Ancient China

DNA evidence of Negritos of S.E. Asia


The (London) Independent, Aug 31, 1998  by Steve Connor Science Editor
“SCIENTISTS MAY have found the direct descendants of one of the first tribes of early humans to emerge out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.
The discovery promises to shed light on one of the most enigmatic periods in early human history, when the first people colonized the world, eventually leading to Homo sapiens becoming the only species to dominate every corner of the globe.
Locks of hair stored at Cambridge University for the past 90 years have revealed DNA evidence to link the inhabitants of the remote Andaman Islands with the first anatomically modern humans to migrate across Asia.

An analysis of their genetic makeup indicates they could be a lost tribe that has remained isolated from other humans for many thousands of years.”

Further studies have shown that New Guinea Highlanders, who are also very short with frizzy hair, to have also migrated out of Africa as much as 120,000 years ago. It is highly likely that the Negritos of; Mindanao, North Queensland and Tasmania are also remnants of this ancient migration out of Africa.

Legend has it that these short dark frizzy haired people inhabited Micronesia and much of Western Oceania. Some people even believe the Menehune of Hawaii and Tahiti were also Pygmies.

Wednesday, September 30, 1998 Published at 02:21 GMT 03:21 UK




Sci/Tech

DNA traces Chinese back to Africa

DNA: May hold clues to the start of human life

Genetic researchers say they have found fresh evidence that Chinese people are descended from Africans.

The findings also add new weight to theories that all human life began in Africa.

Academics from the University of Texas and their colleagues in China studied 28 population groups in China and concluded that most – if not all – had their genetic origins in Africa.

They looked at pieces of DNA known as microsatellites, which are short, repeating DNA segments that yield information about genetic variation among people.

The researchers found that all Chinese have a great deal in common genetically, although there are some regional variations.


The findings, published by the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, supports what has come to be known as the “Out of Africa theory”.

This theory contends that homo sapiens, the modern form of human life, is descended from a population of ancestors who migrated out of Africa about 100,000 years ago.

The new data also supports the idea of an “African Eve” who is an ancestor of all living humans.

The Eve hypothesis, first published in 1987, suggests that all human DNA can be traced back to a single female. This “Eve” would have lived in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

The latest research challenges an alternative theory which holds that several different groups of humans evolved separately at the same time in several places around the world.

Chinese mythology holds that the Chinese are descended from a single ancestor, the Yellow Emperor.

More recent Chinese scholarship has argued that the Chinese evolved separately from other races.

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