polynesia's mystery islands. Archaeology 41, 26–31.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V.(2000). On the Road of the Wind: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kirk, R. and Szathmary, E. (eds.) (1985). Out of Asia: Peopling the Americas and the Pacific. Canberra: The Journal of Pacific History.Google Scholar
Kuchikura, Y. (1994). A comparative study of subsistence patterns in Papua New Guinea. Bulletin of the Faculty of General Education, Gifu University 30, 41–89.Google Scholar
McCarthy, F. D. and McArthur, M. (1960). The food quest and the time factor in aboriginal economic life. In Records of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, Vol. 2: Anthropology and Nutrition, ed. Mountford, C. P.. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, pp. 145–94.Google Scholar
Monk, K. A., Fretes, Y. and Reksodiharjo-Lilley, G. (1997). The Ecology of Indonesia Series, Vol. 5: The Ecology of Nusa Tenggara and Maluku. Halifax: Dalhousie University.Google Scholar
Nakazawa, M., Ohtsuka, R., Kawabe, T., et al. (1996). Iron nutrition and anaemia in a malaria – endemic environment: Haematological investigation of the Gidra – speaking population in lowland Papua New Guinea. British Journal of Nutrition 76, 333–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Natsuhara, K., Inaoka, T., Umezaki, M., et al. (2000). Cardiovascular risk factors of migrants in Port Moresby from the highlands and island villages, Papua New Guinea. American Journal of Human Biology 12, 655–64.3.0.CO;2-X>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neel, J. V. (1962). Diabetes mellitus: a thrifty genotype rendered detrimental by ‘progress’?American Journal of Human Genetics 14, 353–62.Google Scholar
O'Dea, K. (1991). Westernisation, insulin resistance and diabetes in Australian aborigines. Medical Journal of Australia 155, 258–64.Google ScholarPubMed
Ohashi, J., Yoshida, M., Ohtsuka, R., et al. (2000). Analysis of HLA-DRB1 polymorphism in the Gidra of Papua New Guinea. Human Biology 72, 337–47.Google ScholarPubMed
Ohashi, J., Naka, I., Ohtsuka, R., et al. (2003). Molecular polymorophism of ABO blood group gene in Austronesian and non-Austronesian populations in Oceania. Tissue Antigens 63, 355–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohtsuka, R. (1983). Oriomo Papuans: Ecology of Sago-Eaters in Lowland Papua. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Ohtsuka, R.(1993). Changing food and nutrition of the Gidra in lowland Papua New Guinea. In Tropical Forests, People and Food: Biocultural Interaction and Application to Development, ed. Hladik, C. M., Hladik, O. F., Pagezy, H., Semple, A. and Hadley, M.. Paris: UNESCO, pp. 259–69.Google Scholar
Ohtsuka, R.(1994). Subsistence ecology and carrying capacity in two Papua New Guinea populations. Journal of Biosocial Science 26, 395–407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ohtsuka, R. and Suzuki, T. (eds.) (1990). Population Ecology of Human Survival: Bioecological Studies of the Gidra in Papua New Guinea. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.Google Scholar
Pawley, A. K. and Ross, M. (1993). Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history. Annual Reviews of Anthropology 22, 425–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, I. D. (1983). Population change and distribution in Papua New Guinea: an epidemiological approach. Journal of Human Evolution 12, 125–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, I. D. and Lehmann, D. (1992). The demography of Papua New Guinea: migration, fertility, and mortality patterns. In Human Biology in Papua New Guinea: The Small Cosmos, ed. Attenborough, R. D. and Alpers, M. P.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 67–92.Google Scholar
Rowland, I. (1992). Timor: Including Islands of Roti and Ndao. Oxford: Clio Press.Google Scholar
Serjeantson, S. W., Kirk, R. L. and Booth, P. B. (1983). Linguistic and genetic differentiation in New Guinea. Journal of Human Evolution 12, 77–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sillitoe, P. (1988). Made in Niugini: Technology in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. London: The Trustees of the British Museum.Google Scholar
Simmons, D., Thompson, C. F. and Volklander, D. (2001). Polynesians: prone to obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus but not hyperinsulinaemia. Diabetes Medicine 18, 193–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, J. E. (1963). The migration of rice from mainland Southeast Asia into Indonesia. In Plants and the Migration of Pacific Peoples, ed. Barrau, J.. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, pp. 83–9.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. (1997). Recent prehistory (the Holocene). In The Cambridge History of the Pacific Islanders, ed. Denoon, D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 52–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanhope, J. M. (1970). Patterns of fertility and mortality in rural New Guinea. New Guinea Bulletin 34, 24–41.Google Scholar
Suda, K. (1997). Dietary change among the Kubo of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, between 1988 and 1994. Man and Culture in Oceania 13, 83–98.Google Scholar
Swadling, P. (1983). How Long Have People Been in the Ok Tedi Impact Region? Papua New Guinea National Museum Record No. 8, Port Moresby.Google Scholar
Tanaka, M., Umezaki, M., Natsuhara, K., et al. (2005). No difference in serum leptin concentrations between urban-dwelling Austronesians and Non-Austronesians in Papua New Guinea. American Journal of Human Biology 17, 696–703.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townsend, P. K. (1971). New Guinea sago gatherers: a study of demography in relation to subsistence. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 1, 19–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ulijaszek, S. J. (2001). Sago, economic change and nutrition in Papua New Guinea. In New Frontiers of Sago Palm Studies, ed. Kainuma, K., Okazaki, M., Toyoda, Y. and Cecil, J. E.. Tokyo: Universal Academy Press, pp. 219–26.Google Scholar
Umezaki, M., Yamauchi, T. and Ohtsuka, R. (1999). Diet among the Huli in Papua New Guinea Highlands when they were influenced by the extended rainy period. Ecology of Food and Nutrition 37, 409–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Umezaki, M., Yamauchi, T. and Ohtsuka, R.(2002). Time allocation to subsistence activities among the Huli in rural and urban Papua New Guinea. Journal of Biosocial Science 34, 133–7.Google ScholarPubMed
Baal, J. (1961). Review of peoples of the Tor. Nieuw Guinea Studiën 5, 339–42.Google Scholar
White, J. P. and O'Connell, J. F. (1982). A Prehistory of Australian, New Guinea and Sahul. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Yamauchi, T., Umezaki, M. and Ohtsuka, R. (2001). Influence of urbanisation on physical activity and dietary changes in Huli-speaking population: a comparative study of village dwellers and migrants in urban settlements. British Journal of Nutrition 85, 65–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yoshida, M., Ohtsuka, R., Nakazawa, M., Juji, T. and Tokunaga, K. (1995). HLA-DRB1 frequencies of non-Austronesian-speaking Gidra in south New Guinea and their genetic affinities with Oceanian populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 96, 177–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×