Migration Across South Pacific Started from Taiwan
Scientists have come up with a new theory on how people originally populated the South Pacific, the region roughly defined from Taiwan to New Zealand to Hawaii. This conclusion was drawn from two parallel studies – one that examined the languages of the South Pacific and another study that looked at the strains of stomach bacterium that cause ulcers. Both studies were published in the journal Science and suggest the South Pacific region was settled by island hopping over many centuries, with the original inhabitants starting from Taiwan about 5,000 years ago.
Russell Gray, a professor at the University of Auckland, and an expert in historical linguistics, used computer modeling to study 400 native languages of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “By studying the basic vocabulary from these languages, such as words for animals, simple verbs, colors and numbers, we can trace how these languages evolved” Gray said. His model shows the original Polynesians first left Taiwan about 5,000 years ago and initially settled the Philippines region. One thousand years later, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga were settled. After a pause of another thousand years, migration continued to the rest of Polynesia. Eventually, the Polynesians reached New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. For example, the Maori are thought to have settled New Zealand in several waves some 700 to 800 years ago.
The results of the language study match another study that looked at the relatedness of different strains of bacterium collected from various Pacific Islanders. In this study, it was shown the genetic mutations of the bacterium across Polynesia originated from strains found in aboriginals from Taiwan.
The speed of migration across the South Pacific is believed to be linked to advancements in the technology of the Polynesians, in particular their ability to make and navigate long-distance voyaging canoes. Past archeological studies of the South Pacific have drawn a similar conclusion that the first human settlers across the South Pacific originated from Taiwan.
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