Page 108 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

by researchers from nine Asian countries. The data was sampled from 1928 individuals
from 73 Asian populations. Data from two non-Asian populations was obtained from
Hapmap Asia. The individuals in the population sample represented speakers of ten major
world language families: Altaic, Tai-Kadai/Sino Tibetan, Hmong-Mien, Austro-Asiatic,
west Negrito, east Negrito, Papuan, Austronesian, Dravidian, and Indo-European.
When the kinship tree was constructed using the structure method (Rosenberg et
al., 2002), we could see that the Austronesian-speaking individuals clustered with those in
the East Asian populations. This suggests a relationship which followed advancements in
agricultural technology supported by findings from linguistics and archaeology. By using
Frappe program analysis to observe the ancestral genetic background of every individual
in the study, the result was similar to that generated through the structure analysis.
Samples from Indonesia were chosen to represent the broad range of ethnolinguistic
groups. They consisted of speaker populations from Alor, Lembata, Lamaholot, Manggarai,
Kambera, Mentawai, Toraja, Riau Malay, Batak Karo Malay, Toba Batak, Benuaq Dayak,
Javanese, and Sundanese. The results showed that all Indonesia populations were
grouped in the Austronesian language speaking cluster as were populations from Malaysia
and the Philippines. When we observed the structure analysis with K=14, almost all
the populations had genetic admixtures as shown on Figure 6b. Although Melanesian
data obtained from Nasio showed almost one hundred percent Papuan genes, the Alor
population had an admixture with Austronesian genes though in much smaller quantities.
A beyond expectation discovery was the finding of non-Austronesian speaking genes or
Papuan with gradually higher percentage of Austronesian genes were found in populations
from Kambera in east Sumba, Manggarai in west Flores, Lamoholot in east Flores, Lembata,
and Alor. These Papuan genes are the markers for the initial Out of Africa migration. These
groups of people with Papuan genes are the ones who are aligned with the geopolitical
concept of Melanesia at present. However, genetically, individual populations analysed
from these geographical areas were not solely Papuan, but had admixtures of two or more
genes. Significantly, these groups who refer to themselves as Melanesian do not have a
single definitive genetic characteristic. Genetic admixture happening over extremely long
periods of time has resulted in a population which is mixed to some extent.
The next big migratory wave toward Indonesia was the arrival of the Austronesian
about 5,000 years ago. These were people who spoke an ancestral form of the Austronesian
family of languages and who originated in Taiwan. The arrival of the Austronesians is
believed to have significantly changed population structures in Southeast Asia, including

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