<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> David Chen

David Chen

 

Autosomal STR Analysis by DNA Tribes

Native Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian, Jilin), Thailand, Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Northeast China, China, Korea, Gadaba Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Hong Kong), Cambodia, Korea.

Global Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian), Thailand, Asian (Canada), Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Singapore), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Chinese (Malaysia), Northeast China, China, Korea, East Indian (Canada).

World Region Match: Japanese, Southeast Asian, Chinese, North African, India, North India, India Tribal, Asia Minor, Mongolian, Malay Archipelago, Mediterranean, Tibetan, Arabian, Eatern European, Northweat European, Mestizo, Finno-Ugrian.

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Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Native Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian, Jilin), Thailand, Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Northeast China, China, Korea, Gadaba Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Hong Kong), Cambodia, Korea.

 

Yi

photo by yi.peoples.org

The Yi people (彝族; the older name "Lolo" or "Luoluo" is now considered derogatory in China, though used officially in Vietnam as Lô Lô and in Thailand as Lolo) are a modern ethnic group in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. Numbering 8 million, they are the seventh largest of the 55 minor ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. They live primarily in rural areas of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi, usually in mountainous regions. There are 3300 Lô Lô peoples (1999 statistics) living in Hà Giang, Cao Bằng and Lào Cai provinces in northeastern Vietnam.

The Yi speak Yi, a Tibeto-Burman language closely related to Burmese, which is written in the Yi script.

The Chinese government has grouped the Nisu, Nasu, Sani, Axi, Lolopo, Pu, and scores of other peoples speaking more than six completely distinct languages with dozens of dialects into a single group called the Yi. Because of this, a Yi from one area may not be able to communicate with a Yi from another area; and may or may not even agree that they both are Yi. Most Yi are farmers; herders of cattle, sheep and goats; and nomadic hunters. Only about one third of the Yi are literate. Most have no written language.

Of the over 8 million Yi people, over 4.5 million live in Yunnan Province, 2.5 million live in southern Sichuan Province, and 1 million live in the northwest corner of Guizhou Province. Nearly all the Yi live in mountainous areas, often carving out their existence on the sides of steep mountain slopes far from the cities of China.

Legend has it that the Yi are descended from the ancient Qiang people of today's Western China, who are also said to be the ancestors of the Tibetan, Naxi and Qiang peoples. They migrated from Southeastern Tibet through Sichuan and into Yunnan Province, where their largest populations can be found today.

The Qiang people (羌族) are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, with a population of approximately 200,000 living in northwestern Sichuan province. Nowadays, the Qiang are only a small segment of the population, but they are commonly believed to be an old, once strong and populous people whose history can be traced to the Shang Dynasty and whose offspring include the Tibetans and many minorities in southwestern China.

In ancient China, Qiang was usually used as a generic term for the non-Han peoples in the northwest. These peoples were frequently at war with the inhabitants of the Yellow River valley, the ancestors of ethnic Hans. Not until the rise of the state of Qin under Duke Mu was the Qiang expansion effectively checked.

The structure of the graph 羌 also reflects this view. It was composed of two elements: 人 (man) and 羊 (sheep), suggesting a sheep-herding people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and Wei-Jin periods (221-419), Qiang were widely distributed along the mountainous fringes of the northern and eastern Tibetan Plateau, from the Kunlun Mountains (崑崙山) in Xinjiang province, and eastern Qinghai area, to southern Gansu, western Sichuan, and northern Yunnan.

Later, the Chinese restricted the term Qiang min 羌民 to refer to sinicized non-Han living in the Min River valley in Sichuan and used the term Fan Qiang 番羌 (barbarian Qiang) to refer to less sinicized non-Han living in the vicinity.

At the legendary time when the Qiang people moved into Sichuan from Tibet, they placed white stones on every hilltop and crossroads , for they did not want to forget the route leading back to their original homeland. These piles of white stones also acts as a token of their affection for their homeland and the people they left behind at the same time.

Haplogroup N1* reaches a frequency of up to 30% among the Yi, a Tibeto-Burman-speaking population of southwestern China. It has also been detected in Japan as high as 2/26=7.7% in Aomori, and as high as 1/25=4% in a sample of Koreans in China. Haplogroup N1* has also been found in samples of Han Chinese, but with widely varying frequency: 15.0% (6/40) Southern Han, 6.8% (3/44) Northern Han, 3.6% (3/84) non-aboriginal Taiwanese, 3.0% (5/166) Han. Other populations in which representatives of haplogroup N1* have been found include Hani (4/34 = 11.8%), Sibe (4/41 = 9.8%), Tujia (2/49 = 4.1%), Manchu (2/52 = 3.8% - 2/35 = 5.7%), Uyghur (2/70 = 2.9% - 2/67 = 3.0%), Tibetan (3/105 = 2.9% - 3/35 = 8.6%), Vietnamese (2/70 = 2.9%), Manchurian Evenk (0/26 = 0.0% - 1/41 = 2.4%), and Altai (1/98 = 1.0%).

Subclades of Haplogroup NO (Y-DNA):

 

Perspectives on the Yi of Southwest China by Stevan Harrell

 

 

 

 

 

* Distributions of HLA-A and -B Alleles and Haplotypes in the Yi Ethnic Minority of Yunnan, China: Relationship to other populations by Bo-feng Zhu, et. al.

Objective: To investigate the distributions of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A and -B alleles and HLA-A-B haplotypes in the Yi ethnic minority of the Yunnan Province, situated in southwestern China. Methods: DNA typing for HLA-A and -B loci was performed using the polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based typing (PCR-SBT) method on 114 randomly selected healthy individuals of the Yi population. The allelic frequencies of HLA-A and -B loci were calculated by direct counting and HLA-A-B haplotypes were estimated using the expectation maximization algorithm. Results: A total of 17 HLA-A and 38 HLA-B alleles were found in the Yi population. The most frequent alleles were A*2402 (32.46%), A*1101 (26.32%), and A*0203 (10.09%) at the HLA-A locus and B*4601 (12.28%), B*1525 (10.09%), B*4001 (8.77%), and B*3802 (7.89%) at the HLA-B locus. The predominant HLA-A-B haplotypes were A*2402-B*1525 (7.86%) and A*0203-B*3802 (5.64%), followed by A*1101-B*4001 (4.69%). Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the Yi population in the Honghe, Yunnan Province of China basically belongs to groups of southeastern Asian origin, but shares some characteristics with northeastern Asian groups. Conclusion: The present study may add to the understanding of HLA polymorphism in the Yi ethnic group that was poorly defined previously, and provide useful information for bone marrow transplantation, anthropological research, and forensic sciences as well as for disease-association studies.

 

* Analysis of HLA-DRB1,DQB1 Allele Polymorphism in the Kunming Yi Nationality Population by G. Wen, et al.

Conclusion: The distribution of HLA-DRB1, DQB1 allele polymorphism in the Kunming Yi nationality population is distinctive. It is neither like that in the South Han population nor like that in the North Han population.

 

* Genetic Polymorphism of Mitochondrial DNA in Dong, Gelao, Tujia, and Yi Ethnic Populations from Guizhou, China by Binbin Li, et al.

Abstract: To reveal the genetic structures and relationships of the four ethnic populations from the maternal inheritance and explore the origins and migrations of nationalities, the genetic polymorphism of mtDNA in Dong, Gelao, Tujia, and Yi populations from Guizhou was studied by direct sequencing of hypervariable segmentⅠ(HVSⅠ) and PCR-RFLP of coding region. Thirty-seven (sub-) haplogroups were identified in the classification tree of mtDNA haplogroups. Haplogroup distributions and principal component (PC) analysis showed that the Dong has high frequencies of south-prevalent haplogroups, which indicates that it is a typically southern population. The Yi harbors high frequencies of the south-prevalent and northern-prevalent haplogroups, which demonstrates that it inherits the maternal characteristics from both southern and northern populations. The Yi and Gelao cluster together, the reason for which might be that their ancestries frequently underwent gene exchanges and mixtures.

 

* Genetic Relationships of Ethnic Minorities in Southwest China Revealed by Microsatellite Markers by Hongbin Lin, et al.

Unrooted Neighbor-joining Tree Constructed with DA Distances (full-loci dataset)

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Native Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian, Jilin), Thailand, Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Northeast China, China, Korea, Gadaba Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Hong Kong), Cambodia, Korea.

World Region Match: Japanese, Southeast Asian, Chinese, North African, India, North India, India Tribal, Asia Minor, Mongolian, Malay Archipelago, Mediterranean, Tibetan, Arabian, Eatern European, Northweat European, Mestizo, Finno-Ugrian.

 

Japanese People

The Japanese people are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. The term "Japanese people" may also be used in some contexts to refer to a locus of ethnic groups including the Yamato people, Ainu people, and Ryukyuans.

The Japanese language is a Japonic language that is usually treated as a language isolate, although it is also related to the Okinawan language (Ryukyuan), and both are suggested to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.

A recent study for the origins of Japanese people is based on the "dual structure model" proposed by Hanihara in 1991. He concludes that modern Japanese lineages consist of the original Jōmon people and immigrants from the Yayoi period. The Jōmon people originated in southeast Asia, moving to the Japanese Archipelago in the Palaeolithic period. In past several decades, the Japanese people was proposed to relate to Yi, Hani and Dai people (The Dai people form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China, and are closely related to the Thai people who form a majority in Thailand.) based on folk customs or genetic evidences.

Another southeast Asian group moved to northeastern Asia. The population of this group increased in the Neolithic period and some moved to the archipelago during the Yayoi period. The miscegenation prevailed in Kyūshū, Shikoku and Honshū islands but not in Okinawa and Hokkaido, respectively represented by the Ryukyuan and Ainu people. This theory was based on the study of the development of human bones and teeth. The comparison of mitochondrial DNA between Jōmon people and medieval Ainu also supports the theory.

Masatoshi Nei opposed the "dual structure model" and alleged that the genetic distance data shows the origin of Japanese was in northeast Asia, moving to Japan perhaps more than thirty thousand years ago.

 

* Formosa Betrayed by George H. Kerr

Excerpt: A seesaw conflict between this island world and the continent has been in evidence for at least two thousand years. The earliest Chinese notices of Formosa indicate that it was sparsely settled by fierce non-Chinese barbarians long before the Chinese themselves pushed southward from their homeland in the Yellow River basin to settle along the Fukien coast. These savages of a southern origin crossed the channel from time to time to plunder coastal villages or to seek a barter trade. The Chinese in turn sent out expeditions to punish them or to explore the distant island shores. In time a small settlement of Chinese fishermen appeared in the Pescadores but there were no significant attempts to displace the Formosan aborigines or to found permanent Chinese settlements on Formosa until the way had been prepared by others.

