The Peopling of Indonesia

Repost from the old site. Updated September 20, 2016. I am republishing this post because I have significantly reworked the genetics of the Indonesians. Instead of being mostly Austronesians from Taiwan, I now say they are mostly related to an ancient Melanesian Dai group from SE China that came 10-20,000 years ago. This group imposed itself on the original people, who were Papuans. Later, Austronesians came through, leaving languages but only some genes. The breakdown of Indonesians is approximately 7 The ancient Dai appear to have undergone the same progression towards Mongoloid as occurred with Melanesians throughout Inland SE Asia. In island SE Asia (Melanesia) and the East of Indonesia, this progression was much less complete, so people still have strong Melanesian elements. The degree to which some Melanesians resemble Negritos is rather striking. To sum up, the new data indicates that most Indonesians are not related primarily to Taiwanese aborigines as originally thought. Instead they are related to Daics from far SE China who left their homeland during post-glacial flooding that occurred after 18,000 years ago. Only 2 The prehistory of Indonesia is an interesting question, but it is little studied.

Typical Indonesian men. The one on the left looks very Chinese or Filipino. The one on the right looks a little different. Indonesians are dark, but the place is right on the equator, so this is to be expected.

  Very early man, Homo Erectus, has been found in the islands dating way back. A multiregional theory has been suggested for the evolution of man in Indonesia, China and maybe other areas. This theory has been rejected, however there may be some continuity in China with older forms dating back 120,000 years or so. The Chinese, Japanese and now Indonesians all want to say they came from a different monkey. The theory is also very popular with White Nationalists who are extremely insulted by the idea of being descended from African Blacks. In Indonesia and China, these ideas have more to do with the spread of idiotically antiscientific nationalist-based theories than anything else. In Indonesia, the nation’s top archaeologist deliberately destroyed bones of Homo Florensis recently in spite over the rejection of his pet theory, that the Homo Erectus relative that lived in modern times are just modern humans who are microencephalic. This theory seems crazy but is making the rounds in peer-reviewed journals nevertheless. Nationalism and science has never worked well, with some particularly gruesome results especially in the past century. Florensis is a tiny midget of an early man who is a different species from us. They may have lived up until 150 years ago, but the hard evidence so far shows they lived until 13,000 years ago at the latest. I believe they lived until the arrival of the Europeans. It is possible some may yet exist to this day. There are a lot of questions about whether or not Florensis and locals bred in. Some of the locals are very short, and some even think they may have Florensis like features. Locals say that the Little People are their ancestors. The Little People would come to their villages and hide in the forest watching them. Locals would leave food for the Little People in baskets, and the Little People would come when no one was around and take the food – they were described as very shy. It is amazing that such a primitive man could live in such proximity to modern Homo without genocidal results. In the past, contacts between more modern civilizations and more primitive ones usually had genocidal results. Examples include Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Africa, the Americas, Siberia, and probably other places. Before Florensis, there is Java Man, who dates back possibly to 2 million years. It is due to the prominence of Java Man that the Indonesian “scientists” have indulged in their childish and petty behavior. Actually, the Indonesian case above is more complicated than that – the destroyer of the skulls is the grand old man of Indonesian archeology, and he cannot be touched. There are a number of younger archaeologists there who think the man is an old fool, which he is, but no can do a thing about him. The question of Homo Erectus being put aside, we now turn to the development of modern Homo in Indonesia. Here, very little is known for some reason, but we do have that 33,000 yr. old find in the Malukus. These people are called Melanesians for lack of a better word, but it also appears that there were cultural contacts with Australians across the straights. I believe that a better term for these early people is Papuans. At this time, Melanesians were probably generalized all throughout SE Asia. Sometime around 10-15,000 years ago, these Papuans populated most of the Mulukus. The nature of the aforementioned contacts with the Australians, genetic or otherwise, is not known, but that such early modern man had such excellent boats is stunning. Much is made by racists of the primitiveness and low IQ’s of Aborigines. However, we should note the profound cultural achievement it took to make those boats to get to Australia in the first place. But we had great boats when we first left the African Horn at Somalia and Djibouti, went to Yemen and moved along the coast all the say to SE Asia, stopping along the way in Iran, Yemen, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, New Guinea, Melanesia and Australia. There is a chain of Negritos in every one of these places, probably the last remainders of the first modern men that left Africa 60-70,000 years. In Australia, the Negritos went to the Aborigine Major Race; in Papua, they went to the Papuan Major Race, in Melanesia to the Melanesian Minor Race. However, recent data suggests that the Melanesian race is extremely diverse, so it may have to be re-evaluated. Some analyses show Melanesians clustering fairly close to Papuans, yet others show Papuans as a vast major race, tied with Aborigines as the most diverse on Earth after Africans. They are also some of the furthest away from Africans. Whites are more closely related to Africans than Papuans are, yet everyone from Afrocentrists to White Nationalists wants to say Papuans are Black people. In the North, they went on to form the early basis for all members of the Asian Macro-race today. The standard history is that some unknown Melanesians, about whom we know little, were the original inhabitants of Indonesia. Recent research sheds some light on the genesis of these Melanesians. Turner, a specialist in teeth, using dental morphological traits, hypothesized that two migrations originated from central China about 20-30,000 YBP (years before present). One group, the Sinodonts, expanded northward into China, Siberia and across the Bering land bridge to the New World. The second group, the Sundadonts, moved southward into Southeast Asia and Indonesia, and later through Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. This is probably the group that gave rise to the Melanesians. But the picture is more complicated than that. Indonesia was settled independently by ancient Dai. These Dai came from from Hainan and Guangxi in far southern China about 10-20,000 YBP. They may have left due to rising sea levels that flooded their lands. The ancient Dai must have looked like Melanesians. The people most closely resembling the ancient Dai are the Taiwan aborigines. It is true that the Indonesians do not much resemble the Taiwan aborigines genetically, and their genetic structure in general is quite a bit different from Filipinos. However, this study does not explain how Indonesians came to speak Austronesian languages obviously derived ultimately from Taiwan. It is clear to me that when the Austronesians pushed through Indonesia several thousand years ago, the locals adopted the Austronesian tongues of the Austronesian colonizers, abandoning whatever tongues they were speaking at the time (I figure Papuan languages). Recent tests indicate that the Indonesians derive 7 They probably genetically swamped and colonized the native peoples, who were probably Papuans. Today, only the Malukus identify as Melanesians, despite the fact that there are Melanesians on Alor and in other places. On Timor, Sumba and Flores, there are people who are at least part-Melanesian who do not identify as Melanesian. Some of these people are up to 8 The standard history of the rest of the islands such as Sulawesi, Sumatra and Bali is that Austronesians came 4,000 years ago and pushed the native Melanesians to the east. However, this must be wrong. Instead of pushing Melanesians east, they bred in with them. Most Indonesians are an example of a race that used be common all through SE Asia, including Vietnam – the Ancient SE Asian Race. This race was widespread throughout SE Asia 2-4,000 years ago. It is Mongoloid with considerable Australoid admixture.

