| Abstract: |
The paleoanthropological material of Liang bua, West-Flores, has been compared with the finds of Lewoleba (Island of Lomblen) and Melolo (Island of Sumba). Chronologically, the Liang Bua material is the oldest and the Lewolwba material is the youngest, although according ro the "scoring method" applied, the three groups do not differ substantially, thus representing actually one anthropological era of the late neolithic period. Differing from most analyses of paleoanthropological material, the author has taken advantage of the fact that burial material is not a random population sample, but a highly selective one in terms of "clustering" according to social groups. Differences in traits of such clustered material highly suggest existing strains of the polymorphic pattern of the ancient population of the sites, an effect of a relatively new hybridization process taking place between the more ancient Australoid-Melanesoid groups and rthe newer Mongoloid dominant groups. It is intersting to note that the entire material of the three sites fits perfectly into a "normal curve", thus underlining the "strain" theory.
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