Between Asia and Australia (craniological diversity of the cerebral skull of the modern population of Southeast Asia)

DOI: 10.33876/2311-0546/2021-53-1/166-182

Abstract

This work continues the studies devoted to the worldwide classification of modern humans by the neurocranial skull. Cranial dimensions of population of vast territories of Southeast Asia, Australia and the islands between these continents were studied. The study was based on a comparative analysis of individual data from male skulls from 32 samples, taken from published works of anthropologists who studied this region. The dendrogram of the distances between these 32 samples, based on 11 measures of the size and shape of the skull, is formed by three distinctive clusters. Samples from the first cluster are characterized as typical for the Pacifid craniotype (mesocranial skulls). Samples from the second cluster belong to the East Tropid craniotype (dolichocranial skulls). Samples from the third cluster differ both from the two craniotypes mentioned above and another craniotype, called Golarktids (this type is not presented in the studied area). We called this last cluster “Sundids”, because they are mainly localized in the Sunda subcontinent. This area was formed during the sea regression during the Pleistocene, when the shelf seas of Southeast Asia and Indonesia turned into land, part of a single Eurasian continent. In this sample, the skulls are small and brachycranial. A large part of Indochinese and Indonesian crania can be attributed to this craniotype. Thus, the great Mongoloid race can be divided into three different craniological types: continental Mongoloids (Golarktids), Pacific Mongoloids (Pacifids), and southern Mongoloids (Sundids).

For Citation: Pestriakov, A.P.. O.M. Grigoryeva and Y.V. Pelenitsyna. 2021. Between Asia and Australia (neurocranial diversity of the modern population of Southeast Asia). Herald of Anthropology  (Vestnik Antropologii) 1 (53): 166–182.

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