| Abstract: |
The Far East had many similar as well as many drastically differing circumstances that shaped the human craniofacial form in the late Pleistocene and Holocene. In the present study, 54 samples from Island Southeast Asia to East Siberia through East Asia in sensu stricto were compared in an attempt to elucidate the affinities of the populations of these regions based on six craniofacial indices. The major findings are as follows. (1) Island Southeast Asians have retained some archaic and generalized craniofacial forms to the present day. (2) No Neolithic craniofacial clines can be found across East/Northeast Asia. Instead, there seems to be a boundary at about the northern part of China. North of the boundary occur the Neolithic Northeast Asians, marked by their characteristic craniofacial morphology, and south of the boundary is occupied by the generalized Asian populations. (3) The terminal and post-Neolithic expansion of the populations in the northern part of East Asia to the south could have been the main cause for the rapid change in the craniofacial features of the post-Neolithic inhabitants in China and Japan. The population history of East Asia during the last 3000-5000 years may be quite complex.
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