Cranial Variation of Contemporary East Asians in a Global Context H. Green
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CRANIAL VARIATION OF CONTEMPORARY EAST ASIANS IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT H. GREEN A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anatomy School of Medical Sciences University of New South Wales August 2007 i ORIGINALITY STATEMENT I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgment is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project’s design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged. Signed .................................................................................. Date .................................................................................. ii Abstract The current study examines cranial variation of contemporary East Asians with an aim to comprehensively describe and define the morphology of people in this region. In doing so, a better understanding of the causes of variation within East Asia and compared to other geographic populations is sought. The study encompasses a broad range of samples from Northeast Asia to island Southeast Asia. Traditional linear and angular data and analytical methods (e.g Box and Whisker, Principal Components Analysis) were used to assess cranial variation. Thus the results may be compared to published studies using traditional craniometric approaches. Innovative geometric morphometric data collection and analysis techniques are also used here for the first time. Results show East Asians are distinguishable from non-Asians on the basis of their tall, round, vault, shorter cranial length, tall faces that are flattened in the upper- and mid-facial regions, short malars (anteroposterior length), narrow interorbital breadth and orthognathism. A north-south East Asian cline was also detected, with the northern samples exhibiting tall, orthognathic faces, and a long low vault. This long, low vault shape is in contradiction to the purported shape of cold-climate adapted populations. Southern East Asians possess a tall, rounded vault and a short, projecting (prognathic) face. Island Southeast Asians inhabiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands exhibit a ‘mixed’ morphology, possessing the southern East Asian facial form, but the long, low vault seen in northern East Asian samples. The long, low vault also characterises non- Asian samples from Australia, Africa and Melanesia. Shape differences were significantly associated with latitude, explaining most of the variation. The identification of ancestral East Asian features in recent samples suggests phylogenetics may also be contributing to variation in part. The study concludes that there is clear evidence for geographical variation among modern East Asians, some if it being continuous (clinal) and some discontinuous. Importantly, much of the variation reflects adaptation to climate, with a phylogenetic component also recognised. The study contributes to our understanding of human evolution in a region that today constitutes around half of the world’s population. iii Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr Darren Curnoe, for your guidance, advice, patience and financial support. I have learned and experienced so much, and been given so many great opportunities throughout the course of this PhD, and for that, I thank you. I look forward to the next big project (and all the not-so-big ones in between). To Professor Ken Ashwell and staff in the Department of Anatomy UNSW, for all your support. Also, to Dr Alan Thorne, for your role in getting the project off the ground, and your financial support. To Associate Professor Nick Milne of the University of Western Australia for all your help with the three-dimensional statistics and providing me with additional software. To the curators and assistants in the many museums around the world from which I gathered my data. In no particular order: Phillipe Mennecier of Musée de l’Homme, Paris; Rob Kruszynski of the Natural History Museum, London; Maggie Bellatti of the Duckworth Museum, Cambridge; Dr Ian Tattersall, Gary Sawyer and Will Harcourt- Smith of the American Museum of Natural History, New York. This study was funded by the Australian Research Council. I also wish to thank The School of Medical Sciences, UNSW for funding several conference trips. To my friends at UNSW: Erica Danielsen, Julien Louys and Andy Herries, for your words of ‘wisdom’, your company and your friendship. To Jack (Andy) Coate: your friendship and your constant presence made all the difference. To my family, for their love, support and unwavering belief in me throughout the course of this thesis. Likewise to my closest friends, who have endured this long journey with me (you know who you are). And lastly, to Tim Newman: my EXCEL King, my sanity, my best friend, for your support, your patience, your faith and your love. I dedicate this to you. iv Table of Contents Volume 1 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x List of Tables .................................................................................................................xviii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Origins and affinities of East Asians............................................................................. 1 1.1.1 The Fossils ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 Neolithic-Recent East Asia sensu lato .......................................................... 3 1.1.3 East Asia sensu stricto ................................................................................... 5 1.1.4 Southeast Asia................................................................................................ 7 1.1.5 Northeast Asia................................................................................................ 9 1.2 Trends and Clines in East Asia ................................................................................... 10 1.3 East Asian Cranial Morphology.................................................................................. 11 1.3.1 Fossil East Asian Morphology..................................................................... 11 1.3.2 Contemporary East Asian Morphology ....................................................... 13 1.4 Advances in Data Collection....................................................................................... 15 1.5 Aims of the Study ....................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: Materials and Methods 2.1 Materials...................................................................................................................... 18 2.1.1 East Asia sensu stricto ................................................................................. 18 2.1.2 Northeast Asia.............................................................................................. 20 2.1.3 Mainland Southeast Asia.............................................................................. 20 2.1.4 Island Southeast Asia ................................................................................... 20 2.1.5 Comparative populations ............................................................................. 21 2.2 Methods....................................................................................................................... 21 2.2.1 Landmark Choice......................................................................................... 21 2.2.2 Data Collection ............................................................................................ 30 2.2.3 Linear Measurements................................................................................... 30 2.2.4 Indices .......................................................................................................... 34 2.2.5 Angles .......................................................................................................... 37 v 2.2.5.1 Standard and modified-standard angles ........................................... 38 2.2.5.2 Non-standard angles......................................................................... 43 2.2.6 Statistical Analysis – Linear/Angular/Index Data .......................................... 45 2.2.6.1 Univariate Methods.......................................................................... 45 2.2.6.2 Multivariate Methods....................................................................... 46 2.2.7 Geometric Morphometrics .............................................................................. 47 2.2.7.1 General Procrustes Analysis ............................................................ 48 2.2.7.2 Registration ...................................................................................... 49 2.2.8 Statistical Analysis – Three-Dimensional data ............................................... 49 2.2.9 Visualisation...................................................................................................