Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Biological and Physical Anthropology
Making Friends In The Rainforest: "Negrito" Adaptation To Risk And Uncertainty, Lye Tuck-Po
Making Friends In The Rainforest: "Negrito" Adaptation To Risk And Uncertainty, Lye Tuck-Po
Human Biology
The so-called negritos adapt not just to a tropical forest environment but also to an environment characterized by perturbations and fluctuations. As with other hunter-gatherers in the region and, indeed, throughout the world, they use both social and ecological methods to enhance their chances of survival in this changing environment: socially, they have developed networks of trading and marriage partners; ecologically, they maintain patches of key resources that are available for future harvesting. As evidenced in the case of the Batek (Orang Asli), patterns of forest structure and composition are sometimes direct outcomes of intentional resource concentration and enrichment strategies. …
Why Have The Peninsular "Negritos" Remained Distinct?, Geoffrey Benjamin
Why Have The Peninsular "Negritos" Remained Distinct?, Geoffrey Benjamin
Human Biology
The primary focus of this article is on the so-called negritos of Peninsular Malaysia and southern Thailand, but attention is also paid to other parts of Southeast Asia. I present a survey of current views on the "negrito" phenotype—is it single or many? If the phenotype is many (as now seems likely), it must have resulted from parallel evolution in the several different regions where it has been claimed to exist. This would suggest (contrary to certain views that have been expressed on the basis of very partial genetic data) that the phenotype originated recently and by biologically well-authenticated processes …
Terror From The Sky: Unconventional Linguistic Clues To The Negrito Past, Robert Blust
Terror From The Sky: Unconventional Linguistic Clues To The Negrito Past, Robert Blust
Human Biology
Within recorded history. most Southeast Asian peoples have been of "southern Mongoloid" physical type, whether they speak Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Austronesian, Tai-Kadai, or Hmong-Mien languages. However, population distributions suggest that this is a post-Pleistocene phenomenon and that for tens of millennia before the last glaciation ended Greater Mainland Southeast Asia, which included the currently insular world that rests on the Sunda Shelf, was peopled by short, dark-skinned, frizzy-haired foragers whose descendants in the Philippines came to be labeled by the sixteenth-century Spanish colonizers as "negritos," a term that has since been extended to similar groups throughout the region. There are three …
Hunter-Gatherers In Southeast Asia: From Prehistory To The Present, Charles Higham
Hunter-Gatherers In Southeast Asia: From Prehistory To The Present, Charles Higham
Human Biology
Anatomically modern hunter-gatherers expanded from Africa into Southeast Asia at least 50,000 years ago, where they probably encountered and interacted with populations of Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis and the recently discovered Denisovans. Simulation studies suggest that these hunter-gatherers may well have followed a coastal route that ultimately led to the settlement of Sahul, while archaeology confirms that they also crossed significant seas and explored well into the interior. They also adapted to marked environmental changes that alternated between relatively cool and dry conditions and warmer, wetter interludes. During the former, the sea fell by up to 120 m below …