Papers by Lisa Matisoo-smith
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007
Human settlement of Oceania marked the culmination of a global colonization process that began wh... more Human settlement of Oceania marked the culmination of a global colonization process that began when humans first left Africa at least 90,000 years ago. The precise origins and dispersal routes of the Austronesian peoples and the associated Lapita culture remain contentious, and numerous disparate models of dispersal (based primarily on linguistic, genetic, and archeological data) have been proposed. Here, through the use of mtDNA from 781 modern and ancient Sus specimens, we provide evidence for an early human-mediated translocation of the Sulawesi warty pig ( Sus celebensis ) to Flores and Timor and two later separate human-mediated dispersals of domestic pig ( Sus scrofa ) through Island Southeast Asia into Oceania. Of the later dispersal routes, one is unequivocally associated with the Neolithic (Lapita) and later Polynesian migrations and links modern and archeological Javan, Sumatran, Wallacean, and Oceanic pigs with mainland Southeast Asian S. scrofa . Archeological and geneti...
... Abstract. © 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.. G... more ... Abstract. © 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.. Greger Larson, Keith Dobney, Umberto Albarella, Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith, Judith Robins, Stewart Lowden, Peter Rowley-Conwy, Leif Andersson, Alan Cooper. Details der Publikation. ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2008
Journal of Pacific …, Jan 1, 2009
In 2007 a new Early Lapita site called Tamuarawai (EQS) was located on Emirau Island, Papua New G... more In 2007 a new Early Lapita site called Tamuarawai (EQS) was located on Emirau Island, Papua New Guinea. Two seasons of excavation (2007, 2008) have been undertaken. This paper describes the site and some of the preliminary analyses undertaken. Some unusual results suggest ...
... Human Settlement of the Pacific Michal Denny, Lisa Matisoo-Smith 16th September, 2010 ... Pol... more ... Human Settlement of the Pacific Michal Denny, Lisa Matisoo-Smith 16th September, 2010 ... Polynesia Melanesia Data from: Murray-McIntosh, R. P et al (1989) Testing migration patterns and estimating founding population size in Polynesia by using human mtDNA sequences. ...
Human settlement of Polynesia was a major event in world prehistory. Despite the vastness of the ... more Human settlement of Polynesia was a major event in world prehistory. Despite the vastness of the distances covered, research suggests that prehistoric Polynesian populations maintained spheres of continuing interaction for at least some period of time in some regions. A low level of genetic variation in ancestral Polynesian populations, genetic admixture (both prehistoric and post-European contact), and severe population crashes resulting from introduction of European diseases make it difficult to trace prehistoric human mobility in the region by using only human genetic and morphological markers. We focus instead on an animal that accompanied the ancestral Polynesians on their voyages. DNA phylogenies derived from mitochondrial control-region sequences of Pacific rats (Rattus exulans) from east Polynesia are presented. A range of specific hypotheses regarding the degree of interaction within Polynesia are tested. These include the issues of multiple contacts between central east Polynesia and the geographically distinct archipelagos of New Zealand and Hawaii. Results are inconsistent with models of Pacific settlement involving substantial isolation after colonization and confirm the value of genetic studies on commensal species for elucidating the history of human settlement.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Understanding what motivates the preference for and selection of foods has important health impli... more Understanding what motivates the preference for and selection of foods has important health implications. Research suggests that the phytochemicals present in green leafy vegetables contain anticarcinogenic properties. As a result of the bitter taste of phytochemical compounds, however, foods containing these are often not well accepted, particularly by children. We aimed to study the relation between sensitivity to the bitter taste of 6-n-propylthiocuracil (PROP) and acceptance of bitter- and strong-tasting foods in 3-6-y-old children. Two independent procedures, a threshold detection and a suprathreshold intensity task, were used to measure individual sensitivity to PROP, and 3 independent tasks were used to assess food acceptance. Sensitivity to the bitter taste of PROP was positively correlated with dislike of the taste of raw spinach (P < 0.05). The acceptance of spinach may to some extent be mediated by individual taste perception and be predictable via both threshold and s...
Desde hace casi un siglo se han propuesto contactos transpacíficos con distintas culturas de la A... more Desde hace casi un siglo se han propuesto contactos transpacíficos con distintas culturas de la América precolombina, a partir de paralelismos en una larga lista de rasgos culturales, pero hasta ahora no había sido posible discriminar de manera concluyente si esas similitudes corresponden a préstamos derivados de alguna clase de contacto o constituyen, "simplemente", desarrollos independientes o convergentes. Sin embargo, frente a la debilidad de la data empírica y de los argumentos teórico-metodológicos tradicionales, la evidencia genética parece incontrastable. El hallazgo en Arauco de restos de gallina en un contexto prehispánico, cuyo ADn indica un origen en Polinesia, obliga a re-evaluar los rasgos "polinésicos" descritos en la cultura Mapuche y proponer nuevas líneas de investigación en el marco de un renovado paradigma.
AbstrAct In 2007 the discovery of pre-Columbian chicken bones from Chile provided the first concl... more AbstrAct In 2007 the discovery of pre-Columbian chicken bones from Chile provided the first conclusive evidence for prehistoric Polynesian contact with South America. When looking for further commensal data to address the issue of trans-Pacific contacts, we found a museum collection of human remains recovered from Mocha Island, a small island located ap-proximately 30 km off the Chilean coast. The morphology of the crania suggests they may be of Polynesian ancestry. Here we present craniometric analyses for the six complete crania from Mocha Island, Chile and discuss the implica-tions for further research into prehistoric trans-Pacific interaction.
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2008
ABSTRACT In an effort to document the density and distribution of prehistoric chicken (Gallus gal... more ABSTRACT In an effort to document the density and distribution of prehistoric chicken (Gallus gallus) remains across Oceania, this paper presents the analysis of reported faunal remains from over 500 individual archaeological and natural sites from across the Pacific. We ...
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2001
Generally, species identification of rodent remains from archaeological sites in the Pacific is m... more Generally, species identification of rodent remains from archaeological sites in the Pacific is made based on the overall size and robusticity of those bones most commonly recovered-mandibles and femora. Molecular identifications of Pacific rat remains suggest that the current method of morphological identification may not be appropriate for species identification. It appears that there is a high degree of size variation in Rattus exulans throughout the Pacific, and an overlap in size between R. exulans and other rat species present in the region. Our results suggest not only a need to re-examine our current methods for identification of rodent skeletal remains, but also, perhaps, our views on the distribution of various rodent species throughout the Pacific, and the implications of such for the human prehistory of the region.
PloS one, 2014
The genus Rattus is highly speciose, the taxonomy is complex, and individuals are often difficult... more The genus Rattus is highly speciose, the taxonomy is complex, and individuals are often difficult to identify to the species level. Previous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of phylogenetic approaches to identification in Rattus but some species, especially among the endemics of the New Guinean region, showed poor resolution. Possible reasons for this are simple misidentification, incomplete gene lineage sorting, hybridization, and phylogenetically distinct lineages that are unrecognised taxonomically. To assess these explanations we analysed 217 samples, representing nominally 25 Rattus species, collected in New Guinea, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. To reduce misidentification problems we sequenced museum specimens from earlier morphological studies and recently collected tissues from samples with associated voucher specimens. We also reassessed vouchers from previously sequenced specimens. We inferred combined and separate phylogenies from two mitochondrial DNA regions ...
ABSTRACT Cet article présente une approche biologique originale du peuplement et de la mobilité h... more ABSTRACT Cet article présente une approche biologique originale du peuplement et de la mobilité humaine en Polynésie à travers l&#39;étude d&#39;un animal qui fut transporté à travers le Pacifique par les anciens polynésiens. Nous sommes convaincus que l&#39;étude de la variation génétique du rat polynésien (#Rattus exulans$) permet de dresser un modèle phylogénétique du peuplement initiale et de la mobilité ultérieure. Les phylogènes ADN de 92 séquences mitochondriales de #Rattus exulans$ originaires de Polynésie orientale sont présentés. Les résultats de l&#39;étude indiquent que toutes les populatoins orientales de #Rattus exulans$ sont originaires du sud des îles Cook et des îles de la Société, que #Rattus exulans$ à Hawaï a deux origines et que #Rattus exulans$ a des origines multiples en Nouvelle-Zélande. Ces résultats sont en contradiction avec les modèles de peuplement du Pacifique qui suggèrent une période d&#39;isolation substantielle après la colonistion initiale, et ils confirment la valeur des études génétiques des commensaux pour l&#39;archéologie. (Résumé d&#39;auteur)
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Papers by Lisa Matisoo-smith