Japanese merchants and pirates appear to have been the first to establish small immigrant villages. For centuries they were sailing past Formosa to the China ports, to Southeast Asia and the Indies. In times of storm or when in need of supply or ship's repair they took shelter in the lagoons and inlets along Formosa's western shore. At last a considerable Japanese settlement (which they named Takasago) came into being at a point not far distant from present-day Tainan.

Then came the Spanish and the Dutch. When Japan's great dictator Hideyoshi menaced Luzon, late in the 1500's, Spain's Viceroy at Manila proposed to occupy Formosa. In 1626 Spanish forts and missions were established at Keelung and Tamsui on the island's northern tip. Meanwhile the Dutch had reached the Pescadores, seeking a naval base from which to harass Portuguese trade at Macao and to interfere with the Spanish shipping near the Philippines. In 1623 they abandoned Makung and moved to Formosa proper, founding Anping and the present-day city of Tainan. They sometimes quarreled with the Japanese nearby, but Takasago village faded rapidly after the home government adopted its Seclusion policies forbidding Japanese to travel overseas. In 1642 the Dutch Protestants drove the Spanish Catholics from their narrow foothold at the north, and for twenty years thereafter held the island without serious challenge.

This might well be called Formosa's "European half-century," for the colony prospered as the Dutch created Formosa's first government, established schools and missions for the aborigines, opened up the countryside for agriculture and sent missionaries far back into the mountains. Thus in the second quarter of the 17th century European arms and administration opened the way for Chinese immigration. At that time Ming China was torn by civil rebellion and pressed hard by enemies from beyond the Great Wall. Everywhere local warlords and imperial agents extorted unreasonable taxes and tribute from the common people in an effort to support a tottering central government. Ignoring strict official edicts banning emigration, villagers, farmers and fishermen began to leave the country. The government considered them traitors, renegades and outlaws. Thousands went overseas to Java and Malaya, Borneo, Siam and the Philippines. Tens of thousands made their way across the water barrier to Formosa, so conveniently near - too near, as they were soon to learn.

These "outlaws" were the ancestors of the majority of people living on Formosa today. They were hardy pioneers, bold and adventurous. Those who sought new land beyond the limits of Dutch administration were on a true frontier; their contemporaries in faraway America provide a close parallel if one is needed to illustrate the situation. Going into their new fields they had to carry weapons as well as farm-tools, and they dwelt within stockades. The aborigines contested every advance into the hills, and the Chinese newcomers, on their part, considered the savages to be subhuman, or "non-people" who should be driven back into the highest mountains if they could not be exterminated in the foothills ....

 

Taiwan Under Japanese Rule

Map of the Japanese Empire (Map by Bamse)

The Japanese colonial period, Japanese rule in the context of Taiwan's history, refers to the period between 1895 and 1945 during which Taiwan was a Japanese colony. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century.

As Taiwan was Japan's first overseas colony, Japanese intentions were to turn the island into a showpiece "model colony". As a result, much effort was made to improve the island's economy, industry, public works and change its culture.

The relative failures of immediate post-World War II rule by the Kuomintang led to a certain degree of nostalgia amongst the older generation of Taiwanese who experienced both. This has affected, to some degree, issues such as national identity, ethnic identity and the Taiwan independence movement.

 

Koxinga

Koxinga (國姓爺) is the customary Western spelling of the popular appellation of Zheng Chenggong (鄭成功), a military leader who was born in 1624 in Hirado, Japan to Zheng Zhilong, a Chinese merchant/pirate, and his Japanese wife and died in 1662 on the island of Formosa (Taiwan).

A Ming loyalist and the arch commander of the Ming troops on the maritime front for the later monarchs of the withering dynasty, the Koxinga devoted the last 16 years of his life to resisting the conquest of China by the Manchus of Qing Dynasty. Upon defeating the forces of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) on Formosa in his last campaign in 1661-1662, the Koxinga took over the island in order to support his grand campaign against the Manchu-ruled Qing Dynasty. After the Koxinga's death, however, his son and successor, Zheng Jing (鄭經), gradually became the ruler of an independent Kingdom of Tungning, the first Chinese state to rule the island.

The Kingdom of Tungning ( 東寧王國) was a government that ruled Taiwan between 1661 and 1683.

 

* The Biological Evidence of the San-pau-chi People and Their Affinities by Hsiu-Man Lin

Excerpts: For the study of ancient DNA, only six individuals (G17 II B1 – 138 bps, H15 II B8 – 133 bps, H16 II B6 – 178 bps, H16 II B8 – 176 bps, H17 II B3 – 211 bps, and J17 II B4 – 154 bps) were used for distance analysis because of the longer length of the preserved portions of their HV1 sequences and it reveals a close relationship between the SPC sample and Japanese. However, this result should be taken with extreme cautions given the tiny sample size and sequence length, and the fact the ancient DNA results for SPC could not be independently confirmed. None (0 of n=12) of the SPC sample has the 9-bp deletion, a typical haplogroup for Polynesians. Although most of the positive PCR re-amplifications show negative reactions for restriction analyses of A, B, ,C, D, F, H, and M, six individuals were assigned to A (n=2), C (n=2), H (n=1), and M (n=1). Additionally, the rate of successful DNA extraction using teeth was much higher than that by using bones, although they are mostly fragments in terms of successful amplification of the entire HV1 sequence.

In conclusion, the dental evidence (Sinodonty) in this project seems to suggest a Northern Asian affinity for the SPC people, which is unexpected and varies from previously proposed models of Austronesian dispersals. The ancient DNA evidence is, unfortunately, too poor to clearly support or refute the result from dental analysis. The dental results differ from any of original hypotheses of this project for the role of Taiwan in Austronesian migrations. Interestingly, however, the dental results accord with result from the Hui-Lei-Lee site that the M9a haplotype recovered from the site is most likely of Northern Asian origin (Yan 2006). This does not exclude the possibility that the SPC people are related to Austronesian speakers in the South Pacific. It is evident that there may have been some level of gene flow between the SPC people, mainland Asian, and Oceania according to the sizes of maxillary crown width (which explains the similarity to Tonga) and perhaps the presence of mitochondrial haplogroups A and M (ancestral Asian haplogroups)....

Because the dental morphological study and ancient DNA analyses seem to suggest a Northern Asian affinity for the SPC people, it is proposed here that approximately 2,500 BP, some prehistoric Taiwanese came from Northern Asia. However, the WCTS people, contemporaries of SPC, show a closer relatedness with the Namu from the Hawai’i. Therefore, a simple model of “Out of Taiwan” or “Indigenous Melanesian Origin” cannot explain the whole picture of prehistoric Taiwan. In this circumstance, it seems to indicate that Taiwan in the past may have harbored diverse populations....

 

* Genetic Polymorphisms of 17 Y-chromosomal Short Tandem Repeat Loci in Atayal Population of Taiwan (2009) by Fang-Chin Wu, et al.

Neighbor-joining Tree

The present data on Y-chromosome haplotypes in the Atayal and the data on minHt of Y-STR loci of Chinese population in Taiwan (monomorphic [TCTG]3 at DYS389I and DYS389II including a repeat +3 compared with the available data) (6), Minnan Han Chinese (7), northeast Han Chinese (8), Korean (9), and Japanese (10) were analyzed using the Arlequin software package to determine the molecular variance between these populations. RST values were 0.318, 0.478, 0.448, 0.265, and 0.362, respectively, all of which were significant (P < 0.001). Neighbor-joining tree of the 6 populations (22,23) is shown as Figure 2.

 

* Genetic Origins of the Ainu Inferred from Combined DNA Analyses of Maternal and Paternal Lineages by Atsushi Tajima, et al.

Neighbor-joining Tree for the 16 Asian Populations

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Yayoi Period Human Skeletal Remains from the Doigahama Site by Kazunari Igawa, et al.

Excerpt: The 2500-year-old Linzi population (group I: 15%, group II: 6%, group III: 3%, group IV: 65%, group V: 3%, group VI: 9%) resembled the 2000–2300-year-old Doigahama Yayoi population with respect to the high frequency for group IV. It was suggested that there were phylogenetically similar populations in China and Japan during the ancient period, from 2500 to 2000 years ago.

On the other hand, the low frequencies of group IV in the modern East-Asian populations were reported by Wang et al. In addition, their study indicated that the 2500-year-old Linzi populations showed less genetic resemblance to modern East-Asian populations. These findings suggest that more than one ancient population, which had different phylogenetic characteristics from modern East-Asian populations, existed in the past in East Asia. This is informative for estimating the phylogenetic relationships among ancient East-Asian populations. The resemblance between the ancient populations in China and Japan might support the notion that ancient China is the place from which the Doigahama Yayoi population immigrated. The amount of genetic data is still not sufficient enough to discuss the phylogenetic relationships among the ancient East-Asian populations. Further genetic studies are required to shed light on the phylogenetic relationships among the ancient East-Asian populations.

 

Geographicl Distribution of HVI Sequence Types Observed in Doigahama Yayoi Specimens

Individual Number Sharing Populations (number of individuals)
1, 124, 1601 Vietnam (1)
1301, 1405, 1406, 1903, 88A Thai (15), China Nei Mongol (11), China Xinjiang (11), China Hainan (10), China Yunnan (8), Vietnam (7), China Guizhou (6), Russia Buryat (6), Japan Okinawa (4), China Shandong (3), China Shanghai (2), Indonesia (1), China Bouyei (1), China Dai (1), Taiwan Yami (1) and other China (2)
914, 1604 China Guangxi (4), China Nei Mongol (4), China Guizhou (2), China Xinjiang (2), Taiwan Chinese (1), China Hubei (1), and other China (1)
1904 China Xinjiang (1)
1305 China Yunnan (7), China Shandong (4), Japan mainland (3), China Hainan (3), Thai (3), China Liaoning (2), China Guangxi (2), Russia Nivhi (2), South Korea (1), Taiwan Chinese (1), Indonesia (1) and other China (4)
913 Not found in East-Asian Population

 

 

Korean

Koreans are believed to be descendents of Altaic- or proto-Altaic-speaking tribes, linking them with Mongolians, Tungusics, and Turks. Archaeological evidence suggest proto-Koreans were Altaic-language-speaking migrants from south-central Siberia, who populated ancient Korea in successive waves from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age.

