Studies Prove People Of Madagascar Came From Borneo And Africa

Mongabay ^ | 7-10-2005 | MongaBay

[blam]

Studies prove people of Madagascar came from Borneo and Africa

mongabay.com
July 8, 2005

Studies released earlier this year found the people of Madagascar have origins in Borneo and East Africa.

Half of the genetic lineages of human inhabitants of Madagascar come from 4500 miles away in Borneo, while the other half derive from East Africa, according to a study published in May by a UK team.

The island of Madagascar, the largest in the Indian Ocean, lies some 250 miles (400 km) from Africa and 4000 miles (6400 km) from Indonesia. Its isolation means that most of its mammals, half of its birds, and most of its plants exist nowhere else on earth. The new findings, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, show that the human inhabitants of Madagascar are similarly unique - amazingly, half of their genetic lineages derive from settlers from the region of Borneo, with the other half from East Africa. Archaeological evidence suggests that this settlement was as recent as 1500 years ago - about the time the Saxons invaded Britain.

"The origins of the language spoken in Madagascar, Malagasy, suggested Indonesian connections, because its closest relative is the Maanyan language, spoken in southern Borneo," said Dr Matthew Hurles, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "For the first time, we have been able to assign every genetic lineage in the Malagasy population to a likely geographic origin with a high degree of confidence."

"Malagasy peoples are a roughly 50:50 mix of two ancestral groups: Indonesians and East Africans. It is important to realise that these lineages have intermingled over intervening centuries since settlement, so modern Malagasy have ancestry in both Indonesia and Africa."

The team, from Cambridge, Oxford and Leicester, used two types of DNA marker to study DNA diversity: Y chromosomes, inherited only through males, and mitochondrial DNA, inherited only through females. They tested how similar the Malagasy were to populations around the Indian Ocean. The set of non-African Y chromosomes found in the Malagasy was much more similar to the set of lineages found in Borneo than in any other population, which demonstrates striking agreement between the genetic and linguistic evidence. Similarly, a 'Centre of Gravity' was estimated for every mitochondrial DNA to suggest a likely geographical origin for each. This entails calculating a geographical average of the locations of the best matches within a large database of mitochondrial lineages from around the world.

"The Centres of Gravity fell in the islands of southeast Asia or in sub-Saharan Africa," explained Dr Peter Forster, from the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, one of the co-authors. "The evidence from these two independent bits of DNA supports the linguistic evidence in suggesting that a migrating population made their way 4500 miles across the Indian Ocean from Borneo."

Young Malagasy sisal worker

The striking mix suggests that there was substantial migration of people from southeast Asia about 2000-1500 years ago - a mirror image of the migrations from that region into the Pacific, to Micronesia and Polynesia, that had occurred about 1000 years earlier. However, unlike the privations suffered by those eastward travellers, the data suggests the early Malagasy population survived the voyage well, because more genetic variation is found in them than is found in the islands of Polynesia. 'Bottlenecks' in evolutionary history, where the population is dramatically reduced in number, are a common cause of reduced genetic variation.

Even though the Africa coast is only one-twentieth of the distance to Indonesia, it appears that migrations from Africa may have been more limited, as less of the diversity seen in the source population has survived in Madagascar.

But why, if the population is a 50:50 mix, is the language almost exclusively derived from Indonesia?

"It is a very interesting question, for which we have as yet no certain answer, as to how the African contribution to Malagasy culture, evident in biology and in aspects of economic and material culture, was so largely erased in the realm of language," commented Professor Robert Dewar, of The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. "This research highlights the differing, and complementary, contributions of biology and linguistics to the understanding of prehistory."

The population structure in Madagascar is a fascinating snapshot of human history and a testament to the remarkable abilities of early populations to undertake migrations across vast reaches of ocean. It may also be important today for cutting edge medical science.

"There has recently been dramatic progress in the development of experimental and statistical methods appropriate for gene mapping in admixed populations," said David Goldstein, Wolfson Professor of Genetics, University College London. "To succeed, however, these methods depend on populations with well defined historical admixtures. This work shows provides compelling evidence that the Malagasy are such a population, and again shows the value of careful study of human population structure."

Our human history is a rich mix of peoples and their movement, of success and failure. Madagascar holds an enriching tale of the ability of humans to survive and to reach new lands.

This release originally appear at Human inhabitants of Madagascar are genetically unique

[blam]

I'm thinking some kind of natural disaster compelled these people to make this trip. Any Ideas?

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Being in the jaws of a large hurricane is no excuse not to make GGG posts.

[Tax Government]

A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live.

Or, maybe they knew of the destination in advance from other travelers and thought it would be better.

Or, maybe the leader was crazy and commanded them to build a thousand boats.

