via Science, 30 June 2022: A new genetic study of nearly 300 ancient and modern humans in Micronesia suggests five distinct migration groups into Micronesia. and also that these societies were matrilinear!
Micronesia began to be peopled earlier than other parts of Remote Oceania, but the origins of its inhabitants remain unclear. We generated genome-wide data from 164 ancient and 112 modern individuals. Analysis reveals five migratory streams into Micronesia. Three are East Asian related, one is Polynesian, and a fifth is a Papuan source related to mainland New Guineans that is different from the New Britain–related Papuan source for southwest Pacific populations but is similarly derived from male migrants ~2500 to 2000 years ago. People of the Mariana Archipelago may derive all of their precolonial ancestry from East Asian sources, making them the only Remote Oceanians without Papuan ancestry. Female-inherited mitochondrial DNA was highly differentiated across early Remote Oceanian communities but homogeneous within, implying matrilocal practices whereby women almost never raised their children in communities different from the ones in which they grew up
See also:
- Female lineages anchored Pacific islands for 2000 years | Science, 30 June 2022
- Earliest Pacific seafarers were matrilocal society, study suggests | The Guardian, 30 June 2022
- DNA Analysis of Ancient Micronesians Has Unexpected Result | Haaretz, 05 July 2022
- New research on remote Pacific islands yields surprising findings on ancestry, culture | The Harvard Gazette, 06 July 2022