Tsunami victims in Aceh on Sumatra. They are quite dark as you can see, but that is a pigmentation process to enable females to store folic acid for pregnancy in order to give birth to viable infants. Protection against sunburn is an interesting theory, but sunburn, even melanoma, does not kill you before you have children.
They are members of the Island SE Asian Race. They may have an origin in part with the Paiwan aborigines of Taiwan.

  The Sumba and probably all of the other Lesser Sunda Islands are inhabited by people who are a mixture between Austronesians from Taiwan and native Melanesians – Ancient SE Asians, as described above. Timor also has Papuans and Polynesians. Early man arrived on Timor as early as 40,000 years ago. These people must have been Papuans. The Mulukus such as Babar and Ambon are inhabited by mixtures of Austronesians from Taiwan and Papuans in the case of Ambon and Melanesians in the case of Babar. 4,000 YBP, the Austronesians arrived in Indonesia from Taiwan. Mostly, these were the Ami, but there is a possibility that other Taiwanese aborigines were there also, in particular, the Paiwan. These were the Austronesians, the greatest mariners of all time, who settled the Philippines, Indonesia, coastal New Guinea, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. There are even said to have moved into mainland SE Asia, particularly Malaysia. In that case, they probably went to Sumatra first and then moved across the water to Malaysia.

These Indonesian Muslim women praying look very much like Malays. It is not known where they are from. They may be members of the Malay Race found on Java and Borneo in Indonesia described at the end of the post.

  They even seem to be a major component of the Vietnamese. Everywhere they went, the Austronesians brought a cultural revolution with them, often upgrading existing cultures, certainly so in the case of New Guinea. Austronesians arrived in Indonesia at least 4,000 years ago by boat, probably from the Philippines, where they already probably had a mature settlement. However, the Austronesians show up in Timor as early as 5,000 years ago, so 4,000 years BP may be too late. Next, at least on Timor, and probably throughout Indonesia, a wave of Proto-Malays moved through. A group settled Bali 5,000 years ago who may have been Proto-Malays. Proto-Malays are also important in the settlement of the Philippines and Malaysia. The proto-Malays who settled in the Philippines were said to be short and very hairy. The hairiness is odd for people living in a hot climate. If this description is true, I suggest that the Proto-Malay may have been an Ainu-like people, the Proto-NE Asians. A Southern origin is possible for the Ainu. The pre-Ainu, the Jomon, are said to have origins in Thailand 18,000 years ago. They got on boats and sailed to Japan. These hairy Proto-Malays may have been related to the pre-Jomon in Thailand long ago. Proto-Malays show up in the Philippines over 5,000 years BP, before the arrival of the Austronesians. The Proto-Malays who settled the Philippines and Indonesia are said to have had an origin in South China and Inland SE Asia. However, in Malaysia, the Proto-Malay are said to have been created in Malaysia 3,000 years ago as Austronesians bred in with existing Senoi, an Australoid, Negrito-like, or best of all, Veddoid people. The Proto-Malays are poorly understood, and some of what is said about them is contradictory. Austronesians show up in Sulawesi, Java, the Mulukus and Borneo 3,500 years ago. Austronesians moved from Borneo to Sumatra 2,500 years ago, and from there up into Malaysia to become a component of the Malay Race.

