Politics Magazine

What Does the Filipino Genome Look Like?

Posted on the 29 April 2015 by Calvinthedog

Julian Localboy:

I’m also interested in knowing more about the Iraya people. I’m guessing that for some (if not many) Filipinos, around one-fourth of their genome is Iraya-like.

My reasoning for this is that I’ve found forums online where people post their ethnic admixture results from some online ethnicity calculator they used, and for something listed as “4 populations approximation,” quite a few Filipino posters had Iraya as one of their four components (the other three components were commonly Austronesian, Southern Chinese and/or Indochinese groups, as expected).

You grouped the Iraya with the Ati but said they aren’t Negrito and are different from most Filipinos. Do you know who they are? I did some online research of my own but didn’t find much, except that some sources say they resemble Veddoids. Could they be the group that you mentioned moved in and looked Ainuid?

I am going to have to go look them up now! Thank you very much! Yes Veddoids are proto-Mongoloids. They are like the Negritos somewhat. The Senoi are a Vedda like ancient group in Thailand. I think maybe these Iraya may be related to those ancient Malays like the Senoi. That group is also in India. Veddoids are archaic.

So the other three are:

  1. Southern Chinese
  2. Austronesian (Taiwan aborigine)
  3. Indochinese (I wonder how)
  4. Iraya

Iraya must be the ancient proto-Mongoloid component in the Filipinos that is found on the maternal side. It goes back 20-30,000 YBP and the remains of it may be these Iraya types. That is probably an Australoid component.

Vedda types are not Ainuids but proto-Ainuids from Thailand may have gone on to become the Senoi and other proto-Malay. These same proto-Ainuids left Thailand 16,000 YBP and went to Japan. They arrived at Japan 13,000 YBP and become the Jomon people. It seems reasonable that on this long boat voyage probably around coasts, they may have stopped by the Philippines. Perhaps the remains of this proto-Ainuid group are the Iraya. We do not know what proto-Ainuids 16,000 YBP in Thailand, but skulls from Thailand 25,000 YBP are said to look like aborigines.

This Iraya component may also be related to the “proto-Dai” who moved into Indonesia during massive flooding associated with melting glaciers 19-20,000 YBP. They may have moved out from Southern China, down into Indochina and then down into Indonesia. These people probably looked like Melanesians. The descendants of these proto-Dai make up most of the genome of present-day Indonesians.


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