| Abstract: |
In 1999, dentists from the University of Malaya's Community Dentistry Department took dental casts of 261 subjects of Aboriginal Malay (Semelai and Temuan), Senoi (Temiar) and Semang (Jahai and Batek) ancestry. The tooth diameters of the male Senoi, Semang and Semelai subjects were later measured in Canberra. They were compared with male samples from Hoabinhian and Neolithic/Iron Age sites in the Malay Peninsula, Khok Phanom Di (Neolithic Thailand), Java (Batawi speakers), Australia (Murray Valley) and North China. The Orang Asli, especially the Semang, have smaller teeth than their prehistoric counterparts, especially the Hoabinhians (whose tooth sizes are similar to Australian Aborigines'). The tooth-size distinctions parallel the differences between these populations in general body size. Small tooth size was most strongly expressed in terms of reduced posterior molars (Bulbeck and Lauer in press). The study reported here includes the Temuan, various female samples, and male samples of New Guinea Highlanders and (mainly Singaporean) Malays. Preliminary analysis suggests that females have consistently smaller teeth than their male counterparts, that the Temuan and Semelai tooth sizes are very alike, and that all the Orang Asli have similar relative proportions in their tooth diameters.
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