A beautiful woman on Samosir Island on Sumatra. She may be a Toba Batak, who are members of the Micronesian Race. Unless I am hallucinating, I think that many Micronesians look something like this. A possible explanation is that the Batak are the remains of those Austronesian-Melanesian mixes who populated Polynesia and then left Polynesia to populate Micronesia, but the situation is quite confused. In the background is one of the famous Toba Batak bark houses. She is in traditional dress. Note the resemblance to a Filipina. The Batak, like the Sea Dayak of northern Borneo and the Nesiot and Igorot of the Philippines, are linked to the first Austronesian wave out of Taiwan 5,000 years ago. This group is also linked to the Paiwan tribe on Taiwan.

  A cultural revolution in Indonesia called Đông Sơn was paralleled by similar developments throughout SE Asia. This culture was centered in the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam and northward in Southern Kwangzi and Kwangtung of China, while being generalized throughout Indonesia, showing up about 3,000 years ago. Originally, the Đông Sơn were said to be Austronesians, but the latest thinking is that this is an ancient Tai group. Wet-rice cultivation spread throughout the islands with Đông Sơn, but the native Melanesians were already engaging in wet-rice cultivation an incredible 10,000 years ago, making Indonesia one of the earliest sites for agriculture on Earth. The Đông Sơn culture was developing in Vietnam from 2,200-2,800 YBP. The Đông Sơn kept buffaloes and pigs, fished, grew rice and, in a clue to their Austronesian nature, sailed in long dugout canoes. An Iron Age people, they utilized metallurgy to make fine bronze objects, including drums and figurines. Racially, the Đông Sơn peoples belonged to the Indonesian or Ancient Southeast Asian group – a Southern Mongoloid with strong Australoid elements (Cuong, 1996). Đông Sơn also had elements of Dai culture from Yunnan and Laos, Khmer culture from Cambodia, Tibeto-Burman culture, and the prehistoric Plain of Jars culture in Laos. So all of these elements from mainland SE Asia and Southern China went into the stew that became Indonesian culture. Now, Indonesians are members of either the SE Asian Major Race, the Oceanian Major Race or the Papuan Major Race. For the most part, they seem to be some sort of a mixture between ancient Daic Melanesians and Austronesian Chinese (Taiwanese). Haplogroups C, E and F in Figure 1 here, seem to have a southern origin. These strains are apparent on a minor scale in Java, Borneo and Sulawesi. But in Southern Borneo, they reach levels up to 4 L is clearly the Ami of Taiwan, but G and H are less well-understood. This paper suggests that they have a southern (Melanesian) genesis, but that does not make much sense. H is present at high levels in the Taiwanese Atayal, Bunum and Paiwan, and G is present at high levels in the Bunum and the Paiwan. G is at even higher levels in Javans.

Some beautiful typical Indonesian women with the usual phenotype. Note the resemblance with Thais, Filipinas, and possibly Khmers. These women are Torajans, who look somewhat like the Batak people pictured above. 

  On a principle coordinates map here (Figure 4), Indonesians cluster close to Filipinos, the Ami of Taiwan and Southern Chinese. Indonesians today constitute several races. Papuans and Melanesians were mentioned above. The Toba Batak are Micronesians, but how they ended up in northern Sumatra is a mystery. Indonesians on Java and northern Borneo are members of the Malay Race, also found in Malaysia. Indonesians from Sumatra, Bali and the Sea Dayak of northern Borneo, along with the Paiwan aborigines from Taiwan, are members of the Island SE Asian Race. The Sea Dayak are also linked anthropologically with the first wave of Austronesians out of Taiwan 5,000 years ago, along with the Nesiot and Igorot in the Philippines. The suggestion is that the first wave of Austronesians may have been related to the Paiwan tribe. This clustering is odd, and suggests that the Paiwan, in addition to the Ami, may have been among the Austronesian seafarers who populated Indonesia.

Click to view details. Map showing the Paiwan, Atayal, Bunum and Ami aborigines of Taiwan. The Paiwan seem to have a relationship with the Sea Dayak of North Borneo, the Balinese, and the Sumatrans. This indicates that the Paiwan, located on the lower right on the map, may have helped to settle Indonesia as Austronesians along with the Ami who are usually associated with Austronesians. Note that both the Paiwan and the Ami were properly positioned to colonize island SE Asia.

  The Indonesians of Sulawesi, the Lesser Sundas and Borneo are members of the mainstream Indonesian Race.

