Page 111 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

between the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. This finding contradicts the classic
theory which argues there were only two human migration waves to the Indonesian
archipelago Out of Africa and Out of Taiwan. Austroasiatic genetic traces in Indonesia
are highest in Javanese and Sundanese populations, gradually decreasing in percentage
in Sundanese, Malay (coastal Sumatra), Dayak Benuaq, Minangkabau, Batak Karo, and
Batak Toba, and only small traces found in Toraja. The percentage of Austroasiatic markers
decreases significantly towards the eastern part of Indonesia. The easternmost island
where Austroasiatic genetic traces can still be found is in Manggarai, Flores. In the east
of Sumba Island there is almost no trace found. Although such Austroasiatic traces have
confirmed the presence of Asiatic populations, when they arrived in those places has yet
to be answered because no dating has been done (HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium,
2009). Nevertheless, it is fairly certain that they arrived far earlier than the Austronesian-
speaking groups. The Austroasiatic arrival waves very likely continued until the end of the
ice age in the late Pleistocene at around 11,000 years ago, which led to the sea level rise
that transformed the Sunda shelf into the present day archipelagic pattern of Indonesia.
The most recent migrations occurred within the last two millennia as the result of trade
interaction with Chinese merchants, the introduction of Indian ideas and culture among
some populations from trading religion, as well as the introduction of Islam and Christianity
(Bellwood, 1997, Cribb, 2000) . These migratory waves have left traces not only in culture,
but also in genetics (Figure 8)(Karafet et al., 2010). Trading with China began early in the

first century but apparently was limited to coastal areas following the maritime trading
routes of the time. The influence of Indian culture, which began in the fifth century, besides
from interactions due to trading also saw the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism. The
foundation of a number of empires in Java and of Sriwijaya in Sumatra were the legacy of
these interactions. The influence of Islam and Christianity became significant in the 15
th
and 16 centuries, shortly after the European colonization took hold. The arrival of the
th
new cultures also influenced the Indo-Pacific area. Some genetic traces, especially found
in mitochondrial DNA, reflected this new contact with Europeans. The ones that were
more cosmopolitan estimated by Y-chromosome also showed contributions of traces
from China and India.

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