East and Southeast Asians descend from the ancient prehistoric East Asian-related hunter gatherers, nomads and agriculturalists, also known as “East-Eurasian” or “Mongoloid” (sometimes also simply known as “Asiatic”).
For a comprehensive summary see: Tao Zhang’s post in Huaxia knowledge
I will write about genetics, historical migration and anthropologic data. Some studies and lastly graphical examples of East Asian-related people.
Here some interesting parts from my answers:
Not only East/Southeast Asians (which tightly cluster together), but also Northern Asians/Siberians, most Central Asians and Native American people as well as certain other groups, are closely related and distinct from Europeans or Africans.
There are various distinctive characteristics and components which characterize East/Southeast Asians (and related people in Siberia or Native Americans). This includes anthropologic features (such as facial features, bone and skull structure as well as overall body characteristics) but also genetics and biological features (such as various body functions and distinctive genes and alleles). Forensic experts can reveal the race/ancestry of a skull to 95% correctness. While genetic research is able to determine genetic clusters with nearly 100% accuracy.
Here the average facial features from Southeast Asians, East Asians and Siberians/Central Asians respectively:
Southeast Asians:
Here Indonesia/Malay specifically:
East Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian):
Siberian and Central Asian:
Here genetically related populations:
Native Americans:
The average “Asian” or Mongoloid/East-Eurasian face from worldwide is:
Recent genetic data:
We already know that modern East and Southeast Asians (such as Sino-Tibetan, Japonic, Koreanic, Austronesians, Austroasiatic, Kra-Dai, Hmong-Mien, and some others) are very closely related to each other and can only hardly be distinguished from each other. We also know that the populations of Siberia and Central Asia (such as Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Yeniseian, Uralic speakers as well as other various Paleo-Siberians), and Native Americans (various groups) are closely related and can be traced back to an ancestral population somewhere in East Asia. Western anthropologists have called our people after the Mongolians → “Mongoloid”. Other western geneticists came up with a new geographical term “East-Eurasian”. It is not important how they call us or what term is preferred, but it is important to know and recognize our relation (genetically, culturally and linguistically) and to remember our shared ancestry.
Bai et al. 2020 found that Southeast Asians are closely related to East Asians. Both East Asians and Southeast Asians form a single cluster within the East-Eurasian clade. Additionally, they found that mainland Southeast Asia was already closely related to East Asians during the late Paleolithic before the expansion of Austroasiatic and Austronesian groups.
“Our results suggest a early migration between Southern China and mainland Southeast Asia by at least 22,000 BP.”
Another study in 2020 by Prof. FU Qiaomei’s team from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published in Science on May 14 found:
“Present-day mainland East Asians from both the north and south share a closer genetic relationship to northern Neolithic East Asians along the Yellow River and to southern Neolithic East Asians on the southern coast of China. Further analyses show that the northern ancestry playing a larger role. Population movement, particularly from the north along the Yellow River southward was a prominent part of East Asian prehistory after the Neolithic. Interestingly, present-day Han Chinese in all provinces, north and south, show a similar amount of northern and southern influences.
Southern East Asian-related ancestry, while less represented in mainland East Asia today, had extensive influence on other regions. Present-day Austronesian speakers, who share a close genetic relationship to present-day mainland East Asians but live across a wide swath of islands in Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific, show a remarkably close genetic relationship to Neolithic populations from the southern coast of China.
Archaeological materials dating back to the Middle Neolithic have long hinted at the connection between Austronesian islanders and populations in mainland East Asia. Now, the genetic relationships uncovered by Prof. FU and her team show unambiguous evidence that Austronesian speakers today originated from a proto-Austronesian population that derived from southern China at least 8,400 year ago.”
Liu et al. 2020 found that mostly all Southeast Asians are very closely related to East Asians and have nearly exclusive “East Asian-related” ancestry. Non-East Asian-related ancestry ranged between 1% to 11% with an average of 6% for the whole Southeast Asia.
The addition of PC2 further spreads out the East Asian cluster, with Siberia and Northern Asian groups at one end, and Insular Southeast Asia (ISEA) groups at the other.
The study results also revealed that the endangered and isolated Negrito tribal minorities were not as isolated as suggested before. The Andamanese (samplified by the Onge) were found to have 55% Oceanic/African ancestry and 45% East/Southeast Asian ancestry.
Hallast et al. 2020 also speaks from an East/Southeast Asian cluster which encompasses the whole East Asia, Southeast Asia, Siberia, Central Asia and pockets of South Asia. According to him, there were several migration events, starting from about 50,000–55,000 years ago from people belonging to the East/Southeast Asian cluster into other regions. See also: “Early replacement of West-Eurasian lineages from the East”
East/Southeast Asians also had multiple impact onto Indian people:
Some of you, dear readers, may know about the debate regarding human origins, noteworthy the Out-of-Africa theory and the multiregional origin theory. Most recently, the serious errors regarding genetics, archeology and shared alleles/mutations and SNP data, have shown up the flaws of the western supporter “Out-of-Africa” theory. These errors caused some western scholars to propose a “advanced version”, in which they suggest a multi-regional origin within Africa.