References

Capelli, C., Wilson, J.F., Richards, M., Stumpf, M.P.H., Gratrix, F., Oppenheimer, S., Underhill, P., Pascali, V.L., Ko, T.M., and Goldstein, D.B. (2001). A Predominantly Indigenous Paternal Heritage for the Austronesian-Speaking Peoples of Insular Southeast Asia and Oceania. American Journal of Human Genetics 68:432-443. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., P. Menozzi, A. Piazza. (1994). History and Geography of Human Genes . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Cuong, N.L. 1996. Anthropological Research on Đông Sơnian Skeletons (in Vietnamese). Hanoi. Li H, Wen B, Chen SJ, Su B, Pramoonjago P, Liu Y, Pan S, Qin Z, Liu W, Cheng X, Yang N, Li X, Tran D, Lu D, Hsu MT, Deka R, Marzuki S, Tan CC, Jin L. 2008. Paternal Genetic Affinity Between Western Austronesians and Daic Populations. BMC Evol Biol. 8(1):146. Jablonski, N. and Chaplin, G. (2000). The Evolution of Human Skin Coloration. Journal of Human Evolution.

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48 thoughts on “The Peopling of Indonesia”

  1. Very interesting your idea ,if Ainu has the relations to proto malays. May be ,my friend is right , one day my friend told me about a minority group of north sulawesi(Indonesia) native. They have red hair and white skin. I dont know this native group name. I think they look like caucasoid or may be Ainu.

    1. Sorry, what robert lindsay says about indonesian here is completely false. His latest blog in 2011 even showed indonesians are 55% austro-asiatic (from southern china tai people) and 45% austronesian. There was no such thing as Dai melanesian, this is completely made up by him. Indonesians people are Tai-kradai from southern china.
      http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/9551/chartc.jpg
      Nothing against you robert lindsay but you have already make so many mistakes in so many blog, and is misleading some people. I do read some of your blogs, and used to think you were right, the way you write your blogs make it seem like you’re an expert but it always contradicts what every other real scientists and genetics’s say’s. Almost every blog you wrote always have contradiction to what other say, it’s as if you added your personal ideas on purpose. Why are you doing this?

      1. By the way even your link (genetic paper) does NOT mention anything about ancient melanesian daic people also known as tai people. Only that they came from southern china. So why did you misinterpret it?

        1. Tai people also known as Daic people are an mongoloid group from southern china. Just look at their pictures and genetic profile.
          There was never such thing as melanesian daic people

  2. Yes, I am convinced that the Ainu are related to the proto-Malays.
    I think that this group in S Sulawesi is probably a mix of Australoid and Mongoloid. Australoid-Mongoloid mixes can resemble Caucasians for some reason. That does not mean that they are Caucasians. I just think that the “Caucasoid” phenotype is one of the possible endpoints for a human phenotype based on the base material of human genetics. “African”, “Mongoloid” and “Australoid” are other possible endpoints, tendencies of which are seen in a wide variety of human types the world over.

  3. It is a common concept among many in south-east Asia that the majority of the ethnic groups inhabiting Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines form a related grouping.
    The term “Malay” in south-east Asia is both generic and specific.
    Specific because it refers to the major ethnic group inhabiting the Malay peninsula, the Riau islands, southwestern Sumatra and southernmost Thailand. These are the Malays or Melayu.
    Generic because the term ‘Malay’ is used to refer to all the groups believed to be related with one another including the Malays ; the Acehnese, Minangs and Mandailings of Sumatra ; the Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese and Baweans of Java ; the Banjars, Ibans and Kadazans of Borneo ; the Balinese ; the Sasaks of Lombok ; the Bugis, the Butons and the Makassars of Sulawesi ; the Chams of Cambodia ; and the Tausugs, Maguindanaos and the Pampangans of the Philippines.
    ( Of course, this labelling does not take into account any anthropological / linguistic differences which may exist : it comes more from feelings of established / historical kinship )
    So had a non-south East Asian remarks to a Malaysian or Indonesian how a Malay, or a Javanese or an Acehnese looks remarkably like a Filipino, it would not be taken as an insult or cause much of a surprise.
    In both Malaysia and Indonesia, there is a concept of “Serumpun” or oneness. And many in Malaysia and Indonesia regards the Filipinos as members of that “Serumpun “. Likewise, many Filipinos admit to the Malay aspect of their identity. The late Filipino independence leader Jose Rizal has had been described as a Malay leader. Indeed, there is a small group in the Philippines which advocates replacing Tagalog with Malay as the official language of that country.
    Using the term “Malay” to collectively identify these various groups varies from time to time and from ethnicity to ethnicity. It is the strongest among the ethnic-specific Malays; while many Javanese tend to reject this label.
    It would have been more telling if the report had broken down which ethnicity is more Dai, which is more Taiwan Aboriginal and which is more Papuan.
    In terms of skin colours, Sumatran ethnic groups tend to be lighter skinned while Baweans and many Javanese tend to be darker. The Sundanese and Bugis are well-known to be largely fair.

