Pietrusewsky, M. 1969. The Physical Anthropology of Early Tongan Populations: A Study of Bones and Teeth and an Assessment of their Biological Affinities Based on Cranial Comparisons with Eight Other Pacific Populations. Ph.D., University of Toronto.
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1969
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Abstract
An osteological-odontological study of human skeletal remains archaeologically excavated by J. Davidson from two burial mounds on the island of Tongatapu of the Western Polynesian kingdom of Tonga in 1967 is presented. A determination of age at death, sex, and an assessment of statute and build for approximately 99 individuals is provided. Morphological and metrical data for both cranial and infracranial material, and non-metrical dental observations are presented. A section on palaeopathology and limited comparisons between excavated samples and modern (c.1920) Tongans are included. Finally, applying univariate and multivariate statistical analyses to metrical and non-metrical cranial data, comparisons are made with cranial series from Polynesia and Fiji.
The results of these comparisons demonstrate:
• A marked dichotomy between western (Tonga-Samoa) and eastern Polynesia
• An association between Tonga-Samoa (western Polynesian sample) and Fiji (an eastern Melanesian sample).
• A clustering of Society and Tuamotu, samples from central Polynesia, and a general cluster which includes Hawaii, New Zealand, Chatham Island, Marquesas, and Easter Island groups from more marginal areas of Polynesia. Easter Island demonstrates the greatest difference from these groups.
Parallels are drawn between this new skeletal biological evidence and evidence from linguistics, archaeology, and cultural anthropology that favor a western as opposed to an eastern origin
of the Polynesians from an eastern Melanesian source.
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Ph.D. dissertation
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