{{Short description|Outdated grouping of human beings}}{{EngvarB|date=October 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} '''Australo-Melanesians''' (also known as '''Australasians''' or the '''Australomelanesoid''', '''Australoid''' or '''Australioid race''') is an outdated [[Historical race concepts|historical grouping]] of various people indigenous to [[Melanesia]] and [[Australia]]. Controversially, some groups found in parts of [[Southeast Asia]] and [[South Asia]] were also sometimes included. While most authors included [[Indigenous people of New Guinea|Papuans]], [[Aboriginal Australians]] and [[Melanesians]] (mainly from [[Fiji]], [[New Caledonia]], [[Solomon Islands]], and [[Vanuatu]]), there was controversy about the inclusion of the various Southeast Asian populations grouped as "[[Negrito]]", or a number of [[Dark skin|dark-skinned]] tribal populations of the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref name="p. 26" /><ref name="Kulatilake">{{Cite journal |last=Kulatilake |first=Samanti |title=Cranial Morphology of the Vedda people - the indigenes of Sri Lanka|url= https://www.academia.edu/9637404}}</ref>
The concept of dividing humankind into three, four or five races (often called [[Caucasoid]], [[Mongoloid]], [[Negroid]], and Australoid) was introduced in the 18th century and further developed by Western scholars in the context of "[[Racism|racist ideologies]]"<ref name="AAPARace" /> during the age of [[colonialism]].<ref name="AAPARace">{{cite web|author=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|title=AAPA Statement on Race and Racism |website=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|access-date=19 June 2020 |date=27 March 2019 |url=https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/}}</ref> With the rise of modern [[genetics]], the concept of distinct human races in a biological sense has become obsolete. In 2019, the [[American Association of Biological Anthropologists]] stated: "The belief in “races” as natural aspects of human biology, and the structures of inequality (racism) that emerge from such beliefs, are among the most damaging elements in the human experience both today and in the past."<ref name="AAPARace" />
==Terminological history==
The term "Australoid" was coined in ethnology in the mid 19th century, describing tribes or populations "of the type of native Australians".<ref>J.R. Logan (ed.), ''The Journal of the Indian archipelago and eastern Asia'' (1859), [https://books.google.com/books?id=iW0EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA68 p. 68].</ref> The term "Australioid race" was introduced by [[Thomas Huxley]] in 1870 to refer to certain peoples indigenous to [[South Asia|South]] and [[Southeast Asia]] and [[Oceania]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pearson|first1=Roger|title=Anthropological Glossary|date=1985|publisher=Krieger Publishing Company|pages=20, 128, 267|isbn=9780898745108 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HjANAAAAYAAJ|access-date=2 February 2018}}</ref> In [[physical anthropology]], ''Australoid'' is used for morphological features characteristic of Aboriginal Australians by [[Daniel John Cunningham]] in his ''Text-book of Anatomy'' (1902). An ''Australioid'' (''sic'', with an additional ''-i-'') racial group was first proposed by [[Thomas Huxley]] in an essay ''On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind'' (1870), in which he divided humanity into four principal groups (Xanthochroic, [[Mongoloid]], [[Negroid]], and Australioid).<ref>[http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/GeoDis.html Huxley, Thomas On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind. 1870. August 14, 2006]</ref> His original model included the native inhabitants of [[Deccan]] in [[India]] under the Australoid category, specifically "in a well-marked form" among the hill tribes of the Deccan Plateau. Huxley further classified the [[Mediterranean race|Melanochroi]] (Peoples of the [[Mediterranean race]]) as a mixture of the [[Nordic race|Xanthochroi]] (northern Europeans) and Australioids.<ref>Huxley, Thomas. On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind. 1870. 14 August 2006. [http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/GeoDis.html]</ref>
Huxley (1870) described Australioids as [[dolichocephalic]]; their hair as usually silky, black and wavy or curly, with large, heavy jaws and [[prognathism]], with skin the color of chocolate and irises which are dark brown or black.<ref name="aleph0.clarku.edu">[[Thomas Henry Huxley|Huxley, T. H.]] "[http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/SM3/GeoDis.html On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief Modifications of Mankind]" (1870) ''Journal of the Ethnological Society of London''</ref>
The term "Proto-Australoid" was used by [[Roland Burrage Dixon]] in his ''Racial History of Man'' (1923). In ''The Origin of Races'' (1962), [[Carleton S. Coon|Carleton Coon]] expounded his system of five races (Australoid, Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Congoid and Capoid) with separate origins. Based on such evidence as claiming Australoids had the largest, megadont teeth, this group was assessed by Coon as being the most archaic and therefore the most primitive and backward. Coon's methods and conclusions were later discredited and show either a "poor understanding of human cultural history and [[evolution]] or his use of [[ethnology]] for a racialist agenda."<ref name="Fluehr-Lobban2011">{{cite book |last=Fluehr-Lobban |first=C. |title=Race and racism : an Introduction |publisher=Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield |date=2005 |pages=131–133 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3lq3XDz39pIC&pg=PA132|isbn=9780759107953 }}</ref>
Terms associated with outdated notions of racial types, such as those ending in "-oid" have come to be seen as potentially offensive<ref name="Black2011">{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Sue|last2=Ferguson|first2=Eilidh|title=Forensic Anthropology: 2000 to 2010|date=2011|publisher=Taylor and Francis Group|page=127|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=306ruTniZmcC&pg=PA127|access-date=3 July 2018|isbn=9781439845899}} "There are considered to be four basic ancestry groups into which an individual can be placed by physical appearance, not accounting for admixture: the sub-Saharan African group ("Negroid"), the European group ("Caucasoid"), the Central Asian group ("Mongoloid"), and the Australasian group ("Australoid"). The rather outdated names of all but one of these groups were originally derived from geography"</ref> and related to [[scientific racism]].<ref name="Fluehr-Lobban2011"/><ref name="oxford">{{cite web| title = Ask Oxford – Definition of Australoid| publisher = [[Oxford Dictionary of English]]|year=2018| url = https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/australoid| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180627202220/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/australoid| url-status = dead| archive-date = 27 June 2018| access-date = 28 June 2018}}</ref>
== Controversies == {{MeyersLexikonEthnographicMap}} The populations grouped as "[[Negrito]]", such as the [[Andamanese peoples|Andamanese]] (from the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean), the [[Semang]] and [[Batek people|Batek]] peoples (from Malaysia), the [[Maniq people]] (from Thailand), the [[Aeta people]], the [[Ati people]], and certain other [[ethnic groups in the Philippines]], the [[Vedda|Vedda people]] of Sri Lanka and a number of [[Dark skin|dark-skinned]] tribal populations in the interior of the [[Indian subcontinent]] (some [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian-speaking]] tribes and [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic-speaking]] [[Munda peoples]]) were also suggested by some to belong to the Australo-Melanesian group,<ref name="p. 26">{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ErE0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PP26 |first1=T |last1=Pullaiah |first2=KV |last2=Krishnamurthy |first3=Bir |last3=Bahadur |title=Ethnobotany of India, Volume 5: The Indo-Gangetic Region and Central India |year=2017 |page=26|publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9781351741316 }} names the tribes of Chota Nagpur, the Baiga, Gond, Bhil, Santal and Oroan tribes; counted as of partial Australoid and partial [[Mongoloid]] ancestry are certain Munda-speaking groups (Munda, Bonda, Gadaba, Santals) and certain Dravidian-speaking groups (Maria, Muria, Gond, Oroan).</ref><ref name="Coon 1939 425–431">{{cite book |last=Coon |first=Carleton Stevens |year=1939 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[The Macmillan Company]] |title=The Races of Europe|url= https://archive.org/details/racesofeurope031695mbp |author-link=Carleton S. Coon |pages=[https://archive.org/details/racesofeurope031695mbp/page/n554 425]–431}}</ref> but there were controversies about this inclusion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laubenfels |first=David J. de |date=1968 |title=Australoids, Negroids, and Negroes: A Suggested Explanation for Their Disjunct Distributions |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2561818 |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=42–50 |quote=Australoids, Negroids (Negrito), and Negroes display perplexing disjunct distributions for which there is no historical explanation. Australoids and Negroids alternate with one another in areas from Africa to Australia but maintain their racial distinctions throughout. A careful examination of their distributions, plus examination of their cultures, shows a striking ecological correlation with Negroids always in the rainforests and Australoids clinging to the open country. |jstor=2561818}}</ref>
The inclusion of Indian tribes in the group was not well-defined, and was closely related to the question of the original [[peopling of India]], and the possible shared ancestry between Indian, Andamanese, and [[Australia (continent)|Sahulian]] populations of the Upper Paleolithic.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
