Cultural and Biological Differentiation in Peninsular Malaysia: The Last 10,000 Years

This paper addresses questions of ethnogenesis and prehistoric cultural development in the Malay Peninsula. Both archaeological and linguistic sources are used and the time span extends from early Holocene foragers to the Malayic trading states of early history. Reasons are discussed for recognizing migration into the peninsula at various times as a necessary ingredient to explain ethnic diversity. Other models which claim totally in situ forms of cultural evolution to the exclusion of all external stimuli are evaluated and shown to be incomplete.