37 Southeast Asian islands and Oceania: human genetics Murray P. Cox This chapter discusses the genetic record of human migration into island Southeast Asia and Oceania, irstly during the Pleistocene, and later during the Neolithic with its associated populations of Malayo-Polynesian speakers. The picture is one of intergradation between Asian and indigenous (western Paciic) population components. The Neolithic period was a time of great change in island Southeast Asia and Oceania. Many characteristics of the peoples living in this region today have their foundation in the Neolithic, including their languages, modes of subsistence, and many aspects of modern culture. The same is true of their biology. The Neolithic period saw major population movements from mainland Asia, substantially changing the biological makeup of communities in what are today the island nations of Taiwan, the Philip- pines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands. Descendants of these Neolithic voyagers ultimately developed the advanced seafaring skills necessary to explore and settle the remote islands of the vast Paciic Ocean. Genetics as history History can be reconstructed in many different ways. It can be inferred from the dis- tribution and relationships of languages, an approach irst applied in the Paciic during the 1770s by the natural historian Johann Reinhold Forster during Captain James Cook’s second voyage. History can be reconstructed from the distribution and relation- ships of archaeological artifacts. Importantly, however, history is also carried in the DNA of living people, as well as being preserved in the bones of ancient individuals. Such genetic evidence is often considered to be of recent provenance. In fact, the earliest studies of genetic diversity in the Indo-Paciic region were carried out in the The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, Edited by Immanuel Ness. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm837