The Role of Migration, Trade, and Genetic Exchange in the Neolithic Austronesian Expansion Ricardo Daniel L. Pagulayan Abstract Insular Southeast Asia’s (ISEA) Neolithic past invokes the idea of the “Austronesian expansion” into the Malay Archipelago, and the consequent supplanting of a preexisting, hunter-gatherer population by migrating, agriculturalist Austronesian-speaking peoples (ANP). Today, speakers of Austronesian languages (AN) dominate the linguistic landscape of ISEA, such that tracing the origin of their ancestors, determining their Neolithic migration routes, and locating an AN “homeland,” have become key to studying the region’s prehistoric past. Some theories posit an AN homeland in South China and Taiwan; some claim an ISEAn point of origin; while others even suggest a Melanesian origin of the AN language family. This investigation was thus aimed at taking these various theories into consideration, and examining them in conjunction with the region’s archaeological record, and human genetic studies to derive a more holistic understanding of the region’s Neolithic past, and the origin of the ANP. In the end, archaeology and genetics all illustrated the sheer complexity of the “Austronesian expansion,” failing to provide conclusive answers as to a proposed AN homeland, although succeeding in demonstrating the genetic diversity of modern ANP and bringing into question the treatment of AN and Austronesia as a monolithic entity overall. Introduction With a geographical distribution from Madagascar off the coast of East Africa, to the Nicobar Islands and Insular Southeast Asia (ISEA), and eastward all the way to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) 3,686 kilometers from the Chilean coast, the Austronesian (AN) language family, before the advent of European colonial expansion, was once the most widespread taxon of