Thirteen, and possibly sixteen cases of neurological disorder have been identified in a population of approximately 1100 tribal aborigines living in Groote Eylandt and the adjacent mainland. There were two relatively distinct clinical pictures: one coming on in childhood involved the motor system, the patients often having remarkably lax ligaments; and the other, generally of later onset, compr...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate waist-to-height ratio (WTHR), waist girth and body mass index (BMI) as predictors of cardiovascular risk factors in Australian Aborigines. DESIGN Indices were examined as predictors of mean blood pressures (BP), blood lipids, glucose, insulin and as predictors of hypertension, decreased HDL-cholesterol, elevated glucose and type 2 diabetes. SETTING Aboriginal communiti...

An overview of the epidemiological, biological, and clinical studies of Taenia and taeniasis in Taiwan for the past century is presented. The phenomenal observations that led to the discovery of Taenia asiatica as a new species, which differ from Taenia solium and Taenia saginata, are described. Parasitological surveys of the aborigines in Taiwan revealed a high prevalence of taeniasis, which m...

Taiwanese aborigines have been deemed the ancestors of Austronesian speakers which are currently distributed throughout two-thirds of the globe. As such, understanding their genetic distribution and diversity as well as their relationship to mainland Asian groups is important to consolidating the numerous models that have been proposed to explain the dispersal of Austronesian speaking peoples i...

Relatively little is known about the genetic diversity of the Philippine population, and this is an important gap in our understanding of Southeast Asian and Oceanic prehistory. Here we describe mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in 423 Philippine samples and analyze them in the context of the genetic diversity of other Southeast Asian populations. The majority of Philippine mtDNA types are sh...

During 1948, scientists (an anthropologist, a nutritionist and a plant ecologist) of the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land observed the daily activities of families of nomadic Aborigines in the monsoonal climate of Groote Eylandt, Bickerton Island, Port Bradshaw, Yirrkala and Oenpelli, Northern Territory. The close relationship between the hunter-gatherers and the marine ...