CRANIAL MORPHOLOGICAL CONTRASTS BETWEEN NEGRITOS, AUSTRALIANS, AND NEIGHBORING POPULATIONS

This study examined metric cranial variation in samples of Australian Aborigines, Southeast Asian Negritos, and neighboring populations. The difference between Australians and Negritos is particularly marked in neurocranial dimensions and the magnitude of prognathism. The cranial features of the three Negrito tribes of Luzon Island, the Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman Islands suggest the biological distinctiveness of the so-called Negritos, a term rather loosely applied to many genetic isolates of Southeast Asia. Diachronic comparison shows that the modification of the cranial shape is of a highly limited degree in Australians compared with that in Southeast Asians. In Southeast Asia, selective forces may have worked in a different fashion from those in Australia. The case for local evolution of Southeast Asian physical features is strengthened by the present synchronic and diachronic comparisons including Mesolithic and subsequent Southeast Asian samples.