Recent advances in the study of polymorphisms in the human Y-chromosome have produced evidence to suggest that the Korean people have a very long history as a distinct, mostly endogamous ethnic group, as male Koreans display a high frequency of Y-chromosomes belonging to Haplogroup O2b that are more or less specific to Korean populations.

Most Koreans and part-Koreans still display phenotypes suggesting Altaic origins. These features include higher cheekbones, and the Mongolian spot, a genetic predisposition for a bluish birthmark on the lower body which remains until early childhood; however, the Mongolian spot is also extremely common among non-Altaic people of Chinese, East African, Native American, or East Indian ancestry.

A Concise History of Korea: From the Neolithic Period through the Nineteenth Century by Michael J. Seth

 

 

 

 

The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

Abstract

Background

The Koreans are generally considered a northeast Asian group because of their geographical location. However, recent findings from Y chromosome studies showed that the Korean population contains lineages from both southern and northern parts of East Asia. To understand the genetic history and relationships of Korea more fully, additional data and analyses are necessary.

Methodology and Results

We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation in the hypervariable segments I and II (HVS-I and HVS-II) and haplogroup-specific mutations in coding regions in 445 individuals from seven east Asian populations (Korean, Korean-Chinese, Mongolian, Manchurian, Han (Beijing), Vietnamese and Thais). In addition, published mtDNA haplogroup data (N=3307), mtDNA HVS-I sequences (N=2313), Y chromosome haplogroup data (N=1697) and Y chromosome STR data (N=2713) were analyzed to elucidate the genetic structure of East Asian populations. All the mtDNA profiles studied here were classified into subsets of haplogroups common in East Asia, with just two exceptions. In general, the Korean mtDNA profiles revealed similarities to other northeastern Asian populations through analysis of individual haplogroup distributions, genetic distances between populations or an analysis of molecular variance, although a minor southern contribution was also suggested. Reanalysis of Y-chromosomal data confirmed both the overall similarity to other northeastern populations, and also a larger paternal contribution from southeastern populations.

Conclusion
The present work provides evidence that peopling of Korea can be seen as a complex process, interpreted as an early northern Asian settlement with at least one subsequent male-biased southern-to-northern migration, possibly associated with the spread of rice agriculture.

 

* Taiwan Aboriginals and Peoples of the Pacific-Asia Region: Multivariate craniometric comparisons by M. Pietrusewsky, et al.

Plot of 55 Male Groups Means on the First Two Canonical Variates Using 29 Cranial Measurements

(Taiwan clusters with Korea)

 

 

Northeast China

Northeast China (中國東北) is a geographical region of China. It is separated from Russia largely by the Amur, Argun, and Ussuri rivers, from North Korea by the Yalu and Tumen rivers, and from the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region by the Greater Khingan Range. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain.

Northeast China is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include the three northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin (Yanbian) and Liaoning and, thus, the region is sometimes called the Three Northeast Provinces (東北三省). Some people in parts of Inner Mongolia (like Chifeng) still call themselves Northeasterners. It is generally coterminous with some definitions of the historical region of Manchuria and is commonly referred to in English as such. It is also sometimes referred to as Inner Manchuria in contrast with Outer Manchuria, provinces lost to the Russian Empire, during the Qing Dynasty.

Another term for the area is Guandong (關東) meaning "east of the gate," referring to the gate at Shanhaiguan. This name was also used by the Japanese to their leased territory of Dalian, as Kwantung Chou (关东州), and its Kwantung Army which was later mobilized to set up the puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China.

Northeast China was the homeland of several nomadic tribes, including the Manchus (or Jurchens), Ulchs, Hezhen (also known as the Goldi and Nanai). Various ethnic groups and their respective kingdoms, including the Gojoseon, Sushen, Xianbei, Buyeo, Mohe, Goguryeo, Balhae have risen to power in the Northeast. Yan State once occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, Han Chinese dynasties in China loosely controlled the southern parts of the region until the Song Dynasty. During the Song dynasty, the Khitan set up the Liao Dynasty dynasty in Northeast China. Later, the Jurchen overthrew the Liao and formed the Jin Dynasty, which went on to conquer northern China. In AD 1234, the Jin Dynasty fell to the Mongols, whose Yuan Dynasty was later replaced by the Ming Dynasty in 1368. In 1644, the Manchu conquered the entirety of China and established the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).

Northeast China came under influence of the Russian Empire with the building of the Chinese eastern railway through Harbin to Vladivostok. The Empire of Japan replaced Russian influence in the region as a result of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, and Japan laid the South Manchurian Railway in 1906 to Port Arthur.

 

 

Yanbian, Jilin

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin province

Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture (Chinese: 延邊朝鮮族自治州; Korean: 연변 조선족 자치주) is an autonomous prefecture in Jilin province, in the northeastern part of China. Yanbian is south of Heilongjiang, east of Jilin's Baishan City, north of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province, and west of Russia. Yanbian is designated as an autonomous prefecture due to the large number of ethnic Koreans living in the region. The prefectural capital is Yanji, and the area is 42,700 km².

The Prefecture has an important Balhae archaeological site: the Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain, which includes the Mausoleum of Princess Zhenxiao.

In the 19th century, Korean immigrants migrated en masse from the Korean peninsula to China. After the foundation of the Republic of China, a second wave arrived. The population increase was caused by the Japanese invasion of that region. The Japanese were trying to use Korean immigration to diffuse the staying power of Chinese in that region. After the end of World War II, many Koreans did not go back to Korea, even though their country was liberated. Instead, they joined the Chinese Civil War and were mobilized by both Chinese communists and the Chinese Nationalists. When the civil war was over, the new Chinese government gave Koreans their own autonomous region (区) in 1952. Yanbian was upgraded to an ethnic autonomous prefecture in 1955.

In 1952, the Korean migrants composed some 60% of the local population, but by 2000 their share shrank to 32%. The Chinese authorities subsidize Korean language schools and publications, but also take measures to prevent an emergence of the Korean irredentism in the area. From the late 1990s the Koreans began to be assimilated into Chinese culture with increasing speed, often switching to daily use of Chinese and choosing to attend the Chinese language schools.

Jilin: In ancient times Jilin was inhabited by various peoples, notably the Mohe and the Wùjí (勿吉). It also formed a part of the Goguryeo kingdom. The kingdom of Balhae was established in the area from 698 to 926 AD. The region then fell successively under the domination of the Khitan Liao Dynasty, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, and the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. During the Qing Dynasty, much of the area was under the control of the General of Jilin, whose area of control extended to the Sea of Japan to encompass much of what is Russia's Primorsky Krai today. Immigration of Han Chinese was strictly controlled.

However, after the Primorsky Krai area was ceded to Russia in 1860, the Qing government began to open the area up to Han Chinese migrants, most of whom came from Shandong. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Han Chinese had become the dominant ethnic group of the region. In 1932, the area was incorporated into Manchukuo, a puppet state set up by Japan, and Changchun (then called Hsinking), capital of Jilin today, was made the capital of Manchukuo. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, the region, together with the rest of northeastern China, was handed to the communists by the Soviet Union. Manchuria was then the staging ground from which the communists eventually conquered the rest of China.

The Archaeology of Northeast China: Beyond the Great Wall by Sarah Nelson

 

 

 

 

* The Peopling of Korea Revealed by Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosomal Markers by Han-Jun Jin, et al.

 

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) Plot Based on FST Distances of mtDNA HVS-I Sequences

(Han Yanbian, Han Qingdao, Korean, Ewenki, Japanese)

 

* Taiwan Aboriginals and Peoples of the Pacific-Asia Region: Multivariate craniometric comparisons by M. Pietrusewsky, et al.

Diagram of Relationship Based on a Cluster Analysis (UPGMA) of Mahalanobis' Generalized Distances Using 29 Cranial Measurements Recorded in 55 Male Groups

(Hong Kong, Manchuria; Taiwan, Korea)

 

 

Eastern China

East China (華東) is a geographical and a loosely-defined cultural region that covers the eastern coastal area of China.

Although an intangible and loosely defined concept, for administrative and governmental purposes, the region is defined by the government of the People's Republic of China to include the provinces of (in alphabetical order) Anhui, parts of Fujian, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shandong and Zhejiang, as well as the municipality of Shanghai.

The PRC lays claim over Taiwan Province and parts of Fujian, which are also defined as part of eastern China by the PRC. However, they are administered by the Republic of China.

 

 

Minnan

Distribution of Minnan Language (map by Luuva)

Min Nan ("Southern Fujian" language) refers to a family of Chinese dialects which are spoken in southern Fujian and neighboring areas, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to the Hokkien, in particular the Amoy and Taiwanese.

Recent archaeological discoveries demonstrate that Fujian (especially the northern coastal region around Fuzhou) had entered the Neolithic Age by the middle of the 6th millennium BC. From the Keqiutou site (7450-5590 BP), an early Neolithic site in Pingtan Island located about 70 km southeast of Fuzhou, numerous tools made of stones, shells, bones, jades, and ceramics (including wheel-made-ceramics) have been unearthed, together with spinning wheels, a definitive evidence of weaving.

The Tanshishan (昙石山) site (5500-4000 BP) in suburban Fuzhou spans the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Age where semi-underground circular buildings were found in the lower level. The Huangtulun (黄土崙) site (ca.1325 BC), also in suburban Fuzhou, was of the Bronze Age in character.

This area was also the place for the kingdom of Minyue. The word "Mǐnyuè" was derived by combining "Mǐn" (閩), perhaps an ethnic name and associated with the Chinese word for barbarians (蠻), and "Yue", after the State of Yue, a Spring and Autumn Period kingdom in Zhejiang Province to the north. This is because the royal family of Yuè fled to Fujian after their kingdom was annexed by the State of Chu in 306 BC. Minyue was a de facto kingdom until the emperor of Qin Dynasty, the first unified imperial Chinese state, abolished the status.

