Page 37 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

considered general phenotypes of most of the inhabitants in the southern part of India, Sri
Lanka, and some population groups in the Southeast Asia, Papua, Melanesia and Australia
at that time.
The sub-race of Melanesid is found in the Indonesian and Pacific regions, including Fiji,
New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Solomon, New Britain, New Ireland,
and Admiralty. The average height was 165 cm, with dark-brown skin, sometimes very
dark or copper red, stiff hair, curly, spiral or wavy with black or reddish color or dark brown.
Their head was high-narrow oval in shape but more circular than that of the Negroid.
Their forehead was circular, wide and low but some tilted backwards. Their face was long,
sometimes average in shape, their noses were big, flat and wide. There was a mixture with
Polynesian in Fiji, New Caledonia, and Loyalty. The relics of Melanesid were found in the
shell hill of Binjai-Tamiang with the characteristics of short appearance with oval skull.
Together with the similar relics in the Southeast Asia Land, they were called Paleomelanesid
(Dizon et al., 2002). The findings of human remains in Lawa Cave, Sampung, East Java also
depicted the dominant characters of Melanesid with some Australid features (Heekeren,
1972). The same thing was with the findings of human skeleton in the caves in the karst
region of Tuban in the north coast and Puger in the southern part of Java.
The sub-race of Papuid residing in the remote areas of Papua regionally experienced
differentiation with the growth of local characteristics. Their body was short to tall, with
brown to dark brown skin, quite thick body hair and beard, varied head shapes from round
to oval, and their hair was dark brown to reddish brown, rarely black, and curly. Their
forehead was narrow and high, round and flat, their face was narrowly oval to square, with
a long convex nose, and average lips. The mixture of this sub-race with Melanesid was
found in islands of New Britain, New Ireland, Admiralty, and Irian (Papua). In this context,
Melanesid and Papuid were differentiated as separate sub-races but at the present time
the general consensus is to consider both the same: Melanesia, sometimes even grouping
them as a race.
There were still other population groups which belonged to Negrito race with small
appearance, dark skin, curly hair, round eyes, big nose, full lips, and short bodies. The
grouping is disputed. Some grouped Negritos as a population in Negrid society in Africa but
others consider them as the descendants of a Paleolithic culture residing in the Southeast
Asia (Thangaraj et al., 2003). Jacob saw it not as a separate race but as pigmizition in one
race, for example the Australomelanesid race or Mongolic. Their physical characteristics
were the same as those of the initial race, but the body size was smaller, especially their

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