Papuan people

The indigenous peoples of West Papua in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians. There is genetic evidence for two major historical lineages in New Guinea and neighboring islands: a first wave from the Malay Archipelago perhaps 50,000 years ago when New Guinea and Australia were a single landmass called Sahuland, much later, a wave of Austronesian people from the north who introduced Austronesian languages and pigs about 3,500 years ago. They also left a small but significant genetic trace in many coastal Papuan peoples.

Linguistically, Papuans speak languages from the many families of non-Austronesian languages that are found only on New Guinea and neighboring islands, as well as Austronesian languages along parts of the coast, and recently developed creoles such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Unserdeutsch, and Papuan Malay.

The term "Papuan" is used in a wider sense in linguistics and anthropology. In linguistics, "Papuan languages" is a cover term for the diverse, mutually unrelated, non-Austronesian language families spoken in Melanesia, the Torres Strait Islands, and parts of Wallacea. In anthropology, "Papuan" is often used to denote the highly diverse aboriginal populations of Melanesia and Wallacea prior to the arrival of Austronesian-speakers, and the dominant genetic traces of these populations in the current ethnic groups of these areas.

Languages

''Ethnologue''s 14th edition lists 826 languages of Papua New Guinea and 257 languages of Western New Guinea, a total of 1083 languages, with 12 languages overlapping. They can be divided into two groups, the Austronesian languages, and all the others, called Papuan languages for convenience. The term ''Papuan languages'' refers to an areal grouping, rather than a linguistic one. So-called Papuan languages comprise hundreds of different languages, most of which are not related.

Papuan ethnic groups

The following indigenous peoples live within the modern borders of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Austronesian-speaking (AN) groups are given in ''italics''.

Indonesia

West Papua

Papuan ethnic groups / tribes in Indonesian province of West Papua include Abun, Ambel, Arfak, Awe, Ayamaru, Ayfat, Batanta, Biak, Biga, Bira, Borai, Butlih, Domu, Doreri, Emeyode, Fiawat, Hatam, Irarutu, Irires, Iwaro, Kais, Kawe, Koiwai, Kuri, Langanyan, Madekwana, Mairasi, Maniwak, Matbat, Mbaham, Matta, Meiah, Meybrat, Miere, Miyah, Moi, Moire, Moru, Moskona, Mpur, Napiti, Nerigo, Oburauw, Roon, Roswar, Sebyar, Sougb, Soviar, Sumuri, Tehit, Tepin, Wamesa, Warumba, Waruri, Wawiyai, Wondama, Yaban, Konda.

Papua

Papuan ethnic groups/tribes in Indonesian province of Papua include:

Highland Papua

Papuan ethnic groups/tribes in Indonesian province of Highland Papua include:

Central Papua

Papuan ethnic groups/tribes in Indonesian province of Central Papua include:

South Papua

Papuan ethnic groups/tribes in Indonesian province of South Papua include:

Papua New Guinea

* Abelam
* Angu
* Baruya
* Biangai
* ''Bilibil''
* Chambri
* Duna
* Etoro
* Fore
* Gadsup
* Gogodala
* Haroli
* Hewa
* Huli
* Iatmul
* Kaluli
* Kwoma
* Koteka
* '' Maisin'' (AN with many non-AN elements)
* Melpa
* Mian
* Morkai
* '' Motu''
* Min
* Mundugumor
* Ogea
* Orokaiva
* Sambia
* Swagap
* Tairora
* '' Tanga''
* Telefol
* Tsembaga
* Urapmin
* Wiru
* Wola
* Wopkaimin
* Yaifo
* Zia

Bismarck Archipelago

* Baining
* '' Tolai''
* ''Trobriand''

File:Friends2.jpg, Girls from Papua New Guinea
File:Mall culture jakarta102.jpg, Papuan people in folk dress in Jakarta

Origin and genetics

In a 2005 study of ASPM gene variants, Mekel-Bobrov et al. found that the Papuan people have among the highest rate of the newly evolved ASPM HaplogroupD, at 59.4% occurrence of the approximately 6,000-year-old allele. While it is not yet known exactly what selective advantage is provided by this gene variant, the haplogroupD allele is thought to be positively selected in populations and to confer some substantial advantage that has caused its frequency to rapidly increase.

Main Y-DNA Haplogroups of Papuan people are HaplogroupMS, HaplogroupP and HaplogroupC1b2a; a significant minority belong also to Haplogroup O-M175.

Based on his genetic studies of the Denisova hominin, an ancient human species discovered in 2010, Svante Pääbo claims that ancient human ancestors of the Papuans interbred in Asia with these humans. He has found that people of New Guinea share 4%–7% of their genome with the Denisovans, indicating this exchange.

Phylogenetic data suggests that an early Eastern Eurasian lineage trifurcated somewhere in eastern South Asia, and gave rise to the Australo-Papuans, the AASI, as well as East/Southeast Asians, although Australo-Papuans may have also received some gene flow from an earlier group (xOoA), around 2%, next to additional archaic admixture in the Sahul region.Genetics and material culture support repeated expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a population hub out of Africa, Vallini et al. 2022 (April 4, 2022) Quote: "''Taken together with a lower bound of the final settlement of Sahul at 37 kya it is reasonable to describe Papuans as either an almost even mixture between East-Eurasians and a lineage basal to West and East-Eurasians which occurred sometimes between 45 and 38kya, or as a sister lineage of East-Eurasians with or without a minor basal OoA or xOoA contribution. We here chose to parsimoniously describe Papuans as a simple sister group of Tianyuan, cautioning that this may be just one out of six equifinal possibilities.''"

According to one study, Australo-Papuans (such as the indigenous people of New Guinea and Aboriginal Australians) could have either formed from a mixture between an East Asian lineage and lineage basal to West and East Asians, or as a sister lineage of East Asians with or without a minor basal OoA or xOoA contribution.

A 2016 study at the University of Cambridge by Christopher Klein et al. suggests that it was about 50,000 years ago that these peoples reached Sahul (the supercontinent consisting of present-day Australia and its islands and New Guinea). The sea levels rose and isolated New Guinea about 10,000 years ago, but Aboriginal Australians and Papuans diverged from each other genetically earlier, about 37,000 years BP.

Notable people

* Abba Bina, Papua New Guinean businessman and politician
* Archie Thompson, former Australian soccer player
* Elie Aiboy, former Indonesian footballer
* Marlina Flassy, Indonesian anthropologist and the first woman to be appointed Dean of Cenderawasih University
* Frans Kaisiepo, 4th Governor of Papua and National Hero of Indonesia
* Nitya Krishinda Maheswari, Indonesian badminton player and 2014 Asian Games women's doubles gold medalist
* Nowela Auparay, professional singer and Indonesian Idol winner
* Peter O'Neill, 7th Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
* Freddy Numberi, Indonesian politician and former Minister of Transportation
* Raema Lisa Rumbewas, Indonesian weightlifter and silver medallist at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics
* Boaz Solossa, Indonesian footballer
* Titus Bonai, Indonesian footballer
* Ricky Kambuaya, Indonesian footballer
* Michael Somare, former Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
* Heather Watson, English female tennis player

See also

* Aboriginal Australians
* Indigenous Australians
* Koteka Tribal Assembly
* List of ethnic groups of West Papua
* Moluccans (to the west of New Guinea)
* Negrito (Southeast Asia)
* Papua conflict
* Proto-Australoid
* Stéphane Breton (filmmaker)
* Torres Strait Islanders between New Guinea and mainland Australia (including the Meriam people, whose language family is otherwise found in New Guinea)

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{Authority control

Papuan people