Anthropological Science
Online ISSN : 1348-8570
Print ISSN : 0918-7960
ISSN-L : 0918-7960
Original Articles
Population history of the northern and central Nansei Islands (Ryukyu island arc) based on dental morphological variations: gene flow from North Kyushu to Nansei Islands
YOSHITAKA MANABEYOSHIKAZU KITAGAWAJOICHI OYAMADAKAZUNARI IGAWAKATSUMOTO KATONAOHIRO KIKUCHIHIROMI MARUOSHIGERU KOBAYASHIATSUSHI ROKUTANDA
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2008 Volume 116 Issue 1 Pages 49-65

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Abstract

This study investigates dental morphological variations among the modern inhabitants of Tanegashima Island and Okinawa Main Island of the Nansei Islands (Ryukyu island arc), which is the southern gateway of the Japanese archipelago. Temporal variations within Tanegashima Island and regional variations of the northern half of the Nansei Islands were used to study population history. The late Aeneolithic Yayoi to protohistoric Kofun populations (c. 0–700 AD) of Tanegashima was found to be similar to the native Japanese populations, such as the Neolithic Jomonese (c. 10000–300 BC) and Hokkaido Ainu; however, the modern population of Tanegashima was similar to the migrant Japanese populations such as the post-Jomon people (c. 300 BC–present time) of the Japanese main islands. Using statistically sufficient materials, this study confirmed that a substantial change had occurred from the prehistoric to the modern period in Tanegashima Island. It is suggested that temporal change occurred in Tanegashima over approximately 1000 years after substantial change (c. 300 BC) in the Japanese main islands. The delay in temporal change in Tanegashima indicates that dispersal of migrant populations from northern Kyushu to its southern end occurred at a time remarkably later than the northeastward dispersal of migrant populations to central Honshu Island. Furthermore, the geographical cline extending from North Kyushu to Okinawa Main Island via Tanegashima Island suggests southward gene flow from North Kyushu to the central Nansei Islands via the northeast end of the Nansei Islands.

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© 2008 The Anthropological Society of Nippon
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