--- In austric@yahoogroups.com, loreto bagio <bagselite@y...> wrote:
> Sir, ganito....
>
> I have had some impression that the Austrics are a
> group
> of people that would constitute a formation way back
> 20,000 ya. They would include Proto-Austronesians and
> the ancestors of the Mon-Khmers and Thais.
> Austrics if you would describe them physically would
> be a little like Southern Chinese and of course
> may resemble some American Indians.
> My question is what is their relation with other races
> (which the other AN site members would not love to
> discuss) like the Papuans, Dravidians and Oceanic
> pygmies which some anthropologists classify as
> Australoids although these people are separate
> groups.

I don't believe you can pin the Austrics down to one "racial" group
anymore than you Austronesians today belong to one "race."

Possibly, Proto-Austric developed over a wide area that was
inhabited by a number of different physical types. Thus, Austrics
would include Australomelanians.

In fact, it is not hard to seen substantial Australomelanesian
admixture in most Austric speakers today.

> I think we (taking that we are Austrics, of course)
> are very much related to the Sino-Tibetan speakers and
> some Altaics than to these other races in the earliest
> times.
> Although now, significant mixing is evident. We
> Pilipinos
> have for example some "pygmy" blood. My wife who is a
> very fair-skinned Ilocana from Zambales undoubtedly
> has a mother who has pygmy features. They have
> relatives who are tall and dark-skinned just like
> Melanesians and
> Polynesians.
>


There are Filipinos and Indonesians who are very "Pacific Islander"
in appearance. When nutrition is not a factor, W. Austronesians can
easily reach heights over 6 ft. although they generally are still
not as big as Polynesians.

That's not too surprising as some studies have shown that the latter
are the heaviest people per capita anywhere.

I think that Austronesians previously probably had much less color
consciousness as compared to their modern descendents.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala