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A 4000 year-old introduction of domestic pigs into the Philippine Archipelago: implications for understanding routes of human migration through Island Southeast Asia and Wallacea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Philip J. Piper ,
Hsiao-chun Hung ,
Fredeliza Z. Campos ,
Peter Bellwood  and
Rey Santiago
Philip J. Piper
Affiliation:
1Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines
Hsiao-chun Hung
Affiliation:
2Research Center of Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Fredeliza Z. Campos
Affiliation:
1Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101, Philippines
Peter Bellwood
Affiliation:
3School of Archaeology and Anthropology, A.D. Hope Building 14, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Rey Santiago
Affiliation:
4Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, Padre Burgos St., Manila 1000, Philippines
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Abstract

New research into the Neolithic of Island Southeast Asia is broadening the old models and making them more diverse, more human – more like history: people and animals can move through the islands in a multitude of ways. The domestic pig is an important tracker of Neolithic people and practice into the Pacific, and the authors address the controversial matter of whether domestic pigs first reached the islands of Southeast Asia from China via Taiwan or from the neighbouring Vietnamese peninsula. The DNA trajectory read from modern pigs favours Vietnam, but the authors have found well stratified domestic pig in the Philippines dated to c. 4000 BP and associated with cultural material of Taiwan. Thus the perils of relying only on DNA – but are these alternative or additional stories?

Keywords

PhilippinesNeolithicpig domesticationhuman migration
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 321 , September 2009 , pp. 687 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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