But most recently, several Chinese studies have revealed strong evidence for the multiregional origin of modern human populations outside of Africa.
The Central South University (CSU; 中南 大学) published two recent studies in 2019 and 2020 which support the multiregional origin theory. They found that the new genetic data is in contradiction with the Out-of-Africa theory and concluded that this evidence refute it completely.
A multiregional origin for modern humans was recently supported by studies from Yuan et al. 2019, Chen et al. 2020, Huang (various studies, most recently also in 2020). They independently concluded that there are three human ancestry groups:
- Eastern-Eurasians (Mongoloids or East Asian like people)
- Western-Eurasian (Caucasoids or European like people)
- African-related (Negroid/Negrito or Melanesian like people)
They also cite and found interesting new developments regarding the MGD theory (maximum genetic diversity), neutral and non-neutral DNA and evolution as well as convergent evolution of autosomes and SNPs as well as the impact of so called “junk-DNA”. The evidence from the MGD (maximum genetic diversity) theory is in accordance with the multiregional origin theory and both support each other precisely.
Huang additionally found that there was a much more complicated history of ancient human migration. Distinctive East Asian lineages are found at low frequency in populations of Africa and Europe. Especially the Khoisan macro-groups have unusual high East Asian like lineages which may explain certain physical features. He further notes that the three human ancestry groups share probably less than 12% of total genome, which additionally contradicts a single origin in Africa. The highest genetic diversity was found in modern day India, which harbors all three human ancestry cluster in varying degrees.
Yuan et al. 2019 conclusion:
“We have shown that there are only three major human groups, Africans, East Asians, and Europeans/Indians.”
Chen et al. 2020:
Chen et al. 2020 found additional evidence for distinct genetic traits among East Asian like populations and for a multiregional origin of human populations. They concluded that the new genetic evidence is in serve contradiction with a simple “Out-of-Africa” migration.
The wider East Asian clade (East-Eurasian) is also known as Mongoloid “race” by early Westerners and anthropologists. These populations share specific autosomal DNA and SNP data, which helps to make a graphical distribution of these populations and their associated ancestry and ancestral genome.
The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province has evidence of use of fire, which is dated 1.27 million years ago.
The oldest human remains were recently found in East Asia (central China) and display continuity to modern East Asians and Southeast Asians. See: Archaic human remains from Hualongdong, China, and Middle Pleistocene human continuity and variation
Similarly, Rowold et al. 2020 modeled the genetic clusters of worldwide populations and the study results are in agreement with the results of Yuan et al. 2019. There are three different genetic groups:
- East/Southeast Asians
- Europeans/Middle Easterners
- Africans (Sub-Saharan)
“East Asians and Southeast Asians were found to be most distant to both contemporary West-Eurasians and Sub-Saharan Africans and formed a completely separate cluster.”
The distribution of the Asian/Mongoloid/East-Eurasian look and people corresponds with the distribution of East-Eurasian genetic ancestry based on full genome, DNA alleles and SNPs:
Contemporary DNA tests as well as academic DNA tests and genetic studies often use next to the common East-Eurasian (which replaced the controversial term Mongoloid) name also “East Asian & Native American” or “East Asian-related”.
Overall there are drastic differences between the three human population groups (although there exists some variance):
None of them is superior or inferior and racism has no place in serious academic works, however the denial of these differences is as bad and misleading as its misuse.
Next to several Asian studies which rejected the OOA theory, recently now also a Western study is going into a similar direction. This further supports the recently developed multi-regional model for the origin of the three “human groups” per Yuan et al. and Chen.
See: The reversal of human phylogeny: Homo left Africa as erectus, came back as sapiens sapiens
For a better understanding of the genetic and archaeogenetic history of Eastern Eurasia and a good summary about the distribution and the population movements, see: Tao Zhang’s post in Huaxia knowledge
For everyone interested in this topic it is worth a read.
Here some example pictures of various random East and Southeast Asians:
I will not show all ethnic groups, but only some examples. Do not be offended if your ethnic group is not shown. Feel free to post pictures in the comments.
Khmer people:
Filipinos:
Malay people:
Thai people:
Han Chinese:
Uyghurs:
Mongolians:
Japanese:
Yakuts in northern Russia/Siberia:
Kazakhs in Central Asia:
Bashkirs in Russia:
And so on……
We are a large family. We should work together and try to preserve and maintain our many cultures and identity. Asians should stand together and should not fall victim from external attacks from the West or Africa. Divided Asia falls, but together we are the strongest people. We share a common ancestry and are genetically closely related. Thank you.
