| Abstract: |
Consideration of the evidence for hominid evolution in Southeast and East Asia in a modern paleoanthropological perspective indicates that many of the past and present interpretations about the age, taxonomy, phylogeny and ecological adaptations of Asian hominids are unsupportable. The age of the earliest Asian hominids may have been greatly overestimated and the earliest Asian hominids are probably on the order of 1 million years younger than is commonly realized. Most if not all of the taxa which have been recognized for these earliest hominids are based on unsupportable taxonomic approaches and inadequate morphological data which have obscured the probability that all Asian hominids can be accommodated in the genus Homo. No lower Pleistocene hominids from Asia show marked affinities to extra-asian taxa such as 'Homo habilis' or Australopithecus. All of these hominids can be accommodated within the taxon Homo erectus as it is now recognized. Phylogenetic relationships within the Asian Hominidae are difficult to recognize, but consistent morphological distinctions between Chinese and Indonesian fossil hominids are recognizable. Whether or not these distinctions diverge in the direction of modern populations in their respective local areas is currently unascertainable. The distinctiveness of cultural adaptations in the study area from other Old World ones is recognizable, but it is based primarily on the absence of few cultural lithic elements which indicate possible substantial ecological differences in contrast to Acheulian cultural areas. The local environment which may have accounted for the simplicity and 'crudeness' of the cultures from the study area can be incorporated in a 'karst-bamboo' model which suggests heavy reliance on a non-lithic technology.
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