Multidisciplinary perspectives on the Austronesian homeland: A critique

Abstract

Linguistics, archaeology, and genetics have been used to reconstruct the past. Where findings differ, there is a tendency to rely on a hierarchy of reliability in the sciences. With regard to the Austronesian homeland, it has been asserted that linguistics and archaeology rely on each other’s evidence for postulating an Out-of-Taiwan hypothesis. This paper examines the arguments that use individual lines of evidence. Whereas evidence from linguistics and archaeology support an Out-of-Taiwan hypothesis, genetics does not provide a coherent scenario for or against such a hypothesis. Issues of dating, sampling, and non-paternity should be addressed before genetics can be reliably used in conjunction with linguistics and archaeology.