 

Zhou -- Qin -- Yan (燕國) -- He Bei Yu (Hebei Province)
Zhou -- Qin -- Ba (巴國) / Shu (蜀國) -- Cantonese Language (Cantonese People)
Zhou -- Qin -- Qin / Jin (晉國) -- Guan Zhong Yu -- Northern (Mandarin)
Zhou -- Qin -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Gan Language
Zhou -- Qin -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Hakka Language (Hakka People)
Zhou -- Qin -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Min Language (Hokkien People)
Zhou -- Qi (齊國) -- Min Language (Minnan People, Fuzhou People, Teochew People)
Zhou -- Wu (吳國) -- Shanghainese Language (Shanghainese People)
Zhou -- Wu -- Hui Language (Anhui Province)
Zhou -- Chu (楚國)-- Xiang Language (Hunan Province)

 

Qi State (Shandong)

Qi (齊國) was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province.

Qi was founded around 1046 B.C. as one of the many states of the Zhou Dynasty. The first ruler appointed for Qi is Jiang Shang, the most powerful official during that time. The Jiang family (姜) ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family (田) in 384 BC. In 221 BC, Qi was the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the State of Qin, the final obstacle which allowed the Qin Dynasty to consolidate the first centralized and imperial empire over China.

Lord Huan of Qi (齊桓公, died 643 BC) was the best-known ruler of the state of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period. His personal name was Jiāng Xiǎobái (姜小白) . Lord Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong (管仲, given name Yíwú, 夷吾), the famous thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, reform the economic system and develop relations with other states, After scores of years, Qi became the strongest state for its economic and military strength, and was named as the "state with one thousand chariots" and the "head of the five strongest states". The culture and education undertakings were rather developed in Qi. Both poetry and music were of high level. Linzi District remained its capital for as long as 638 years, and was the biggest city in the orient.

The Silk Road, prosperous through the Han (漢朝; 206 BC–220 AD) and Tang Dynasties (唐朝; 618 AD–907 AD) is the famous passageway in China's history for economic and cultural exchange between East and West. As a result of textual research, Shandong area, with Zibo as its center, was the major place of silk supply at that time, and was one of the origins of the "Silk Road".

Shandong is the second most populous province of China, after Henan, with a population of almost 92 million. Over 99% of Shandong's population is Han Chinese. Minority groups include the Hui and the Manchus. Shandong is also known as having highest average height of any Chinese province.

* Videos: 臨淄中國古車博物館, 山東淄博「東周殉馬坑」

 

* The Ancestor of Zhou Dynasty's Royal Family, 后稷 by China History Forum

Excerpt: 姜 Jiang was a great clan in pre-Qin China. They helped the forming of Zhou dynasty and were given several states to rule. The famous state in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring State period, 齊 (Qi State), was one of the 姜 (Jiang) states. They were also famous for their tall and fair women. A few famous Zhou dynasty beauties came from this clan, and not a few poems were written about them in the Book of Poems. The Zhou’s royal families of 姬 Ji and the families of 姜 Jiang frequently married each other. This custom was based on the ancient marriage traditions that two clans would establish the marriage relationship and married each other throughout the generations. Later on, the so-called “親上加親”(closeness added on closeness) in Chinese culture of marrying cousins at the mother’s side of family was the extension of this old custom. This custom was practiced till modern era.

Many scholars believed that 姜 (Jiang) belonged to the ethnic group of 羌 (Qiang) and probably was originally a nomadic tribe. Zhou people also claimed that they were originally descendents of 夏 Xia people and they lived (mixed) among the 戎 (rong – ancient tribes at the west of China) and 狄 (di – ancient tribes at the north of China) and had close relationships with 羌 (qiang) people.

 

 

* Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-year-old Human Population in China-and Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population by H. Oota, et al. (1999)

Abstract: We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site (approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1, 298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan.

 

* Genetic Structure of a 2,500-Year-Old Human Population in China and Its Spatiotemporal Changes by Li Wang, et al. (2000)

Abstract: To examine temporal changes in population genetic structure, we compared the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of three populations that lived in the same location, Linzi, China, in different periods: 2,500 years ago (the Spring–Autumn era), 2,000 years ago (the Han era), and the present day. Two indices were used to compare the genetic differences: the frequency distributions of the radiating haplotype groups and the genetic distances among the populations. The results indicate that the genetic backgrounds of the three populations are distinct from each other. Inconsistent with the geographical distribution, the 2,500-year-old Linzi population showed greater genetic similarity to present-day European populations than to present-day east Asian populations. The 2,000-year-old Linzi population had features that were intermediate between the present-day European/2,500-year-old Linzi populations and the present-day east Asian populations.

Result: The smallest genetic distance for the present-day Linzi population was that from the Mongols, followed by those from mainland Japanese and Koreans. Surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,000-year-old Linzi population were from the present-day central Asian populations: the Kirghiz (Sary-Tash), followed by the Kazakh and the Uighurs. Even more surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,500-year-old Linzi population were from the Turkish, Icelander, and Finnish, rather than from the east Asian populations.

 

* Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of China: A Caveat About Inferences Drawn from Ancient DNA by Yong-Gang Yao, et al. (2003)

Abstract: The decipherment of the meager information provided by short fragments of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is notoriously difficult but is regarded as a most promising way toward reconstructing the past from the genetic perspective. By haplogroup-specific hypervariable segment (HVS) motif search and matching or near-matching with available modern data sets, most of the ancient mtDNAs can be tentatively assigned to haplogroups, which are often subcontinent specific. Further typing for mtDNA haplogroup-diagnostic coding region polymorphisms, however, is indispensable for establishing the geographic/genetic affinities of ancient samples with less ambiguity. In the present study, we sequenced a fragment (982 bp) of the mtDNA control region in 76 Han individuals from Taian, Shandong, China, and we combined these data with previously reported samples from Zibo and Qingdao, Shandong. The reanalysis of two previously published ancient mtDNA population data sets from Linzi (same province) then indicates that the ancient populations had features in common with the modern populations from south China rather than any specific affinity to the European mtDNA pool. Our results highlight that ancient mtDNA data obtained under different sampling schemes and subject to potential contamination can easily create the impression of drastic spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of a regional population during the past few thousand years if inappropriate methods of data analysis are employed.

 

* Reanalysis of Eurasian Population History: Ancient DNA Evidence of Population Affinities by C.C. Bennett, F.A. Kaestle (2006)

Abstract: Mitochondrial hypervariable region I genetic data from ancient populations at two sites in Asia-Linzi in Shandong (northern China) and Egyin Gol in Mongolia-were reanalyzed to detect population affinities. Data from 51 modern populations were used to generate distance measures (F^sub ST^'s) to the two ancient populations. The tests first analyzed relationships at the regional level and then compiled the top regional matches for an overall comparison to the two probe populations. The reanalysis showed that the Egyin Gol and Linzi populations have clear distinctions in genetic affinity. The Egyin Gol population as a whole appears to bear close affinities with modern populations of northern East Asia. The Linzi population seems to have some genetic affinities with the West, as suggested by the original analysis, although the original attribution of "European-like" seems to be misleading. We suggest that the Linzi individuals are potentially related to early Iranians, who are thought to have been widespread in parts of Central Eurasia and the steppe regions in the first millennium B.C., although some significant admixture between a number of populations of varying origin cannot be ruled out. We also examine the effect of sequence length on this type of genetic data analysis and discuss the results of previous studies on the Linzi sample.

Discussion: ... the Linzi individuals, they seem to be most highly related to Near Easterners (Turks, Iranians, and Iraqis), Armenians, and Eastern Europeans (Slavs, Hungarians), although others, such as Catalans and Iraqis, are mixed in. The Icelanders are twelfth on this list. The high placement of the Vietnamese may be an anomaly, error, or some element of ancient genetic history that is not clear ....

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Native Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian, Jilin), Thailand, Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Northeast China, China, Korea, Gadaba Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Hong Kong), Cambodia, Korea.

World Region Match: Japanese, Southeast Asian, Chinese, North African, India, North India, India Tribal, Asia Minor, Mongolian, Malay Archipelago, Mediterranean, Tibetan, Arabian, Eatern European, Northweat European, Mestizo, Finno-Ugrian.

 

 

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia (or Southeastern Asia) is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia.

Southeast Asia consists of two geographic regions: the Asian mainland, and island arcs and archipelagoes to the east and southeast. The mainland section consists of Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia while the maritime section consists of Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Geographically speaking southern China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are sometimes grouped in the Southeast Asia subregion, although politically they are rarely grouped as such. Vietnam is culturally and historically tied to East Asia rather than Southeast Asia.

Austronesian peoples predominate in this region.

 

 

Hong Kong People

Archaeological findings suggest human activity in Hong Kong dates back over 30,000 years. Stone tools of the pre-historic people during the old stone age have been excavated in Sai Kung in Wong Tei Tung. The stone tools found in Sai Kung were perhaps from a stone tools making ground.Religious carvings on outlying islands and coastal areas have also been found, possibly related to Che people in Neolithic.

The territory was incorporated into China during the Qin Dynasty (221 BC - 206 BC), and the area was firmly consolidated under Nanyue (203 BC - 111 BC.)

Che people (輋族) is a branch of Yao people found in the Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces of China. They are also known as She people (畲族) outside of these areas.

Che people are the earliest known settlers in Guangdong. They originally settled along the shallow shore for easier fishing during the Neolithic era. After an influx of Yue people moved south during the Warring States Period, there was serious competition for resources between the two peoples.

From the time of the Qin dynasty, waves of migrants from northern China had a serious impact on the Che people. Because they had superior tools and technology, the migrants were able to occupy better land for farming. Some Che people were forced to relocate into the hilly areas in the Jiangxi and Fujian provinces.

Following relocation, the Che people farmed on hillsides. After burning the grass on the slope, rice seeds were cast on the burnt grasses and harvested following a growth season. Some Che people also participated in salt production and trade. Salt was obtained through the evaporation of pools of salt water.

There were many conflicts between Han Chinese and the Che people. Che salt producers on Lantau Island in Hong Kong had attacked the city of Canton in a revolt during the Song dynasty.

Most Hong Kong Chinese have ancestral roots from Guangdong Province and the Yangtze River Delta, as these two main Chinese groups inter-mingled. Few Hong Kong Chinese have partial European ancestry.

The Cantonese people (本地人), broadly speaking, are a subgroup of the Han Chinese originating from the present-day Guangdong province in southern China. This definition will often also include native speakers of Cantonese in nearby Hong Kong and Macau, which were traditionally part of Guangdong prior to European colonisation, and eastern and southern Guangxi, parts of which were part of Guangdong prior to administrative reforms made by the People's Republic of China. The term "Cantonese people" would then be synonymous with the Bun Dei subethnic group, and is sometimes known as Gwong Fu Jan (廣府人) for this narrower definition. This article mainly focuses on this latter definition.

