Page 94 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

following advances in genetics, the concept of definitively separating Melanesia from other
-nesia groups, especially from the Austronesian-speaking group, now faces significant
challenges. The latest population genetic studies suggested a gradated mixture rather
than clearly demarked separation. This chapter will try to explain Melanesian genetics and
its perspective as part of Indonesia.

First Migration Out of Africa
Geneticists as well as anthropologists and archaeologists now agree that the ancestor of
all modern humans (Homo sapiens) are descended from a single female individual, liter-
ally from the same womb, a woman who was part of a small group of early humans in Af-
rica. Many of the oldest human fossils in Africa, one of them the approximately 200,000
year old remains from Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, are the basis of this theory. No fossils as
old as this have been found anywhere other than Africa.
Map of early human migrations In genetics, the Mitochondrial Eve model presented by Rebecca Cann, Mark Stoneking,
based on Y-chromosome data. The and Allan Wilson (1987) in Nature was an important contribution supporting the Out
data shows the migratory paths
of male ancestors originating in of Africa theory. They analyzed DNA, genetic material that is found in cell organelles
Africa and going to Asia. called mitochondria. When an egg from a mother and a sperm from father are fused and
Peta migrasi kromosom YY
Peta migrasi kromosom

~10,000
~10,000
N N

C3
~50,000
EUROPE ~50,000 C3
EUROPE
CENTRAL
EAST
~30,000
~30,000 CENTRAL EAST C C
ASIA
ASIA
ASIA
ASIA
R R MIDDLE
MIDDLE
EAST
O3
MEDITERRANEAN EAST O3
MEDITERRANEAN
J J ~45,000 LL O O
~45,000
AFRICA
AFRICA F F AMERICAS
AMERICAS
INDIA
B B INDIA SOUTHEAST
SOUTHEAST
ASIA
ASIA
M M ~10,000
~10,000
A A
OCEANIA
~60,000 ~50,000 C C OCEANIA
~60,000
~50,000
AUSTRALIA
B B ~50,000 AUSTRALIA Q3 ~10,000
Q3
~50,000
~10,000
94 Chapter 2
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