  4. It appears that your views are based on the premise of Out of Taiwan hypothesis? There is, however, an alternative and opposing view to your position – i.e. the one taken in “Eden in the East” by Stephen Oppenheimer. The Austronesians as you call it, he calls Austroasiatics, but according to his hypothesis, the origins of Austronesians is Island Southeast Asia or Sundaland. From this position then, he regards the Austronesian movement as being westwards and northeastwards (as well as eastwards). I do not have room here, but he builds his fairly solid hypothesis and maps out both the genetic marker trails, the progression of mythology variations. He also devotes an entire chapter with map of the various populations in the Malay peninsula and shows the corresponding language differences with the ancient populations of vastly differing origins – Austroasiatic, Austronesian and Palaeo-Hesperonesia, concluding that the Malay Peninsula was a location where the different east-west-onsite migrating groups converged. Based on the highly complex picture, I think your Ainu origin comments are less than helpful to an understanding of the complex origins of continental East Asians and Japanese. While, I accept there were likely trading influences from the ancient Austronesian seafaring network and possibly a few migrants from the Malay peninsula that may have contributed to the Japanese gene pool, but the extent of that contribution may have been extremely insignificant, and unless we can establish which grouping in the Malay peninsula contributed to the Japanese gene pool, it is hard to tell whether those “Austronesian genes” came from the Malay peninsula, it may as well have come from elsewhere, like Bali or other parts of Indonesia, Borneo or Papua New Guinea or the Philippines.

  5. Its interesting to note the Eden in the East Theory, as a counter to your out of China/Taiwan Theory. The Batak people of Indonesia, to whom I am related by marriage, maintain that they did not migrate from anywhere, and that they have always been in Sumatra, Indonesia. They are recognised in Indonesia as the oldest ethnic group. A very common Batak family name, Purba, means “ancient” or “timeless” in Bahasa Indonesia. Their traditions also detail the arrival of other people. Maybe its time for Western Academics to start listening to the people who know. Good research though, you are getting closer to the real story now. Good wishes to you.

    1. Purba in Batak also means East (of the eight winds). Eden in the East hypothesis. We have to wait for the next glaciation to search for possible evidence under the Sunda shelf (java sea and southchina sea)

