Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T03:19:04.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Synthesising Southeast Asian population history and palaeohealth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2009

By
Marc Oxenham  and
Nancy Tayles
Edited by
Marc Oxenham  and
Nancy Tayles
Marc Oxenham
Affiliation:
Australian National University Canberra Australia
Nancy Tayles
Affiliation:
University of Otago Dunedin New Zealand
Marc Oxenham
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Nancy Tayles
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Get access

Summary

This is the first book specifically to address issues relating to prehistoric Southeast Asian skeletal biology. The principal aim of this volume was the examination of both the population history of Southeast Asia, in terms of origins and micro-evolutionary development, and the health and quality of life of these people. This chapter will discuss (a) the competing views or, alternatively, the consensus of opinion regarding the population history of the region; (b) descriptions of health and trends in health over time in Southeast Asia; and (c) the manner in which the current findings from both population history and palaeohealth can be synthesised in addressing questions surrounding economic and demographic change in this portion of the globe.

Neither the population history nor the evidence for health in Southeast Asia can be understood without reference to archaeological and linguistic evidence for the emergence of agriculture and the spread of Austroasiatic and Austronesian languages into the region. The current archaeological and linguistic consensus supports a hypothesis of agriculturally driven demic expansion or migration into Southeast Asia from a more northerly source (see Bellwood 2004). Higham (2001) noted that clearly a neolithic revolution occurred in the Yangzi valley in what is now China, beginning as early as 10,000 years BP. A southward expansion of agricultural communities, speaking Austroasiatic languages (a group that includes modern Vietnamese and Khmer), is now well documented into southwest China and on into Southeast Asia following major river systems such as the Chao Praya (into Thailand), Red (into northern Vietnam) and Mekong (into Laos, Cambodia and southern Vietnam) (Higham 2001).

Type
Chapter
Information
Bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia , pp. 335 - 350
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antón, S. C. 1997. Endocranial hyperostosis in Sangiran 2, Gibraltar 1, and Shanidar 5. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102: 111–122.3.0.CO;2-3>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bellwood, P. 1997. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago, revised edn. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Bellwood P.2004. The origins and dispersals of agricultural communities in Southeast Asia. In Glover, I. and Bellwood, P., eds., Southeast Asia: From Prehistory to History. London: Routledge Curzon, pp. 21–40.Google Scholar
Boaz, N. T. and Ciochon, R. L. 2004. Dragon Bone Hill: An Ice-age Saga of Homo erectus. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caspari, R. 1997. Brief communication: evidence of pathology on the frontal bone from Gongwangling. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102: 565–568.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cohen, M. N. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.). 1984. Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Domett, K. M. 2001. British Archaeological Reports International Series, No. 946: Health in Late Prehistoric Thailand. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Douglas M. T. 1996. Paleopathology in human skeletal remains from the pre-metal, bronze, and iron ages, northeastern Thailand. Ph.D. thesis, University of Hawaii-Manoa. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms.
Dubois, E. 1894. Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschenaehliche Ubergangsform aus Java. Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.Google Scholar
Ewald, P. W. 1994. The evolution of virulence and emerging diseases. Journal of Urban Health 75: 480–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham C. F. W. 2001. Prehistory, language and human biology. In Jin, L., Seielstad, M. and Xiao, C., eds., Genetic, Linguistic and Archaeological Perspectives on Human Diversity in Southeast Asia. Singapore: World Scientific, pp. 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, C. F. W. and Bannanurag, R. (eds.). 1990. Report of the Research Committee XLVII. The Excavation of Khok Phanom Di, a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand. London: Society of Antiquities.Google Scholar
Hockett, B. and Haws, J. 2003. Nutritional ecology and diachronic trends in Paleolithic diet and health. Evolutionary Anthropology 12: 211–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lahr, M. M. 1996. The Evolution of Modern Human Diversity: A Study of Cranial Variation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, D. J. W. 2001. From the bronze age to the iron age in Thailand: applying the heterarchical approach. Asian Perspectives 39: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxenham, M. F., Nguyen, K. T. and Nguyen, L. C. 2005. Skeletal evidence for the emergence of infectious disease in bronze and iron age northern Viet Nam. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 126: 359–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietrusewsky, M. and Douglas, M. T. 2002. University Museum Monograph 111: Ban Chiang, a Prehistoric Village Site in Northeast Thailand. Philadelphia, PA : University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Sattenspiel, L. and Harpending, H. 1983. Stable populations and skeletal age. American Antiquity 48: 489–498.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soriano, M. 1970. The fluoric origin of the bone lesion in the Pithecanthropus erectus femur. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 32: 49–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Steckel, R. H. and Rose, J. C. 2002. The Backbone of History. Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Storm P. 1995. The Evolutionary Significance of the Wajak Skulls. Leiden: Scripta Geologica110: 1–247.
Suzuki T. 1991. Paleopathological study on infectious disease in Japan. In Ortner, D. J. and Aufderheide, A. C., eds., Human Paleopathology: Current Synthesis and Future Options. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 128–139.Google Scholar
Tayles, N. 1999. Report of the Research Committee LXI. The Excavation of Khok Phanom Di, a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand, Vol. V: The People. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Tayles, N. and Buckley, H. R. 2004. Leprosy and tuberculosis in iron age Southeast Asia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 125: 239–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, C. G. II. 1989. Teeth and prehistory in Asia. Scientific American 260: 88–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, C. G. II 1990. Major features of sindodonty and sundadonty. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 82: 295–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Koenigswald, G. H. R. 1968. Observations upon two Pithecanthropus mandibles from Sangiran, central Java. Proceedings of the Academy of Science of Amsterdam B71: 99–107.Google Scholar
Weidenreich, F. 1943. The skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis: a comparative study on a primitive hominid skull. Palaeontologica Sinica New Series D 10 (whole series 127): 1–298.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×