The suggested Australo-Melanesian ancestry of the original South Asian populations has long remained an open question. It was embraced by Indian anthropologists as emphasising the deep antiquity of Indian prehistory. Australo-Melanesian hunter-gatherer and fisherman tribes of the interior of India were identified with the [[Nishada Kingdom]] described in the [[Mahabharata]]. [[Panchanan Mitra]] (1923) following Vincenzo Giuffrida-Ruggeri (1913) recognises a Pre-Dravidian ''Australo-Veddaic'' stratum in India.<ref>P. Mitra, ''Prehistoric India'' (1923), p. 48.</ref>
Alternatively, the [[Dravidians]] themselves have been claimed as originally of Australo-Melanesian stock,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Sarat Chandra Roy (Ral Bahadur)|title=Man in India |volume= 80|date=2000|publisher=A. K. Bose|page=59|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wPhEAQAAIAAJ|access-date=21 May 2018}}</ref> a view held by [[Biraja Sankar Guha]] among others.<ref>R. R. Bhattacharya et al. (eds., ''Anthropology of B.S. Guha: a centenary tribute'' (1996), p. 50.</ref>
South Indian tribes specifically described as having Australo-Melanesian affinities include the [[Oraon people|Oraon]], [[Munda people|Munda]], [[Santal]], [[Bhil]], [[Gondi people|Gondi]], the [[Tribals in Kerala|Kadars]] of Kerala, the [[Kuruba|Kurumba]] and [[Irula people|Irula]] of the [[Nilgiris]], the [[Paniya people|Paniyans]] of Malabar, the [[Urali Gounder|Uralis]], [[Tribals in Kerala|Kannikars]], [[Muthuvan]] and [[Chenchu people|Chenchus]].<ref>Mhaiske, Vinod M., Patil, Vinayak K., Narkhede, S. S., ''Forest Tribology And Anthropology'' (2016), [https://books.google.com/books?id=sbs4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 p. 5]. Bhuban Mohan Das, ''The Peoples of Assam'' (1987), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wcIOc0YaxGEC&pg=PA78 p. 78].</ref>
In 1953, the Australoid race were believed to be part of the "Archaic Caucasoid race", along with [[Ainus]], Dravidians and [[Vedda|Veddas]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beals |first1=Ralph L. |title=An Introduction to Anthropology |last2=Hoijer |first2=Harry |publisher=The Macmillan Company |year=1953 |place=New York}}</ref>
== Criticism based on modern genetics == {{See also|Genetic studies on Indigenous Australians|Race and genetics}} After discussing various criteria used in biology to define subspecies or races, [[Alan R. Templeton]] concludes in 2016: "[T]he answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no."<ref name="Templeton2016"> {{cite book |last1= Templeton |first1= A. |chapter= Evolution and Notions of Human Race |editor1-last= Losos |editor1-first= J. |editor2-last= Lenski |editor2-first= R. |title= How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society |date=2016 |pages=346–361 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0s6j.26 |access-date= |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, Oxford |jstor= j.ctv7h0s6j.26 |isbn=978-1-4008-8138-3}}</ref>{{rp|360}}<ref>That this view reflects the consensus among American anthropologists is stated in: {{cite journal |last1=Wagner |first1=Jennifer K. |last2=Yu |first2=Joon-Ho |last3=Ifekwunigwe |first3=Jayne O. |last4=Harrell |first4=Tanya M. |last5=Bamshad |first5=Michael J. |last6=Royal |first6=Charmaine D. |date=February 2017 |title=Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=162 |issue=2 |pages=318–327 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.23120 |issn=0002-9483 |pmc=5299519 |pmid=27874171}} See also: {{cite web |author=American Association of Physical Anthropologists |author-link=American Association of Physical Anthropologists |date=27 March 2019 |title=AAPA Statement on Race and Racism |url=https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/ |access-date=19 June 2020 |website=American Association of Physical Anthropologists}}</ref>
The Pan-Asian genome project concluded that Negrito populations in Malaysia and the Negrito populations in the Philippines were more closely related to non-Negrito local populations, rather than to each other, highlighting the non-existence of a distinct Australo-Melanesian grouping.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stoneking |first1=Mark |last2=Delfin |first2=Frederick |date=23 February 2010 |title=The Human Genetic History of East Asia: Weaving a Complex Tapestry |journal=Current Biology |language=English |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=R188–R193 |doi=10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.052 |issn=0960-9822 |pmid=20178766|s2cid=18777315 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2010CBio...20.R188S }}</ref>
==See also== *[[Austronesian peoples]] *[[Orang Asli]]
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{Historical definitions of race}}
[[Category:Pseudoscience]] [[Category:Historical definitions of race]] [[Category:Biological anthropology]]