  6. The origins of the Indonesian people cannot be viewed in insolation with the peopling of South East Asia in general both on the mainland and the Islands. Both the Austro Asiatic speaking populations and Austronesian speaking people mingled together. How these Austronesians and Austro-Asiatic looked like 5000 years ago is unknowable.
    Culture (including language) could be acquired without reference to physical characteristics. Thus the majority of the Fijians resembled “Melanesians” as seen in the Solomon Islands or New Caledonia instead of “classic” Polynesians seen in Samoa or the Marqueses. Their culture and language are entirely Polynesian and hence Austronesian in character.
    Madagascans particularly those from the coastal regions resembled Africans more than “classic” Indonesians. But the culture is more Austronesian with substantial African contribution. Many Madagascans could live in Jakarta or Bangkok, Pnom Penh or Guam without making heads turn. Many could also live in Dar es Salam or Mozambique with attracting notice either.
    To my mind, SE Asia was populated in the main by people resembing today Papuans and Melanesians before the arrival of the Austro Asiatic and the Austronesians before the last Ice Age.
    They lived in tropical climes unchanged from the East African Continent through out Arabia onwards to India (remember the climate in East Africa and Arabia were much more wetter then). Thus the skin colour and physical charateristics did not differ much.
    However one group did migrate north to colder climes in China and later became a constituent element of the Chinese nation. In colder climes the adaptation altered thier physical charaterictcs.
    Another group from Central Asia through the Eurasian stepps and siberia also migrated to North East Asia and south wards towards the Main river plains. By the time they got there. the physical charateristics of these people have changed as they had to adapt to extreme cold.
    These may exhibit what we term as “Mongoloid features”.
    One must remember, at this time people in all these regions were living as hunter gatherers roaming the country side. Population were sparse and a great deal of diversity could be exhibited as isolated population developed unique physical characteristics. No population group could number more than 50 members with a range of 100km. Intermarriage between neighbouring groups could occur , it could happen only seasonally or probably once every 3 or 4 years. The spread of certain charateristics and cultural or technological innovation was slow.
    All these changed when agriculture began to appear that could support large population. Thus physical attributes of population A would suddenly dominate a particular region if that population acquired agricuture and all the technological innovations that came with it. Thus population A could suddenly grow to the thousands viv- a – vis another non agricutural group whose physical members may not number more than in hundreds.
    Thus population A could absorb population B and population B’s charateristcs would be diluted in each suceeding generations.
    To conclude , I believe both the Austro Asiatic and the Austronesians were descended from one population from Central and South China as they acquired Agriculture. The Austronesians were basically populations that lived in the coastal area of Zhejiang and Fujian settlingng in Taiwan circa 5000-3000 BC. Some setlled at costal Vietman encountering Melanasian populations who were also already acquired agriculture.
    Both Austro Asiatic (“AA”)and Austronesian (“AN”)may have been predominantly Mongoloid in appearance in China.
    The AA primarily moved south into South East Asia as late Neolithic farmers and later early bronze age people.
    The Nagas in eastern India and the hill tribes all across Northern SEAsia could be remnant of these groups.
    In the crucible of the River Plains of Mainland SE Asia, The Irrawady, the Salwein, Menam Chao Phraya and Mekong a hybrid population of AA and Melanesian/Papuan/Negrito and the Mongoloid AA and some AN in Coastal areas. These river valleys are the places that could support large agricutural populations based on rice cultivations
    Sucessive migrations of AA from the north throught out the millenia may later diluted further the Melanoid features in mainland SE Asia. However the hybrid AA ,AN and Melanoid population could still be seen amonst Cambodians, in the hills of South Vietnam, and the Isthmus of Kra regions right through to the malay Peninsula. Pockets of Nerito populaiton could be seen in South Thailand and the penisular . In Culture, it was the AA’s cuture and language that won the day.
    The AN with their dominance over the seas could settle on the Islands of SE Asia with ease. They have already acquired advance agricutural techniques and metalurgy as they leave the Chinese coast. Settling in Taiwan, Philipines, Vietnamese coast and on wards to Borneo.
    In the Philippines, they may have intermarried with pockets of negrito to produce the “Malay” architype. But the most ancient of these groups such as the Igorots still show predominantly Mongoloid features therefore indicating that the Melanoid or Negrito populations May have been sparsed in the Philipines to contribute to the hybrid features we see in the Bataks, Coastal Malays, and Javanese populations.
    The same can be said of Borneo. It is the coastal tribes that has more varied features than the Inland tribes. One expalantion is that the Coastal tribes may have descended from AN groups that settled in Malay Peninsular, or from southern Vietnam and they further settled in Sumatra and Java picking up more Melanesians features.
    Later as Java took up extensive agricuture, the population explotion gave rise to Javanese men shown in the pictures on this blog.
    The Coastal AN (the latter day “Malays”) having more hybrid features went on to settle in the Moluccas, Celebes, as well as the Coastal Philippines circa 500 AD to 1300 AD from Sumatra and Malay Peninsular. and became the dominant population thereat as well as dominating the cultural sphere.
    As for the Flores Islands and beyond, the Coastal AN group that arrived there in boats were those that were produced at Sumatra , Java and have diluted Mongoloid features. They quickly dominated culturally imposing their way of life on the existing Melanoid populations but did not arrive in sufficient numbers to influenced the physical features of the original populations.
    Thus the this make up the physical and culutral make up of SE Asia as a whole.

  7. Genetically, Western Indonesians and a part of Central Indonesians are mixed of Austronesian and Austro-Asiatic ancestry. While Eastern Indonesians and a part of Central Indonesians are mixed of Austric and Melanesian and Papuan for West New Guinean.

      1. Indonesia strongly related to population dai kradai, tai, mon, khemer, vietnam a few tribes in northern China. Indeed they have only a few genes of taiwan in it, they belong to Austronesian because their language is very close. Indonesia is a product of: daic kradais
        (Austro-Asiatic) & Austronesian. But you know most people indonesia prefer if they are connected by filipinos , malaysia and brunei . because they assume the filipinas , malaysian and bruneis was a brother most nearest .

  8. i cant say that indonesian in from one origin breds . the diversity make its belonging to . the group of woman you’re mentioning as balinese for the slightest familiarity to whom knows definitely not bali culture appearance.

  9. Asal muasal suku2 di-ndonesia spt kemiripan bentuk peawakan tubuh.pakaian adat,tatacara etika budaya antara lain suku2:batak sumatera dengan suku toraja di sulawesi selatan,kemungkinan besar mereka serumpun yang bermigrasi di pulau2 indonesia melalui jalur laut atau darat? Ada kemiripan antara bentuk dan tatacara umum dari pakaian adat ,bentuk arsitektur rumah suku2 di sul awesi selatan a.l : bugis-makassar-buton-dengan dai tribal china selatan. Sifat ‘ingin tahu’asal muasal tidak mutlak harus seorang sejarahwan bukan?

      1. Hola Robert, Do you want to see the face of Indonesia to the oriental look like korean, you come to Indonesia and then you go to Borneo or Sumatra forests in the mountains or valley, you see Korean ancestors there.

