The first migrants to Madagascar and their introduction of plants: linguistic and ethnological evidence

Beaujard, Philippe

doi:10.1080/0067270x.2011.580142

Cited by 101 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the sequence of arrivals on Madagascar is debated and uncertain [26,27]. By 1000 BP, clear archaeological connections to both mainland Africa and East Asia can be observed from pottery, domestic animal and domestic crop evidence [18,25,26,28]. The archaeological record suggests that Madagascar was relatively sparsely populated until about 1300 BP, followed by increases in the number and size of settlements [18,25], leading to the current census size of more than 23 million Malagasy [29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Natural selection for the Duffy-null allele in the recently admixed people of Madagascar

et al. 2014

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While gene flow between distantly related populations is increasingly recognized as a potentially important source of adaptive genetic variation for humans, fully characterized examples are rare. In addition, the role that natural selection for resistance to vivax malaria may have played in the extreme distribution of the protective Duffy-null allele, which is nearly completely fixed in mainland sub-Saharan Africa and absent elsewhere, is controversial. We address both these issues by investigating the evolution of the Duffy-null allele in the Malagasy, a recently admixed population with major ancestry components from both East Asia and mainland sub-Saharan Africa. We used genome-wide genetic data and extensive computer simulations to show that the high frequency of the Duffy-null allele in Madagascar can only be explained in the absence of positive natural selection under extreme demographic scenarios involving high genetic drift. However, the observed genomic single nucleotide polymorphism diversity in the Malagasy is incompatible with such extreme demographic scenarios, indicating that positive selection for the Duffy-null allele best explains the high frequency of the allele in Madagascar. We estimate the selection coefficient to be 0.066. Because vivax malaria is endemic to Madagascar, this result supports the hypothesis that malaria resistance drove fixation of the Duffy-null allele in mainland sub-Saharan Africa.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural selection for the Duffy-null allele in the recently admixed people of Madagascar

et al. 2014

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“…However, it is estimated that some 10% of Madagascar's flora was introduced from elsewhere (10), and plant introductions include a significant number of staple crops, spices, and arable weeds of Asian origin (11). Historically or currently important crops on Madagascar, like banana (Musa spp.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

Crowther

Lucas

Helm

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

154

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The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the island's early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the Southeast Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa.

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“…Each migration brought to Madagascar its own distinctive colonization package (Beaujard 2003(Beaujard , 2011Blench 2007;Fuller et al 2011;Kull et al 2011). The island can thus be described as a laboratory where multiple colonization experiments occurred in a relatively compressed timeframe.…”

Section: Madagascar As An Island Laboratorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Forging Ahead By Land and By Sea: Archaeology and Paleoclimate Reconstruction in Madagascar

Douglass

Zinke

2015

Afr Archaeol Rev

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Madagascar is an exceptional example of island biogeography. Though a large island, Madagascar's landmass is small relative to other places in the world with comparable levels of biodiversity, endemicity, and topographic and climatic variation. Moreover, the timing of Madagascar's human colonization and the social-ecological trajectories that followed human arrival make the island a unique case study for understanding the dynamic relationship between humans, environment, and climate. These changes are most famously illustrated by the mass extinction of the island's megafauna but also include a range of other developments. Given the chronological confluence of human arrival and dramatic transformations of island ecologies, one of the most important overarching questions for research on Madagascar is how best to understand the interconnections between human communities, the environment, and climate. In this review paper, we contribute to the well-established discussion of this complex question by highlighting the potential for new multidisciplinary research collaborations in the southwest part of the island. Specifically, we promote the comparison of paleoclimate indicators from securely dated archaeological and paleontological contexts with Western Indian Ocean climate records, as a productive way to improve the overall resolution of paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstruction for the island. Given new archaeological findings that more than double the length of Madagascar's human occupation, models of environmental transformation post-human arrival must be reassessed and allow for the possibility of slower and more varied rates of change. Improving the spatial and temporal resolution of paleoclimate reconstruction is critical in distinguishing anthropogenic and climate drivers of environmental change. It will also increase our capacity to leverage archaeological and paleoclimate research toward resolving modern challenges, such as environmental conservation and poverty alleviation.

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The first migrants to Madagascar and their introduction of plants: linguistic and ethnological evidence

Cited by 101 publications

References 32 publications

Natural selection for the Duffy-null allele in the recently admixed people of Madagascar

Natural selection for the Duffy-null allele in the recently admixed people of Madagascar

Ancient crops provide first archaeological signature of the westward Austronesian expansion

Forging Ahead By Land and By Sea: Archaeology and Paleoclimate Reconstruction in Madagascar

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