The Andaman Islanders in a Regional Genetic Context: Reexamining the Evidence for an Early Peopling of the Archipelago from South Asia

2013/06/01 by Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Phillip Endicott · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Forensic and Genetic Research #Genetic diversity and population structure #Identification and Quantification in Food #Archipelago #Indigenous #Pacific islanders #Geography #Context (archaeology) #Population #Ethnology #Evolutionary biology #Biology #Genealogy #Ecology #Demography #Archaeology #History #Sociology

paper · doi:10.3378/027.085.0307

openalex publication_date 2013/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands were considered by many early anthropologists to be pristine examples of a "negrito" substrate of humanity that existed throughout Southeast Asia. Despite over 150 years of research and study, questions over the extent of shared ancestry between Andaman Islanders and other small-bodied, gracile, dark-skinned populations throughout the region are still unresolved. This shared phenotype could be a product of shared history, evolutionary convergence, or a mixture of both. Recent population genetic studies have tended to emphasize long-term physical isolation of the Andaman Islanders and an affinity to ancestral populations of South Asia. We reexamine the genetic evidence from genome-wide autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data for a shared history between the tribes of Little Andaman (Onge) and Great Andaman, and between these two groups and the rest of South and Southeast Asia (both negrito and non-negrito groups).

Citations

• Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the Tharus (Nepal): a reservoir of genetic variation
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Cited by

• Munda languages are father tongues, but Japanese and Korean are not
• Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia [wikipedia]