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SUMMARY:Engaging Indigenous Communities in Malaysia: Snapshots of Culture\
 , Genomics and Health - Maude E Phipps\, Monash University Malaysia
DTSTART:20191114T131000Z
DTEND:20191114T140000Z
UID:TALK132598@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Gershlick
DESCRIPTION:The indigenous populations Orang Asli (OA) of Peninsular Malay
 sia are divided into three major communities or tribes\, namely the Negrit
 o\, Senoi and Proto-Malay. These tribes can be further divided into furthe
 r sub-tribes based on unique linguistic\, morphological and cultural chara
 cteristics. Many of these communities live in rural and forest fringes whi
 lst the rest live in urban areas. Despite modernization\, some groups such
  as Mah Meri\, Temiar and Jakun still observe unique cultural practices in
 cluding rituals music\, dance\, animism\, herbalism and spiritual rituals.
  Previously\, hunter gathering\, fishing and swiddening were main activiti
 es but rapid development in recent years have caused many changes. Through
 out the centuries\, numerous anthropological and linguistic investigations
  have informed our knowledge about these populations but genetic histories
  of these populations remained obscure. We investigated the genomics of th
 ese 3 major groups and discovered that although all OA groups are genetica
 lly closest to East Asian (EA) populations\, they are substantially distin
 ct. Evidence indicates that these peoples are the descendants of the earli
 est human migrations out of Africa into South East Asia. Genetic affinity 
 between Andamanese and Malaysian Negritos suggest an ancient link. Formal 
 admixture tests provided evidence of gene flow between Austro-Asiatic spea
 king OAs and populations from South East Asia and South China suggesting a
  widespread presence of these people in SEA before the Austronesian expans
 ion. Estimates indicate OAs diverged from East Asians probably during the 
 late Pleistocene (14.5 to 8 YBP). The continuum in divergence time from Ne
 gritos to Senoi and Proto-Malay in combination with ancestral markers prov
 ides evidences of multiple waves of migration into SEA starting with the f
 irst Out-of-Africa dispersals followed by Early-train and subsequent Austr
 onesian expansions. We also investigated the effects of socio-demographic 
 change and urbanization on the cardio-metabolic risks and found variable p
 revalence of obesity\, cholesterol\, hypertension and diabetes in various 
 tribes.
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
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