 

* HLA Class III and Non-HLA Blood Genetic Markers in Chinese by S.W. Serjeantson, et al.

Phylogenetic Relationships Between Eight Chinese Populations, Based on Seven Polymorphic Systems

(Hong Kong, Teochew, Hokkien, Korean)

 

* STR Polymorphisms of the Henan Population and Investigation of the Central Plains Han Origin of Chaoshanese by Li-Na Xu, et al.

Neighbor-joining tree constructed from Nei’s genetic distance based on the allelic frequencies of CODIS STR loci in 25 Chinese Han populations

(Hong Kong, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysian)

 

* Genetic Link Between Chaoshan and Other Chinese Han Populations: Evidence from HLA-A and HLA-B allele frequency distribution by Sheng-Ping Hu, et al.

Neighbor-Joining Tree

(Hong Kong Chinese, China South, Singapore Chinese, Hakka, Minnan, Chaoshan, Taiwan Minnan)

 

 

Vietnamese

The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from what is now northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam. The earliest recorded name for the ancient Vietnamese people was known as the Lac peoples.

Although geographically and linguistically labeled as Southeast Asians, long periods of Chinese domination and influence have placed them culturally closer to East Asians, or more specifically their immediate northern neighbours, the Southern Chinese and other tribes within the proximity of South China.

The ancient Vietnamese people were first known simply as the Lac or Lac Viet in recorded history and the country of Vietnam during that time was known as Văn Lang. Archaeological evidence of the bronze age Dong Son Culture, also known as Lac Society, suggest the ancient Vietnamese people were among the first to practice agriculture.

In 258 BC, An Dương Vương founded the kingdom of Âu Lạc in what is now northern Vietnam. In 208 BC, Chao Tuo (known as Triệu Đà in Vietnamese), a former Qin Dynasty general from China, allied with the leaders of the Yue peoples in what is now modern-day Guangdong and declared himself King of Southern Yue. He defeated An Dương Vương and then combined Âu Lạc with territories in southern China and named his kingdom Nam Việt, or Southern Yue (Nam means "south"). Việt is cognate to Yue, which is the pronunciation of Yue in ancient Chinese and some modern southern Chinese dialects. The term was used in bai yue ("hundred Viet") for the various peoples in what is now southern China, including the regions of northern Vietnam.

According to a research study done by the Hopital Saint-Louis in Paris, France: "the comparison of the Vietnamese with other East Asian populations showed a close genetic relationship of the population under investigation with other Orientals," with the exception of seven unique markers. These results, along with remnants of Thai enzyme morphs, indicate a dual ethnic origin of the Vietnamese population from Chinese and Thai-Indonesian populations. According to a recent HLA study headed by laboratories at the Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan, the Vietnamese people are classified in the same genetic cluster as the Miao (Hmong), Southern Han (Southern Chinese), Buyei and Thai, with a divergent family consisting of Thai Chinese and Singapore Chinese, Minnan (Hoklo) and Hakka.

A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tu Duc by Oscar Chapuis

 

 

 

 

 

Cambodian

Cambodian: Archaeological evidence indicates that parts of the region now called Cambodia were inhabited from around 1000-2000 BC by a Neolithic culture that may have migrated from South Eastern China to the Indochinese Peninsula. By the first century AD, the inhabitants had developed relatively stable, organized societies which had far surpassed the primitive stage in culture and technical skills. The most advanced groups lived along the coast and in the lower Mekong River valley and delta regions in houses constructed on stilts where they cultivated rice, fished and kept domesticated animals. Recent research has unlocked the discovery of artificial circular earthworks dating to Cambodia's Neolithic era. The Khmer people were one of the first inhabitants of South East Asia. They were also among the first in South East Asia to adopt religious ideas and political institutions from India and to establish centralized kingdoms surrounding large territories. The earliest known kingdom in the area, Funan, flourished from around the first to the sixth century AD. This was succeeded by Chenla, which controlled large parts of modern Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

The Khmer people are the predominant ethnic group in Cambodia, accounting for approximately 90% of the 14.2 million people in the country. Part of the larger Mon-Khmer ethnolinguistic peoples found throughout Southeast Asia, they speak the Khmer language.

Migrations into the mainland regions of Southeast Asia from the north continued well into historic times. The Khmer came with earlier waves following in the wake of the Malays. Most scholars believe they came at least 3,000 years ago, much earlier than Tai people who now inhabit many parts of what was originally Austroasiatic territory. The reason they migrated into Southeast Asia is generally debated, but scholars believe that Mon-Khmer were pushed down by invading Sino-Tibetans from the north as evident by Austroasiatic vocabulary in Chinese or because of agricultural purposes as evident by their migration routes along major rivers. The Khmer are relatives to the Mon who settled further to the west.

After establishment in Southeast Asia, the history of the Khmer people parallels the history of Cambodia. Like the other early peoples of Southeast Asia such as the Pyu and Mon, the Khmer were influenced by Indian traders and scholars, adapting their religions, sciences, and customs and borrowing from their languages.

* Video: Lost Temples: Lost City of Angkor Wat

 

* Use of Autosomal Loci for Clustering Individuals and Populations of East Asian Origin by Jong-Jin Kim, et. al.

Least-squares Tree for Nine East Asian Populations and 43 Independent Diallelic Markers, Based on a Tau Genetic Distance Matrix

 

* Fine-scaled Human Genetic Structure Revealed by SNP Microarrays by Jinchuan Xing, et al.

Principal Components Analysis of Population Structure in 554 Individuals

 

* From East to West: Patterns of genetic diversity of populations living in four Eurasian regions by I. Kutuev, et al.

 

* The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity by R. Spencer Wells, et al.

Neighbor-joining Tree of 61 Eurasian Populations, Based on Y-chromosome Biallelic Haplotype Frequencies

(Cluster IV: Mongolian, Kazak, Cambodian, Dungan (Hui), Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese)

Nei genetic distances were used in a neighbor-joining analysis. Internal numbers are bootstrap values (1000 replicates); values less than 200 are not shown. Roman numerals denote population clusters described in the text.

 

 

Malay in Singapore

Malays in Singapore make up about 14 % of the country's population, as based on the broader definition of a "Malay race" rather than the more specific "Malay ethnic group".

Malays are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula, the east coast of Sumatra, the coast of Borneo, and the smaller islands between these locations. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines. The Malay language is a member of the Austronesian family of languages.

The concept of a Malay race (Malay: Bangsa Melayu) was proposed by the German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840). Since Blumenbach, many anthropologists have rejected his theory of five races, citing the enormous complexity of classifying races. However, the term Malay is still often used in this context, and it is the basis for Malay identity within the country of Malaysia. However, the term Malay Race is rarely used in Indonesia.

In his 1775 doctoral dissertation titled De generis humani varietate nativa (On the Natural Varieties of Mankind), Blumenbach outlined four main human races by skin color, namely Caucasian (white), Ethiopian (black), Native American (red), and Mongolian (yellow).

By 1795, Blumenbach added another race called 'Malay' which he considered to be a subcategory of both the Ethiopian and Mongoloid races. The Malay race were those of a "brown color, from olive and a clear mahogany to the darkest clove or chestnut brown." Blumenbach expanded the term "Malay" to include the inhabitants of the Marianas, the Philippines, the Malukus, Sundas, as well as Pacific Islands such as Tahitians. He considered a Tahitian skull he had received to be the missing link; showing the transition between the "primary" race, the Caucasians, and the "degenerate" race, the Negroids.

Blumenbach writes:

Malay variety. Tawny-coloured; hair black, soft, curly, thick and plentiful; head moderately narrowed; forehead slightly swelling; nose full, rather wide, as it were diffuse, end thick; mouth large. upper jaw somewhat prominent with the parts of the face when seen in profile, sufficiently prominent and distinct from each other. This last variety includes the islanders of the Pacific Ocean, together with the inhabitants of the Marianne, the Philippine, the Molucca and the Sunda Islands, and of the Malayan peninsula. I wish to call it the Malay, because the majority of the men of this variety, especially those who inhabit the Indian islands close to the Malacca peninsula, as well as the Sandwich, the Society, and the Friendly Islanders, and also the Malambi of Madagascar down to the inhabitants of Easter Island, use the Malay idiom.

When Raffles came to Singapore, there were already hundreds of indigenous Malays living there. They were made up of the nobility that were headed by the Temenggong, the palace officials and his followers as well as the Orang Laut. Subsequently, the numbers increased with the arrivals of other Malays from Malaya and the Malay Archipelago.

In a matter of several months, hundreds of Malays from Malacca came to Singapore, encouraged by the British who wanted to develop Singapore as a centre for trade and administration (Siebel, 1961:27). When Singapore became more developed and there were better economic opportunities, many Malays from Riau, Sumatra, Penang, Malacca and Johore came to Singapore.

 

 

Thai

The Thai (or Tai) are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of languages.

The earliest mention of the Thai, as a nation in south China called NAN-JOA (Nanzhao or Nanman), comes from Chinese records dating back to the sixth century BC. These early Thai emanated out of the Yunnan region and dispersed into the general area of what is today Thailand. These Thai peoples arrived in various waves and displaced the earlier native Mon and Khmer populations as they settled the region with a large group settling in Thailand during the Sung period of China roughly around 960 AD. The related Lao people split off from the early Kradai peoples and moved into Southeast Asia, mainly Laos, while another kindred people, the Shan, made their way into Myanmar.

The founding of the Sukhothai kingdom culminated in the emergence of the first Thai nation-state founded in 1238. Various conflicts in the Chinese-dominated region of Nanchao facilitated increased migration of the Thai, especially mercenaries fleeing from the Mongol conquest of China, and helped establish the Thai as a regional power. Successful wars with the Mon helped to establish the kingdom of Lan Na as the Thai increased their hold in Southeast Asia.

 

* The Power of Language Over the Past: Tai settlement and Tai linguistics in southern China and northern Vietnam by Jerold A. Edmondson

Excerpt: This paper will range over three historical aspects of The Power of Language topic and over a time frame on the order of forty thousand years. The first theme to be considered will concern the power of language language in the genes) that can tell us the story of the very remote past of Tai migration and settlement from a place in India. From there the Tai precursors then moved into the border areas of SE Asia/Yunnan Province, China. The groups that would become the Tai dipped south into Laos and Vietnam before looping back again into northern Vietnam and the territory of contemporary China where the odyssey ended 8-10,000 years ago. They were then left stretched along the S and SE coast of China from Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang Province up to the mouth of the Yangzi River near Shanghai.