  10. Native tribes in the prehistoric is very different from one section to other sections.
    Western Indonesia indigeneous were from Tibet, Yunnan, Mekong delta, Vietnam,Taiwan about 4000 BC to 3000 BC. About 1000 BC , a few east Indians came to Sumatra as merchants and intermaried with locals. About 500 BC many Brahmans-south Indians(thousands and with their family) came to Sumatera coasts and went to Java to build place of worship onmountains in Java( mountains in Java is higher than in Sumatra), They married to Java Indigeneous people and gave birth to Javanese,Sundanese, Bantenese and Balinese. Javanese,Sundanese, Bantenese and Balinese is Indo-Austronesians(Indians +Austronesia ). These Indo -Ausronesians who built first Hindu and Budha kingdom, So the founding fathers(many of them were Javanese) named that country Indonesia, Indonesia was from Indos/Indus (Indus river in India) means India, nesia is nesos meaning islands, so Indonesia means Islands of Indians.
    Central Indonesia indigeenous included east Borneo were from Taiwan unless one ethnic in north sulawesi called Minahasa, Minahasan’s ancestors were from north east asia, mainly from Buryatia region in Russia, they have genetic relation to Tungusic(Mongol) people. Buryatians(neolithic Mongoloid ) in 12000 BC(ice age) went to the south via Japan and land bridge that connected Japan and Philipine (in this time Sulawesi and Philipine was one island) and then went to north Sulawesi intermaried with Australoids, about 4000 BC Taiwans came to the north Sulawesi with boats and intermarried with pure Buryatians and Buryatians+Australoids.
    Eastern Indonesia indigeneous came from Australia and Java at 40000 BC.
    Race type is Australomelanesoid, ancestor was Homo Wajakensis.
    This is pre -history of Indoneians shortly.

    1. you make a false writing, modern genetics shows Indonesian people do not have mixed with indian, this only happens in the Sumatran blend that is of the tribe of Malay, while ..Javanese and Sundanese genetically closest to Yunan, south chinese,This is the origin of their groups. then Philippines while showing them the closest to taiwan indicating their blood relationship with the Polynesian & Micronesia .
      you are a Filipino / Polynesian try to make writing dirty here

      1. that is true
        kings of the kingdoms in Java have this blood line
        . I knew you are Indonesian nationalist, you hate this facts. And pure could not build Hindu and Budha temples.

    2. minahasa people, Dayak, Nias and Sunda,( west Indonesian ) maybe have Buryat origin, (mongolian) because the physical appearance of indicating origin, but depending on the shape of the eye.

  11. This is a blog ” The people of Indonesia” that is made is a real insult the to people of Indonesia, many of which deviate from the truth. This is the result of the work of Robert, probably at some point will be drawn protests. The results of fakes. believers are ” Blog ” stupid. If you want to know the history ” Indonesian” and so on from where the people of this country come and culture, ethnicity, religion, the peoples , look at ” wikipidia”

  12. from the way he put up a picture image, the content of the article, and so on, it was clear he “Robert” verry hates Indonesia. I think you do not know the result of this all

  13. TO:vgarangabo
    Not just Sundic kings ( kings in Java) but their people have indians genetic in their body.
    They are not100% Austronesian.
    they were born by highest caste from India ,brahmans.Just Brahmans could give birth to new kings.

      1. We did research in certain HLA (human leukocyte antigen) and found there is similarity between Indianese, Taiwanese, Han Chinese, Malaysianese but not with Koreanese and Japanese. I’d like to extend these research to find any correlation between tribes in Indonesia using these specific genes. Furthermore, refer to http://www.allelefrequencies.net, geographically, Indonesia is included Oceania, not Southeast Asia. I agree that Indonesian’s DNA has highly heterogenous.

        1. Oceania is Australian, the Indonesian island located between the SEA / Australian continent and among Singapore, PNG, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia, Philipines, and is flanked by the south china sea and indian ocean .then eastern Indonesia, including Sulawesi/Celeb is indented into the Pacific Islander ocean .

  14. O god!!!, only a fool would read this! Indonesians is not derived from blood Dai or Austronesian or anything, they are multi-racial .. all races come from all over the world. they have the blood of the North Europe, East Asian, Finnic, Indo-european, baltic, african, negro, india etc.
    Look THIS Indonesian with ( mixed blood )
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaSMd9cFhRY

    1. Yeah Agree with you !!!, but we” Indonesian ” have some mix of Dutch, Chinese,Arab,German etc. in our genetics haha. unlike our neighboring country “”Filipinos” are trying to claim to have European / White blood “Spanish” in the country’s population is not proven to be true, because of the physical and the genes they do not have it all. less from 0% mixed blood

      1. I thought majority had Arab, Indian and Chinese blood, with a hint of Dutch. They are a diverse nation, so it’s hard to assume that all people are the same.

        1. I saw with my eyes think about ” Indonesian mixed” , they have a bit of Arabic blood. .. well almost none of the and most prominent in the population is a mixture of east asian ” face mixed” ., with more than dutch mixed with some other European blood mainly Western / Northem Europa.

