Preliminary Test of the Out-of-Taiwan Hypothesis for the Dispersals of Austronesian Language Groups, Based on A Craniometric Analysis of the Kenting-Liao Female Skeleton

Abstract

Concerning the prehistoric dispersals of Austronesian language groups into the Pacific, the so-called ‘Out of Taiwan’ hypothesis or ‘Express Train to Polynesia’ (ETP) hypothesis has been close to be established among linguistics and archaeology. In the present paper is a test to assess the hypothesis preliminary tried on the basis of craniometric comparisons of the prehistoric-Taiwan Kenting-liao female skeleton with prehistoric female cranial series from the Pacific area. It is proved that the Kenting-liao cranium is in a range of the variation of the Pacific series, and that a more detailed analysis should be carried out using a bigger battery of comparative materials in the near future.