 

* Distribution of HLA Gene and Haplotype Frequencies in Taiwan: A comparative study among Min-nan, Hakka, Aborigines and Mainland Chinese by C.K. Shaw, et al.

Abstract: A total of 8,497 blood samples were typed for HLA-A, B, DR and DQ. Of these, 7,137 Min-nan, 714 Hakka, 535 Mainland Chinese (152 from North China, 211 from Middle China, and 172 from South China) and 111 Aborigines were randomly selected from Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry (TCTMDR). Differences in HLA gene and antigen frequencies have been observed between various ethnic groups of the Chinese population in Taiwan. The phylogenic tree shows Taiwan Aborigines and Javanese cluster together; Min-nan shares a common cluster with Hakka, Southern Hans and Thai; and Northern Hans shares a cluster with Middle Hans. The separation between Northern/Middle and Southern Chinese Hans support the idea that Northern and Southern Chinese have different genetic background. Aborigines appeared to be quite distinct in the distribution of a majority of the class I and class II antigens. High frequency of HLA-A24 (60.4%) and relatively restricted HLA polymorphisms are noted in Aborigines. The HLA haplotypes with high frequency in Aborigines included A24-B60-DRB1*04, A24-B60-DRB1*14, A24-B48-DRB1*04, and A24-B48-DRB1*14, which are different from the other ethnic groups. Although the phylogenic tree separates Aborigines and Han Chinese populations, 4 out of 20 most common HLA-A, -B, and -DR haplotypes presented in both Aborigines and Han Chinese may reflect an ancient common origin or intermixture between early settlers of Han Chinese and Taiwan Aborigines. The results in this study are essentially a summary of the observed gene/haplotype frequencies and differences among various ethnic groups in Taiwan.

 

* A Homeland or Hostland? The power and challenges of genetic studies on Austronesian’s expansion by Mutsu Hsu and Shu-Juo Chen

Neighbor-joining Tree of Taiwan AN Populations, East Asians, Southeast Asians and Other Populations Worldwide (from Chu et al. 2001)

 

Neighbor-joining (NJ) Tree for the Nine Taiwan AN Populations and Other Asian and African Populations (from Tajima et al. 2003)

Ami showed difference with other eight populations (including Yami)

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Native Population Match: Yi (Guangxi), Vietnam, Eastern China, Korea, Bangladesh, Korea, Han (Yan Bian, Jilin), Thailand, Han (Min Nan), Paroja Tribal (Orissa, India), Taiwanese, Malay (Singapore), Central Japan, Northeast China, China, Korea, Gadaba Tribal (Orissa, India), Chinese (Hong Kong), Cambodia, Korea.

 

 

Map of Bangladesh and India

 

 

Bangladeshi

Bangladesh officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a country in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma (Myanmar) to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. Together with the Indian state of West Bengal, it makes up the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. The name Bangladesh means "Country of Bengal" in the official Bengali language.

Remnants of civilization in the greater Bengal region date back four thousand years, when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word "Bangla" or "Bengal" is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from Bang, the Dravidian-speaking tribe that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.

The majority ethnic group of Bangladesh are the Bengali people, comprising 98% of the population. They speak the Bengali, a language of the eastern Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. They are an eastern Indo-Aryan people, who are also descended from Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian peoples, and closely related to the Assamese, Biharis and other East Indians, as well as to Munda and Tibeto-Burman peoples. As such, Bengalis are a homogoneous but considerably diverse ethnic group with heterogeneous origins.

 

 

* Genetic Analysis of the STR System D20S161 in Japanese and Bangladeshi by Akira Kido, et al.

Abstract: The allele distributions of the STR locus D20S161 have been investigated in Japanese and Bangladeshi people. No deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed in either population. D20S161 was found to be a polymorphic STR with seven alleles in Japanese and with six alleles in Bangladeshi. The distribution of allele frequencies in Japanese was very similar to that in Bangladeshi. The D20S161 system can be a potential marker for medicolegal individualization and paternity testing.

 

 

Orissa, India

Orissa is a littoral state of India with a long coastline. The coastal alluvial plain is inhabited by the non-tribal speakers of the Oriya language. The interior, inhabited largely by the indigenous people known as Adivasis is hilly and mountainous. Orissa has a population of 32 million. About 87% of the population live in the villages and one third of the rural population does not own any land other than homesteads. 25% of Orissa's Population is Tribal.

The official language of the state, spoken by the majority of the people is Oriya. Oriya belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family, and is closely related to Bengali and Assamese. A few tribal languages belonging to the Dravidian and Munda language families are still spoken by the Adivasis (original inhabitants) of the state. The state has a very opulent cultural heritage, one of the richest in India.

Kharia, Juang, Gadaba, Ho, Munda and Saora are among few of the most ancient tribes whose dialects belong to the Austro-Asiatic linguistic family, while those of Paroja, Oraon and Kondh belong to the Dravidian linguistic group.

History of Orissa: Orissa has a history spanning a period of over 3000 years. The history of Orissa is in many ways atypical from that of the northern plains and many of the common generalizations that are made about Indian history do not seem to apply to the Oriya region. The word Oriya is an anglicised version of Odia which itself is a modern name for the Odra or Udra tribes that inhabited the central belt of modern Orissa. Orissa has also been the home of the Kalinga and Utkal nations that played a particularly prominent role in the region's history, and one of the earliest references to the ancient Kalingas appears in the writings of Vedic chroniclers. In the 6th C. BC, Vedic Sutrakara Baudhayana mentions Kalinga as being beyond the Vedic fold, indicating that Brahminical influences had not yet touched the land. Unlike some other parts of India, tribal customs and traditions played a significant role in shaping political structures and cultural practices right up to the 15th C. when Brahminical influences triumphed over competing traditions and caste differentiation began to inhibit social mobility and erode what had survived of the ancient republican tradition.

A major turning point in world history took place in Orissa. The famous Kalinga War that led emperor Ashoka to embrace non-violence and the teachings of Buddha was fought here in 261 BC. Ashoka's military campaign against Kalinga was one of the bloodiest in Mauryan history on account of the fearless and heroic resistance offered by the Kalingas to the mighty armies of the expanding Mauryan empire. Perhaps on account of their unexpected bravery, emperor Ashoka was compelled to issue two edicts specifically calling for a just and benign administration in Kalinga. Later on, Ashoka was instrumental in spreading Buddhist philosophy all over Asia.

Kalinga was a major seafaring nation that controlled and traded with most of the sea routes in the Bay of Bengal. For several centuries, a substantial part of South Asia & Southeast Asia was under its cultural influence. The temple at Angkor Wat is a fine example of Oriya-influenced Indian architecture. Some parts of Southern and South Eastern Asia such as Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, Bali, Vietnam and Thailand were colonized by people from Orissa. In Malaysia, Indians are still referred as Kalings because of this. Many illustrious Sri Lankan kings such as Nisanka Malla and Parakarama Bahu claim Kalinga origin. The king who destroyed the Sinhalese Buddhist control of Northern Sri Lanka and established a Hindu Kingdom in Jaffna was known as Kalinga Magha. One theory holds that the name of the country "Siam" for Thailand is derived from Oriya/Sanskrit Shyamadesha. The Angkor Wat in Cambodia is Orissan, with local variations. Bali in Indonesia still retains its Orissan-influenced Hindu heritage.

* Genetics of Castes and Tribes of India: Indian Population Milieu by M. K. Bhasin

* Videos: History of Sun Temple at Knoark, Orissa, Boita Bandan Utsav & Maritime Past of Orissa, Orissa Women Against Mining

 

 

Paroja

(Photo from indianetzone)

The Dravidian family of languages includes approximately 85 languages, spoken by around 200 million people. They are mainly spoken in southern India and parts of eastern and central India as well as in northeastern Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. Among them Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam are the members with the most speakers. There are also small groups of Dravidian-speaking scheduled tribes, who live beyond the mainstream communities. It is often speculated that Dravidian languages are native to India. Epigraphically the Dravidian languages have been attested since the 6th century BC.

 

 

Gadaba

(Photo from indianetzone)

The Austro-Asiatic languages are a large language family of Southeast Asia, and also scattered throughout India and Bangladesh. The name comes from the Latin word for "south" and the Greek name of Asia, hence "South Asia". Among these languages, only Vietnamese, Khmer, and Mon have a long recorded history, and only Vietnamese and Khmer have official status (in Vietnam and Cambodia, respectively). The rest of the languages are spoken by minority groups.

Austro-Asiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. It is widely believed that the Austro-Asiatic languages are the autochthonous languages of Southeast Asia and the eastern Indian subcontinent, and that the other languages of the region, including the Indo-European, Tai-Kadai, Dravidian, and Sino-Tibetan languages, are the result of later migrations of people. (There are, for example, Austro-Asiatic words in the Tibeto-Burman languages of eastern Nepal.) Some linguists have attempted to prove that Austro-Asiatic languages are related to Austronesian languages, thus forming the Austric superfamily.

 

 

Australoid / Proto-Austroloid

Australoid: The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept's existence is based on the typological method of racial classification. They were described as having dark skin with wavy hair, in the case of Aboriginal Australians, or hair ranging from straight to kinky in the case of Melanesian and Negrito groups. According to this model of classification, Australoid peoples ranged throughout Australia, New Guinea, and Melanesia, as well as parts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Southern India. In the mid-twentieth century an argument emerged that Australoids were linked to proto-Caucasoids.

Balgir (2004) designates tribes as Australoid or Proto-Australoid according to language family:

It may be mentioned here that the major scheduled tribes of Orissa belong to three linguistic groups, namely, 1. Indo-Aryan or Indo-Europeans, i.e. Non-Australoid, 2. Austro-Asiatic (Mundari) speakers, i.e. Proto-Australoid, and 3. Dravidian (Gondi or Kuvi) speakers, i.e. Australoid. Proto-Australoid racial group includes Bhumiz, Gadaba, Juang, Kharia, Koda, Kolha, Mahali, Mirdha, Munda, Santal and Saora tribes. Tribes like Bathudi, Bhatra, Binjhal, Bhuyan, Lodha and Saunti belong to non-Australoid racial stock while Australoid racial stock is represented by Gond, Kondh, Kissan, Oraon, Paraja and Pentia Halva tribes.

