Taiwan could be the place from which all Austronesian peoples originated, Academia Sinica vice-president Liu Tsui-jung (劉翠溶) said yesterday, citing the results of research conducted over the past decades.
Liu made the remark during a keynote speech at the opening of a conference on issues concerning indigenous peoples worldwide organized by the International Geographical Union.
The conference, which opened in Taipei yesterday, will continue through Saturday.
The Austronesian family refers to indigenous peoples found in a region that stretches "from Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south, and from Easter Island in the east to Madagascar in the west," Liu said, adding that this excludes indigenous people in Australia.
For a long time, academics have attempted to trace the origin of Austronesian peoples through linguistic, anthropologist and archaeological research, and had raised several theories, Liu said.
Theories include the Indo-China Peninsula as the origin, southern China as well as the southeast coast of the Asian continent, Liu said.
Although Taiwan was first considered as a possible origin of the Austronesian peoples in 1965, it was not until 10 years later that the theory was taken seriously.
"In 1975, archeologist Richard Shutler and linguist Jeffrey Marck ... contended that archeological and linguistic evidence demonstrated that cord-marked pottery found in Taiwan from around 9000BC to 2500BC represented the earliest Austronesian community," Liu said. "Taiwan was thus the earliest homeland of the Austronesian people."
Advanced biotechnology allowed a team from New Zealand to conduct DNA tests on New Zealand Maoris in 1998.
"[The] finding reveals that Maori ancestors came originally from Taiwan and confirms Maori beliefs about their origins," Liu said.
DNA tests of 640 Taiwanese Aborigines by the Transfusion Medicine Laboratory at Mackay Memorial Hospital in 2005 also showed that "Taiwanese Aboriginal populations are more closely related to Southeast Asian island populations than to those from mainland East Asia," overturning earlier continental origin theories, Liu said.
In addition to Liu's keynote speech, relations between the state and its Aboriginal populations, as well as Taiwan's Aboriginal cultural and knowledge systems, were also explored by academics in essays presented at the conference.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS