Lacandon Mayas and Malay Mayas

Bearded Maya Man

Lacandon Maya, Looking very much like an inhabitant of India.

In "Lost Continents" lore, there is an ongoing debate about representations of "Bearded gods" represented on the old Maya monuments. As part of a discussion on the matter at one time, L. Sprague DeCamp mentioned that some Mayas among the Lacandons in the Mexican state of Chiapas regularly grew beards: and furthermore that they were shorter and darker in colouring than other Mayas, and besides having beards they sometimes had abundant curly head-hair, long braincases as opposed to short ones, and low noses as opposed to higher and arched ones. In other words, they were very unlike the usual conception of Mayas and were more like the Australoids, South Asians and Veddoids of India. This was not an especially shocking revelation since it has been known that the "Australoid" type skulls have been around in Mexico for a long time. In this case the people were not really "Australoids" inthe generic sense: they actuually reallky did represent some inhabitants of India more than any other population on the world. Going by Mitochondrial DNA groups, there is a trend of one group which came out of Asia and into America and is also found inthe Pavcific Islanders (in Polynesia): It is the "Kon Tiki" mitochondrial DNA lineage and it is found in some islands off of the Asian Continent especially. Indonesia is one such a place where it is found. In the Indian and Pacific ocean areas generally, it occurs alongside a very old group Out of Africa, the "M" mitochondrial DNA series, which spread outward from India to go on into Indonesia, Australia, China and elsewhere. So the genetic markers are all for a TransPacific movement by way of India and into the Western coast of the Americas.

Lacandon Maya Woman

Don Antonio-Lacandon Spiritual Leader

Lacandon area, State of Chiapas, Pacific Coast of Mexico.

http://web.uvic.ca/lacandon

On the other hand the evidence does suggest TWO lineages going across the Pacific and one much older in origin than the other, one South-Asian and the other Central-Asian in Origin. I suggest that the Mayas which seem to have the more marked Central-Asian genes came by way of the later peoples called Malaya, or Deutero-Malays (these are the "Ethnic Malays" that identify themselves as Malays and not the older "Indonesians" which include also the ancestors of islanders from Madagascar to Easter Island)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malays_(ethnic_group)
Deutero Malays
The earlier Proto Malay groups were later pushed inland by the Deutero Malay settlers in the second wave of migration around 300 BC.^[12] The Deutero Malays are Iron Age people descended partly from the Chams of Mainland Southeast Asia who came equipped with more advanced farming techniques and new knowledge of metals.^[13] They are kindred but more Mongolized and greatly distinguished from the Proto Malays which have shorter stature, darker skin, slightly higher frequency of wavy hair, much higher percentage of dolichocephaly and a markedly lower frequency of the epicanthic fold.^[14] The Deutero Malay settlers were not nomadic compared to their predecessors, instead they settled and established kampungs which serve as the main units in the society. These kampungs were normally situated on the riverbanks or coastal areas and generally self-sufficient in food and other necessities. By the end of the last century B.C, these kampungs beginning to engage in some trade with the outside world .^[15]
The Deutero Malays are considered as the direct ancestors of present day's Malay people.^[16] Their series of migration had indirectly forced some groups of Proto Malays and aboriginal people to retreat into the hill areas of the interior further upriver.

[It would seem that the Deutero Malays probably started before the Chams with Dong Son traders also from Vietnam and in a mixed metal age. Some of the design motifs that turn up in South America about this time on the West Coast onf South America are also Dong Son like in appearance and this has been noted on an earlier blog posting. Pipes (for smoking) turn up in the Dong Son and related cultures in Southeast Asia in this period also. There are also some striking similarities between Cham, early Indonesian, and Colombian golden statues representing human figurines, presumably deities, beginning about 500 BC and carrying on foreward from then-DD]

 Some examples of Ethnic Malays from over the internet. In the group photo in fancy dress, the one woman second from the left has a strongly Maya look. Carved stone figures from the Maya Classic period can strongly resemble the older carved stone sculptures of the Megalithic phase in Indonesia: this Eastern Megalithic also seems to go out from Southern India to Indonesia and New Guinea, and then out to the Pacific where the Ancestry of the Pacific Islanders is in the Megalithic. The Polynesians were the most recent people on earth to go through a megalithic phase. Below are some Mayas illustrating the resemblance of the physical type to some Malays: the ornamentation in feathers and heavy use of Jade is also like some Pacific Islanders. The Mayans may be closely related to the high cultures of Colombia as well, and these also show a resemblance of the art style to Malays and a good resemblance of the physical type as well.

Best Wishes, Dale D.