Proto-Australoid: The Proto-Australoids were a hypothetical ancient hunter-gatherer people descended from the first major wave of modern humans to leave Africa 100,000 years ago. Characterised by gracile body types, they are thought to have had dark skin colour approaching black and wavy or curly black hair. They had long heads and broad, flat noses.

The proto-Australoids are thought to have begun their exodus out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. They are thought to have used a simple form of watercraft to cross the narrow span of water between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. From there it is hypothesized that they followed a coastal route through south asia into Southeast Asia. While some individuals made a short oceanic voyage into Australia (50-60 KYA), giving rise to the Australian Aborigines, others continued their coastal migration north into East Asia.

Although strongly debated, it is believed that some proto-Australoid tribes may have continued their coastal migration north into East Asia, from where they pushed on into Siberia and eventually crossed the Bering Land Bridge (or followed a coastal route) into the Americas, contributing to a hypothetical population of Pre-Siberian American Aborigines.

Proponents of a proto-Australoid population wave theorize that remnants of this early founding population may be found today in Southern portion of the subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Oceania. Some have proposed connections to the Ainu of Japan. Genetically, they have been tentatively associated by some authors with mtDNA haplogroup M and Y-chromosome Haplogroup C, the earliest Homo Sapiens lineages thought to have migrated outside of Africa.

 

Haplogroup C (Y-DNA)

 

Haplogroup M (mtDNA)

 

 

Coastal Migration

Coastal Migration is a term sometimes used in modern anthropology and genetics for the concept that, from a single origin in Africa 100-200 thousand years before present (kybp), humanity first spread eastwards to areas outside Africa along routes that were predominantly located around coastlines. Other terms, such as Rapid Coastal Settlement, Coastal Migration Theory and Coastal Migration Model, are also used.

Coastal Migration Theory in Asia and Oceania: The coastal route is primarily used to describe the initial peopling of the Arabian peninsula, India, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Australia, coastal China and Japan, and is linked with the presence and dispersal of mtDNA haplogroup M and haplogroup N, as well has the specific distribution patterns of Y-DNA haplogroup C and haplogroup D, in these regions. The theory proposes that humans, likely similar to the Negritos or Proto-Australoids of modern times, arrived in the Arabian peninsula from Africa, then on the southern coastal regions of the Indian mainland, followed by spread to the Andaman Islands and modern-day Indonesia, and thence branching southwards to Australia and northwards towards Japan. National Geographic's Genographic Project uses the term 'Coastal Clan' to describe the initial human groups of Y-DNA haplogroup C who expanded eastwards out from Africa along the coastal route around 50 kybp.

 

* 一場古老傳說的追索冒險---尋找矮黑人系列（一） by 徐仁修

 

* The Song Remains the Same. The Saisiyat Will Soon Commemorate Their Passing, Vice President Annette Lu Believes in Them and There Is Scientific Evidence Supporting Their Existence: A lost race of short people that may have once roamed Taiwan by Jules Quartly

Excerpt: Once upon a time a black, hobbit-sized people inhabited Taiwan, fishing by the sea and living in the hills. They prospered for millennia but dwindled as waves of Austronesian-speakers and then Chinese immigrants populated the island.

According to Saisiyat (賽夏族) legend, a tribe member killed off the last of what they call the "short people," or ta-ay (達矮), by cutting down a bridge over which they were traversing. The remnants of the short people had been accused of molesting a Saisiyat princess. Before the race died out, however, the short people passed on their knowledge of agriculture, medicine, fire lighting, rice wine making and folklore to the Saisiyat. Much of this knowledge was handed on in the form of songs and dances, which the Saisiyat believe they must perform, or they themselves will die out. Comprised of about 5,000 members, the Saisiyat is one of Taiwan's smallest Aboriginal tribes.

In recent times the commemorative "festival of the short people" (矮靈祭) has been performed every two years. Every decade there is a special festival and it falls this year on Dec. 2. It will be held over three days and nights in Wufeng (五峰), Hsinchu County.

 

* Immunoglobulin Allotypes Among Taiwan Aborigines: Evidence of Malarial Selection Could Affect Studies of Population Affinity by S. Moses Schanfield, et al.

Abstract: The aborigines of Taiwan represent the indigenous inhabitants of the island at the time of the arrival of the Chinese from the mainland. Linguistically, the aboriginal Taiwanese are related to the Malayo-Polynesian speaking inhabitants of Indonesia and the Philippines. Three tribes occupied lowland areas while six tribes occupied highland areas. Previous studies indicate that genetic markers associated with malaria occur in lowland populations. Though the GM haplotypes are demonstrated to be very useful in the measure of population affinities, the possibility of malarial selection on this locus could affect studies of population affinity. The present work is a case study to see whether a subdivided insular population under a possible selective load will provide divergent clustering analysis depending on the population sampled. Immunoglobulin allotype (GM and KM) profiles were generated on 230 lowland and 407 highland Taiwan Aborigines from the nine tribes. A highly significant difference in GM haplotype distribution was detected between lowland and highland populations (adjusted G = 69.408, 2 df [degrees of freedom], p < 0.00001). There were no significant differences in KM*1 frequency by altitude. The Taiwan Aboriginal GM and KM frequencies were compared to data from Indonesians, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Chinese from Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islanders from Okinawa using cluster analysis. The lowland populations plot among the Thai (N, NC) and Malayan Aborigines. In contrast, the highland and total Taiwan Aborigine samples plot with the Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Malayan Negrito samples. Thus, depending on the populations of Taiwan Aborigines used, different conclusions could be reached. The highland population supports the published linguistic ties; however, the lowland population does not support the linguistic relationship with Indonesian populations but is more closely related to Thai and Malays, or reflects a similar selection history.

 

* The GM Genetic Polymorphism in Taiwan Aborigines: New data revealing remarkable differentiation patterns
by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, et al.

Multidimensional Scaling Analysis among 63 Populations from Southeast Asia Excluding all Sino-Tibetans but the Southern Chinese (grouped)

Minnan (Taiwan) clusters with Aetas, Nanchang (Jiangzi) and mixed (*)
Atayal (Taiwan) , Taroko (Taiwan) cluster with Aetas, Java, Malay

The ‘mixed’ sample is composed of individuals from Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan. ST-SC: Sino-Tibetan, Southern Chinese (Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka, Yue); AA: Austroasiatic; KA: Tai-Kadai; AN-EF: Extra-Formosan Austronesian; AN-TW: Autronesian from Taiwan; HM: Hmong-Mien.

 

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphism among Five Asian Populations by S. Harihara, et al.

Five Asian Populations of which Samples Were Analyzed in this Study

 

Phylogenetic Tree Based on Genetic Distances for Five Asian Populations

Summary: Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms were detected using 13 restriction enzymes on the total DNA obtained from blood samples of five Asian populations: Japanese and Ainu of northern Japan, Korean, Negrito (Aeta) of the Philippines, and Vedda of Sri Lanka. Of a total of 28 restriction-enzyme morphs detected, eight had not been reported previously. By combining the morphs, we were able to classify mtDNAs of 243 individuals into 20 mtDNA types. Phylogenetic analyses using maximum parsimony and genetic distance methods both showed that the Japanese, Ainu, and Korean populations were closely related to each other. Aeta was found to show a relatively close relationship to these three populations, confirming the conclusion from previous studies of blood markers. In contrast, Vedda was quite different from the other four populations.

 

Aeta

(Image from The Peopling of the Philippines by Robert Lindsay)

The Aeta (pronounced as “eye-ta,”), Agta or Ayta are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Luzon, Philippines. They are considered to be Negritos, who are dark to very dark brown skinned and tend to have features such as a small stature, small frame, curly hair, small nose, and dark brown eyes. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.

The history of the Aeta continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines, who, contrary to their sea-faring Austronesian neighbors, arrived through land bridges that linked the country with the Asian mainland about 30,000 years ago.

The life expectancy at birth of the Aeta is just 16.5 years, with only a third of children surviving to adulthood at 15 years – at which point life expectancy is still only 27.3 years. Young women reach full adult height (average 140 cm) at age 12 or 13.

 

The Semang

(Photo from Glossary of Physical-anthropological Terms)

The Semang are a Negrito ethnic group of the Malay Peninsula. Lowland Semang tribes are also known as Sakai. They are probably the indigenous peoples of this area, and have been recorded to have lived here since before the 200s. They are ethnologically described as nomadic hunter-gatherers.

They are thought to be related to other Negritos, such as the natives of the Andaman Islands, and the Aetas of the Philippines. Their languages, however, are Aslian, in the Mon-Khmer family.

The men average about 153.6cm (5ft 1/2in), while the women are 142.7cm (4ft 8in). Their color is a very dark brown or black. The shape of the head is round, or intermediate between round and long. The forehead is low and rounded, and projects over the root of the nose, which is short, depressed and pyramid-shaped. The eyes are often wide open and round, even at times showing no obliquity, the iris being of a very rich, deep brown. Lips vary from moderate to full, the mouth is rather large, and the jaws are often slightly projecting.

The hair is very dark-brown black, never blue-black as among Chinese and Malays. It grows in short, spiral tufts, curling closely all over the head.

The Semangs live in caves or leaf-shelters formed between branches. A waistcloth for the men, made of tree bark hammered out with a wooden mallet from the bark of the terap, a species of wild bread-fruit tree, and a short petticoat of the same for the women, is the only dress worn; many go naked.

Tattooing, or rather scarring, is practised, by drawing the finely serrated edge of a sugarcane leaf across the skin and rubbing in charcoal powder.

They have bamboo musical instruments, a kind of Jew's harp and a nose flute. On festive occasions there is song and dance, both sexes decorating themselves with leaves. The Semangs bury their dead simply, food and drink being placed in the grave.

 

* Phylogeography and Ethnogenesis of Aboriginal Southeast Asians by Catherine Hill, et al.

