ABSTRACT P.I. Christy Turner/Diane Hawkey SBR-9318334 Within the past decade the search for the origins of fully modern humans has become focussed on Africa and possibly Asia. While fossil evidence from Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Australia suggest the Asian region as a possible source for modern humans, little is known of the relationship between ice-age South Asian and other early Asian populations. Ultimtely, new data concerning possible micro-evolution andnpoulatin dynamics at the world local poulation level are needed before major issues concerning the models of human origins can be satisfactorily addressed. This dissertation project will assess the relationship between prehistoric South Asian peoples and early world populations. An assessment of this particular region is essential since South Asia served as an important crossroad, linking the peoples of early mainland Southeast Asia to western and southern Eurasia. To accomplish this, a series of 38 dental morphology and three mandibular traits will be recorded and described for Late Pleistocene/Holocene skeletal remains on over 1500 skeletons from Sri Lanka, southern India, eastern India, northeastern India, and Burma, currently housed in museums in the U.S., Great Britain, and Switzerland. *** Panthrojfried9318334.abs ! ! ! D 2 2 ( Times New Roman Symbol & Arial . . . ^ " h e e = Jonathan Friedlaender Jonathan Friedlaender
