HUMAN-GENETICS, PALEOENVIRONMENTS, AND MALARIA - RELATIONSHIPS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF OCEANIA

Lapita is a distinctive ceramic style that first appeared in the Bisma rck Archipelago about 3600 B.P. and over the next few centuries spread throughout island Melanesia, For many prehistorians the distribution of Lapita sherds identifies the expansion of Austronesian-speaking pop ulations through Oceania. This article addresses the Lapita language q uestion by exploring the implications of the relationship among gamma globulin (Gm) genetics, paleoenvironments, malaria, natural selection, and prehistoric settlement patterns. Archeological sites with Lapita ceramics are consistently located in coastal lowlands, which in some p arts of Oceania would have been malaria areas. Drawing on recent evide nce that Austronesian-speaking populations in Near Oceania possess a g enetic advantage over Non-Austronesian speakers with regard to malaria , we contend that Austronesian speakers have been able to occupy-on a permanent basis-malarious coastal lowlands that were detrimental to No n-Austronesian speakers. It follows, therefore, that the inhabitants o f those Lapita sites spoke one or more of the Austronesian languages.