[ReadyNow]

Even though the Africa coast is only one-twentieth of the distance to Indonesia, it appears that migrations from Africa may have been more limited, as less of the diversity seen in the source population has survived in Madagascar.

One wonders why the Africans weren't able to make the short journey to Madagascar.

[blam]

"A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live. "

I think there was an asteroid or comet swarm impacting in that time frame but, I'm not going looking for it now.

[Pittsburg Phil]

Who the hell cares where they came from as long as they don't end up here.

[blam]

"A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live. "

I think there was an asteroid or comet swarm impacting in that time frame but, I'm not going looking for it now.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

Being in the jaws of a large hurricane is no excuse not to make GGG posts.

Not even an excuse to migrate to Madagascar, but get rowin'. :')

Archaeological evidence suggests that this settlement was as recent as 1500 years ago - about the time the Saxons invaded Britain.

That figures. The damned Saxons probably invaded Borneo, too, and the Borneans had to paddle out of there, winding up in Madagascar.

I know what your thinkin', I know what you're thinkin'...

Sundaland? If it ever happened, it was too long ago to account for this.

My wild guess is that it's somehow related to the Polynesian expansion. Another possibility is that centuries before that, perhaps during the heyday of Greece and Rome, a population was transplanted for commercial reasons, perhaps to the eastern coast of Egypt, in the same way that a Tamil population was brought there, or came over on its own. Later, say, in the 7th century, they fled the rise of Islam. Shows they've got sense.

The gorilla-sized lemur species (and some other large mammals) went extinct shortly after the arrival of ancestors of the current human population. I do find it odd that such a large island hadn't been settled before, but then, perhaps it had, and no one has dug deep enough yet to find it.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Someone named Kurt Saxon has posted the entire text of this cheesy old garage sale paperback, from the 1950s, which nevertheless is based on actual records modern and ancient:

Those About To Die
Chapter XI
by Daniel P. Mannix

There were also man-sized apes called tityrus with round faces, reddish color and whiskers. Pictures of them appear on vases and they were apparently orangutans, imported from Indonesia. As far as I know, the Romans never exhibited gorillas although these biggest of all apes were known to the Phoenicians, who gave them their present name which means "hairy savage."

[Graymatter]

A volcano or tsunami might have gotten them thinking about new places to live.

My theory is that it was something even more formidable: a man with an idee fixe.

As for Sundaland...'Sundawater.

[blam]

"My wild guess is that it's somehow related to the Polynesian expansion. "

This is about the time of the Dark Ages. Remember Mike Baillie (and others) believe the Dark Ages was caused by the earth being hit by a comet/asteroid swarm. The Dark Ages were worldwide.

[Verginius Rufus]

From a book published in 1977: "It is now believed that the inhabitants of Madagascar are descendants of settlers from present-day Indonesia (perhaps the island of Borneo), who arrived between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago."

The channel between Africa and Madagascar is comparable in width to the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and North Africa...the inhabitants of mainland Africa had no idea there was a major landmass beyond the horizon. The Malayo-Polynesian population got there first, and later imported people from the mainland, which is why there is African DNA but no African languages among the people of Madagascar. Something similar happened with the Cape Verde Islands.

[blam]

"The Malayo-Polynesian population got there first, and later imported people from the mainland, which is why there is African DNA but no African languages among the people of Madagascar."

Seems like the most reasonable explanation to me.

[SunkenCiv]

David Keys claims that a volcanic eruption is responsible for the "Dark Ages", and Borneo is fairly close to where he claims the eruption took place. Not that I buy that of course. :')

[SunkenCiv]

Tamil Trade
INTAMM | 1997 | Xavier S. Thani Nayagam
Posted on 09/11/2004 8:07:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1213591/posts

[Question_Assumptions]

Who the hell cares where they came from as long as they don't end up here.

I'm sure the American Indians felt the same way about the Europeans. And the pre-Clovis population of the Americas probably felt the same way when the American Indians showed up. And so on.

[Question_Assumptions]

One wonders why the Africans weren't able to make the short journey to Madagascar.

They didn't have a seafaring culture because they didn't live on a bunch of islands like the Indonesians. If you don't already have a seafaring culture that can navigate across open ocean, 250 miles is not a short journey, especially if you don't know Madigascar is out there.

[ReadyNow]

They had a pretty hard time getting across their creeks and rivers, according to what I've read. Just didn't dig boats.

[zimdog]

they mostly used canoes and rafts, which were better for wide and seasonally shallow rivers than boats. no trouble getting across.

[SunkenCiv]

An Ancient Link To Africa Lives On In Bay Of Bengal
The New York Times | 12-10-2002 | Nicholas Wade
Posted on 12/10/2002 1:09:21 PM PST by blam
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/804257/posts