Papua New Guinea – Haplogroups M-P256 and S-M230

When Homo Sapiens decided to leave Africa ….OK, let’s skip around 40-50 thousand years of a journey and talk about Haplogroup K2 (K-M526), who ended up in southeast Asia around 47,000-55,000 years BP . Let’s call a guy, who’s gene mutated somewhere in SE Asia and belonged to Haplogroup K2 – Kadumba. This Kadumba guy had 5 children: K3(P79) , M(P256), NO(M214), P(M45) and S(M230) . Now let’s talk about Kadumbas children M(P256) and S(M230). We’ll talk about Kadumba’s other children next time.

Y- DNA Haplogroup M (P256) is a descendant of Haplogroup K2b1, and it presumably first mutated between 32,000 and 47,000 years ago in south Asia. Most populations (50%-100%) in West Papua and western Papua New Guinea belong to haplogroup M (P256). Haplogroup M (P256) likely originated in Melanesia and then spread into Indonesia, Micronesia, and New Guinea.

Haplogroup S-M230 is found primarily in populations in Papua New Guinea with lower frequencies in Melanesia and Indonesia. Possible time of origin is 28,000-41,000 years before present and possibly originated in New Guinea or Indonesia.

So how did these two genetic groups, S and M, find themselves in New Guinea?! They probably came by sea from SE Asia during an Ice Age period, when the sea was lower and distances between islands shallower and shorter. Archaeological research suggests that 50,000 years back people may have reached sites in the highlands at altitudes of up to 6,600 ft, rather than being restricted to warmer coastal areas.

The first contact with the island by Europeans took place in the early 16th century when the Portuguese explorer Jorge de Meneses sighted the country and named it Ilhas dos Papuas (Land of the Fuzzy-Haired People).Although some countries have few local individuals still around, sometimes in reservations, Papua New Guinea has over 800 Papuan and Melanesian tribes that inhabit the jungles and along the riversides. This wide range of tribes means that over 800 languages can be spoken by Papuan tribes there, each with their unique language, and expressions that are too unique to be translated into another language or dialect. And even though English is the official language , almost 800 distinct languages are spoken in the islands.

The Papua New Guinea folks/tribes consists of four different ethnic groups: New Guineans (north of the main island), Papuans (from the south), Highlanders, and Islanders. There is considerable cultural variation within each of these ethnic groups. The tribes from the south were known as headhunters and cannibals, before the arrival of the Europeans. Most people in Papua New Guinea still live in small villages and follow traditional tribal customs. Many of the Papuan tribes still using stone tools and hunting with bows and arrows.

A postcard from… Papua New Guinea from Clement burelle on Vimeo.

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Categories: Featured, M, S

Tags: Austronesian, cannibalism, Haplogroup S-M230, Haplogroups M-P256, Indonesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Guinea, Papua, Papua New Guinea

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