Adventure Ausrama Blog

According to new research humans purposefully set out to reach Australia. It seems scientists can read minds now - what a great leap forward! Seriously though, knowing what individuals are thinking is an impossible thing to do, largely because people perceive settings differently. No two people are exactly alike not even twins. Perception is a function of consciousness as perceived through the senses which differs for everyone. Sea levels were lower in 65,000 BP, so islands off the coast of northern Australia could be seen from high points on islands off Indonesia. There is a problem here, however, in that there are major racial differences between Australian Aboriginals and Indonesians. Surely, some dark skinned inhabitants of the South East Asian archipelago would have remained and interbred with "typical" Asians we see today. Note, Papua New Guineans are different than Australian "natives". To say that an assembly of about 100 boats were organized...

Vanuatu ancestors were from Taiwan and the Philippines. A discovery has sent shock waves through anthropology. The ancestors of Vanuatuans were put in the pot of Pacific Islanders. People of this island do not look like Asians. However, DNA tests on the oldest skeletons found show that the island's first arrivals came from the Philippines and Taiwan only 3,000 years ago. It seems that Australian Aboriginals and New Guineans were not keen to venture out onto the high sea, though Pacific islands were much closer to them than it was for Southeast Asians. Scientists say Papuans moved their later to produce the modern Vanuatuan gene pool. There is a problem here. Combining the facial features of say Filipinos and Papuans does not produce modern Vanuatuans.  There was earlier movement westward across the large ocean of people from South America. Pacific islanders of South American descent obviously arrived in Vanuatu at some time. ◆ Antrhopology by Ty Buchanan ...