人類學系學術演講

講  題Model-free Interdisciplinary comparisons and their application to Island Southeast Asia
講  者

Dr. Phillip Endicott(Tartu University, Estonia PI, OCSEAN European Research Project

時  間 2023年04月13(四)12:20-14:10
地  點 台灣大學水源校區人類系201教室
演講簡介 There often arises a need in studies of human (pre)history to compare data from across different disciplines because different strands of evidence can contribute to a more informed debate. Most methods employed, however, are strictly qualitative, usually limited to tests of independence between distance-based summary statistics. Many are phylogenetic, tree-based comparisons, but this notion breaks down when there are contact scenarios creating information flow between previously separated groups. Here I present new research on Island Southeast Asia, based on the reconstruction of local genetic ancestries using haplotypes at a regional scale, before introducing two novel methods for joint analysis (model based and model free) and show their application to genetic and linguistic data at a local scale in East Timor. I will explain why the results do not support earlier attempts for a synthesis of archaeology, language, and genetics, but offer hope for multiplicative power of combining different types of data in genuine interdisciplinary analysis. 

Members of the university community and interested friends are welcome to attend. No registration is needed.