Origin of Tiki people

Today from the science blog, Not Exactly Rocket Science: http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience

"Bacteria and languages reveal how people spread through the Pacific"

http://tinyurl.com/czo7z9

"The area collectively known as Austronesia covers half the globe. It stretches from South-East Asia and Taiwan, across New Guinea and New Zealand, to the hundreds of small islands dotted around the Pacific. Today, it is home to about 400 million people.

"They are the descendants of early humans who spread throughout the Pacific in prehistoric times. These forebears are long dead but they left several unexpectedly important legacies that are evident in their modern descendants. The languages they used evolved and splintered into over 1,200 tongues spoken by modern Austronesians. The bacteria in their bodies did the same, giving rise to distinct strains in different parts of the region.

"Two new studies have used these very different hitchhikers - one cultural and one biological - to piece together the routes of this ancient mass migration. And they have come to the same general conclusion.

"The Austronesian people originated in Taiwan some 5,000 years ago. After a few centuries of settlement, they started a massive pulse of migration, spreading southwards and eastwards. They moved to the Philippines, dispersed across South-East Asia, and spread as far west as Madagascar and as far east as the Micronesian islands. They reached Fiji and other islands in Western Polynesia about 3,000 years ago and there, they paused again. About 1,500 years ago, they started a second big migration pulse that took them east across the Pacific all the way to Easter Island."

[ Edited by: tulsatv 2009-01-22 22:21 ]

Very interesting topic. The info. seems a bit simplified however.

It is thought that the Austronesian language family and some of the the Pacific genetic lineages originated in Taiwan, spreading over the Pacific regions mentioned above.

However, the Austronesians encountered the Melanesians (descendants of an early migration from Southern India) when they reached the Southern Pacific Islands such as Fiji, New Guinea, etc.

This was the genesis of the Lapita culture. The Austonesians picked up an admixture of Melanesian genes and language while remaining on the coasts of New Guinea etc... They started a large trade culture and excelled at pottery.

Eventually some Lapita left for other lands to the East becoming Polynesians and losing their pottery, others assimilated into the New Guinea mainland.

The 3rd group in the area are the Micronesians who like the Polynesian and unlike Melanesians are LARGELY descended from Austronesians.

It is thought that Micronesia was populated from Melanesia to the South, the P. I. and Indonesia (the Indonesians being another Austronesian people) in the West, and from Polynesia to the East.

The real story is of course even far more complex than this still simplified version. Austronesians and their descendants have been called Malays in the past.

I left out the separate Melanesian sphere of Australia. I didn't discuss Indonesia because most here are not interested (though many pre tiki bamboo bars were decorated and themed with Bali and indonesian articles).

Madagascar is another topic as well... The modern population is descended from Austronesians who inter mingled with Africans and later traders from the Islamic world.

All this is still a very simplified history..

Some of the romance of this ancient and far-flung history is captured in the first two chapters of Michener's book "Hawaii".

Thanks, Tulsatv, this is a favorite topic of mine.

I hope they examine the possible link between the Oceanic peoples and natives of Alaska mentioned in the Wikipedia article on Polynesians - or maybe South American natives.