Abstract: Studying the genetic history of the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia can provide crucial clues to the peopling of Southeast Asia as a whole. We have analyzed mitochondrial DNA control-region and coding-region markers in 447 mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) from the region, including 260 Orang Asli, representative of each of the traditional groupings, the Semang, the Senoi and the Aboriginal Malays, allowing us to test hypotheses about their origins. All of the Orang Asli groups have undergone high levels of genetic drift, but phylogeographic traces nevertheless remain of the ancestry of their maternal lineages. The Semang have a deep ancestry within the Malay Peninsula, dating to the initial settlement from Africa >50,000 years ago. The Senoi appear to be a composite group, with approximately half of the maternal lineages tracing back to the ancestors of the Semang, and about half to Indochina. This is in agreement with the suggestion that they represent the descendants of early Austroasiatic speaking agriculturalists, who brought both their language and their technology to the southern part of the peninsula ~4000 years ago, and coalesced with the indigenous population. The Aboriginal Malays are more diverse, and although they show some connections with island Southeast Asia, as expected, they also harbor haplogroups that are either novel or rare elsewhere. Contrary to expectations, complete mtDNA genome sequences from one of these, R9b, suggest an ancestry in Indochina around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by an early-Holocene dispersal through the Malay Peninsula into island Southeast Asia.

 

* Ancient Mitochondrial DNA from Malaysian Hair Samples: Some indications of Southeast Asian population movements by F. X. Ricaut, et al.

Abstract: The late Pleistocene and early Holocene population history of Southeast Asia is not well-known. Our study provides new data on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula, and through an extensive comparison to the known mtDNA diversity in Southeast and East Asia, provides some new insights into the origins and historical geography of certain mtDNA lineages in the region. We extracted DNA from hair samples (dating back 100 years) preserved in the Duckworth Collection and belonging to two Peninsular Malaysian individuals identified as "Negrito." Ancient DNA was analyzed by sequencing hypervariable region I (HVS-I) of the mtDNA control region and the mtDNA region V length polymorphism. The results show that the maternal lineages of these individuals belong to a recently defined haplogroup B sub-branch called B4c2. A comparison of mitochondrial haplotypes and haplogroups with those of 10,349 East Asian individuals indicates their very restricted geographical distribution (southwestern China, Southeast Asia Peninsula, and Indonesia). Recalculation of the B4c2 age across all of East Asia ( approximately 13,000 years) and in different subregions/populations suggests its rapid diffusion in Southeast Asia between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic expansion of the Holocene.

 

 

* Prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Taiwan: A Model for Strain Evolution Linked to PopulationMigration by Horng-Yunn Dou, et al.

Excerpt:

Route 1. The Beijing strain may have migrated to Taiwan through two separate historic events: the first during the Ming dynasty and the second wave shortly after World War II. Through these two migrations, the ancient Beijing strain has evolved into the modern Beijing strain.

Route 2. Haarlem originated in the Netherlands. It migrated to Taiwan during the Dutch reign over the island in the 16th century and continues to be a major strain here. It is also important to note that there has been no observed genetic mutation in the strain that was passed onto the natives of Taiwan. The Haarlem strain that remained in the Netherlands, however, has mutations in the ogt and mgtC genes, thus, resulting in SNP variants.

Route 3. LAM originated in both Europe and the Americas. It may have migrated to Taiwan during the Portuguese reign in the 16th century and been passed on to the natives of Taiwan.

Route 4. EAI (East-African Indian) originated in Taiwanese aborigines, entering Taiwan four thousand years ago. It may be closely associated with the Austronesian culture. The Austronesian peoples are a population in Oceania and Southeast Asia who speak languages of the Austronesian family. They include Taiwanese aborigines; the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Polynesia; the Polynesian peoples of New Zealand and Hawaii and the Austronesian peoples of Melanesia.

 

* Spoligotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from Different Provinces of China by H. Dong, et al.

Abstract: A total of 2,346 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from 13 provinces in China were genotyped by spoligotyping. Two hundred seventy-eight spoligotypes were identified: 2,153 isolates were grouped into 85 clusters, and the remaining 193 isolates were orphans. Comparison with the SpolDB4.0 database revealed that 118 spoligotypes had shared international type numbers in the database and the other 160 were novel. These 160 novel spoligotypes were assigned to families and subfamilies using the SpotClust program. The most prevalent family was the Beijing family (74.08%), followed by the T family (14.11%). CAS family strains were found only in the Xinjiang and Tibet regions, while EAI family strains were found only in Fujian Province. In conclusion, the present study of the M. tuberculosis population in China demonstrated that Beijing family isolates are the most prevalent strains in China and that they exhibit geographical variation. Furthermore, many new spoligotypes were found in this study.

 

* Characterization of Predominant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains from Different Subpopulations of India by Jyoti Arora, et al.

Abstract: The predominant strains from India belong to Central-Asian (CAS) and the East-African-Indian (EAI) clade of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The two clades have also been shown to be geographically partitioned. The study of such strains may help to understand the characteristics that make M. tuberculosis an effective pathogen and its overrepresentation in certain populations. M. tuberculosis isolates characterized by spoligotyping under a population based tuberculosis study covering different regions from the North and South India were further analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and by deletion analysis of M. tuberculosis specific deletion region 1 (TbD1). The genetic relationship of the two clades inferred using different genetic markers showed good correlation. In the North where the CAS clade predominates the isolates are characterized by presence of high IS6110 copy number and absence of TbD1 region whereas in the South where the EAI clade predominates the isolates are characterized by low copy number of IS6110 and presence of TbD1 region. The ancestral EAI strains were found to be less often associated with drug resistance or young age as compared to the CAS clade. The study highlights that the EAI lineage is well established in India and that CAS may be emerging or more recently introduced to India. The results depict a distinction in the lineage of strains from the North versus South India indicating a need to study if the pathogen has adapted to specific human populations.

 

* 非原住民台灣人的基因結構 by 林媽利

Excerpt: 從基因的結構上，台灣人分少數的台灣原住民及大多數的非原住民台灣人，台灣原住民在台灣島內經過幾千年長期的隔離，形成相似及一致的基因結構。非原住民的台灣人是由多個族群融合而形成，因此基因結構多樣及互異。我們共分析一百名非原住民台灣人的體染色體組織抗原、母系血緣及父系血緣，試著探討台灣人與周圍族群的關係，也就是與台灣原住民、東南亞島嶼族群（印尼、菲律賓）、中國的福建廣東及亞洲大陸的關係。這一百人中有十九人的近代祖先來自福建廣東，三人的祖父來自其他省份，沒外國祖先。

組織抗原及許多體染色體基因的研究，可從建構族群關係樹測定族群間親緣的遠近關係，可惜這關係樹看不清楚混血的情形。然而我們成功的比對了福建人與台灣人間共有組織抗原半套型的情形，發現台灣人的半套型基因有四十八％是來自福建，其他五十二％主要來自原住民、東南亞島嶼族群及少數的可能來自歐洲、日本、東北亞、印度及西藏。

 

* Extreme mtDNA Homogeneity in Continental Asian Populations by Hiroki Oota, et al.

Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Finns - Kirghiz Lowlander - British - Kazakh - Turks - Basques - Sardinian
Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Finns - Indian - Ainu - Aboriginal Australian - Anatolia Turks - Borneo
Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Korean - Philippines - Uighurs - Changsha - Taiwanese (aborigines) - Vietnamese - Vanuata - Indonesian - PNG
Tw (Taiwan Han Chinese) Ca (Cantonese) - Xi'an - Tottori (Japanese) - Kirghiz Highlander - Mongolian - Ngoebe - Altai of Siberia - Amerind - Argentina - Siberians

 

 

Indosphere

  

Indosphere, as defined by linguist James Matisoff, refers to areas of Indian linguistic and cultural influence in Southeast Asia. It is commonly used in areal linguistics to contrast with Sinosphere, which refers to the cultures and languages influenced by proximity to China.

Indosphere covers most of the Indian subcontinent including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. In addition, other countries which lie within this sphere include Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, peninsular Malaysia and parts of Yunnan. Related scripts are also found in South East Asian islands ranging from Sumatra, Java, Bali, south Sulawesi and parts of the Philippines. Cultures and languages in MSEA have long been in contact with adjoining cultures of India and China and thus influenced by them. Depending upon the dominant political, religious and cultural influence, linguists and anthropologists divide MSEA into the two distinct classes, Indosphere and Sinosphere. Thus Indosphere is defined by N. J. Enfield as "a socio-political sphere of MSEA, subsuming those countries, cultures, and languages that have historically come under influence of the politics, culture, religion, and languages of India (notably, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma)." According to Enfield, long term lexical diffusion between languages belonging to five major language families, in addition to genealogical inheritance, has resulted in extensive parallels in linguistic structures of the languages of the region.

A Chindian is a person of both Chinese and Indian ancestry. There are a considerable number of Chindians in Malaysia and Singapore, where people of Chinese and Indian origin immigrated in large numbers during the 19th century. There are also smaller numbers of Chindians in Hong Kong and other countries with overseas Chinese and Indian diaspora such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana in the Caribbean, as well as the United States and United Kingdom.

* Malaysian Indian, Indians in Singapore, South Asians in the Philippines, South Asians in Hong Kong, Burmese Indians, Ethnic Groups in Cambodia, Chinese Community in Kolkata

* Indianized Kingdom

 

 

Sino-Indian Relations

China and India are separated by the formidable geographical obstacles of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayan mountain chain, with Tibet serving as a buffer region between the two.

India and China had relatively little political contact before the 1950s. Despite this, both countries have had extensive cultural contact since the first century, especially with the transmission of Buddhism from India to China. Trade relations via the Silk Road acted as economic contact between the two regions.

After the transmission of Buddhism from India to China from the first century onwards, many Indian scholars and monks travelled to China, such as Batuo (fl. 464-495 AD)—founder of the Shaolin Monastery (少林寺)—and Bodhidharma—founder of Chan/Zen Buddhism—while many Chinese scholars and monks also travelled to India, such as Xuanzang (b. 604) and I Ching (635-713), both of whom were students at Nalanda University in Bihar. Xuanzang wrote the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, an account of his journey to India, which later inspired Wu Cheng'en's Ming Dynasty novel Journey to the West (西遊記; e-book), one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

During the 8th century, the astronomical table of sines by the Indian astronomer and mathematician, Aryabhata (476-550), were translated into the Chinese astronomical and mathematical book of the Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan Era (Kaiyuan Zhanjing), compiled in 718 AD during the Tang Dynasty. The Kaiyuan Zhanjing was compiled by Gautama Siddha, an astronomer and astrologer born in Chang'an, and whose family was originally from India. He was also notable for his translation of the Navagraha calendar into Chinese.