        2. The most dominant mixed for the current population of Indonesians I think is mixed chinese, then followed by the mixed dutch , then arab then japan then later german,danish,portuguese, british, india,persian etc. we face more mixed than the pure hahah…

      2. You are too over proud of your mixed! We Filipinos actually have Spanish blood but its only 3-5% and we are also diverse in looks. Filipinos have more foreign genes compared to you Indonesians. Filipinos are only 53% Southeast Asian and the rest of our genes are foreign unlike to you Indonesians who are 74% Southeast Asians…
        Let’s compare our genes!
        Filipino Gene Pool:
        Southeast Asia & Oceania: 53%
        Eastern Asia: 36%
        Southern Europe: 5%
        Southern Asia: 3%
        Native American: 2%
        Indonesian Gene Pool:
        Southeast Asia & Oceania: 74%
        Southern Asia: 9%
        Eastern Africa: 6%
        Southwest Asia & Persian Gulf: 6%
        Eastern Asia: 5%
        Source: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen/
        Base on the gene pool above we Filipinos are less Southeast Asian compared to Indonesian who score 74% but we (Filipinos) score high in Eastern Asia about 36% while Indonesian only 5%. But you Indonesian have more dark people compared to Filipinos because you score high in Southeast Asia and also you have more Southern Asia and Easter Africa genes too. I have nothing against Dark Skin as we also have it. What I am pointing out that Indonesians have more dark people compared to Filipinos and we are more mixed compared to Indonesians!

      3. You are too over proud of your mixed! We Filipinos actually have Spanish blood but its only 3-5% and we are also diverse in looks. Filipinos have more foreign genes compared to you Indonesians. Filipinos are only 53% Southeast Asian and the rest of our genes are foreign unlike to you Indonesians who are 74% Southeast Asians…
        Let’s compare our genes!
        Filipino Gene Pool:
        Southeast Asia & Oceania: 53%
        Eastern Asia: 36%
        Southern Europe: 5%
        Southern Asia: 3%
        Native American: 2%
        Indonesian Gene Pool:
        Southeast Asia & Oceania: 74%
        Southern Asia: 9%
        Eastern Africa: 6%
        Southwest Asia & Persian Gulf: 6%
        Eastern Asia: 5%
        Source: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen/
        Base on the gene pool above we Filipinos are less Southeast Asian compared to Indonesian who score high 74% but we (Filipinos) score high in Eastern Asia about 36% while Indonesian only 5%. But you Indonesian have more dark people compared to Filipinos because you score high in Southeast Asia and also you have more Southern Asia and Easter Africa genes too. I have nothing against Dark Skin as we also have it. What I am pointing out that Indonesians have more dark people compared to Filipinos and we are more mixed compared to Indonesians!

      1. Indonesians do not look like Malay, I saw Indonesian as Javanese, dayaknese, sundanese or minahasan have bit oriental / east look compared with the average malays , unless if you include the people of Aceh Malay, Minang or bugis

  15. Speaking of indonesia to be precise east indonesia aka the moluccas (Maluku) here’s some picture of the native inhabitant.
    http://kkcdn-static.kaskus.co.id/images/2012/10/31/4517631_20121031043215.jpg
    first picture are muslim ambonese people
    http://kkcdn-static.kaskus.co.id/images/2012/11/02/4517631_20121102095256.jpg
    second picture are of a muslim ambonese boy and two girls
    http://statik.tempo.co/?id=244532&width=620
    third picture are a group of ambonese girls.got it from tempo.com which features a batch of pictures detailing the trend of youngsters in ambon.here’s the site http://www.tempo.co/read/beritafoto/12006/Gaya-Keren-Remaja-Ambon/1
    http://www.jpnn.com/read/2012/10/03/141773/Pemesan-Kamar-Bernama-Sammy-Refra-
    http://www.merdeka.com/foto/peristiwa/131906/20121227174711-hakim-vonis-john-kei-12-tahun-penjara-005-debby.html
    Those links are news article containing pictures of John Kei an underworld figure from the Kei island
    Seems like the people of moluccas have melanesian admixtures from their hair types and skin colour

  16. yeah.. interesting article. But honestly its a bit unfair to “labeling” us (Indonesians). We called as Malay or Melayu up till now. But, if u want to know more about Indonesians, you should come! For ur information, I’m pure Indonesia, I think. But my father (Javanese) has India gene and my mother (Deli Malayan) has Arab descent from my grandmother (She is Indonesian Arab from Aceh). Its true! and I am from North Sumatera. My school friend from Aceh, looks like he has a blood from European (maybe, Portuguese or Dutch), his white skin, his brown hair, and his grey eyes. And my teacher has a clan from India becos his name has Sembiring Brahmana in it (Sembiring is one of name in Karo tribe, Brahmana is the “Brahmana” from India). And Nias one of the island that part of North Sumatera has East Asia genes (may be from China), becos they light skins, and slanted eyes.

    1. yeah .. Majority Filipinos have south european (spanish portuguese-), Negritos, pacific … which enter the austronesia blood in Austronesian people in philipines

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