<Anthropological Studies on the Pacific Skeletal Populations>Cranial Nonmetric Variation of Circum-Pacific Popukations with Special Reference to the Pacific Peoples

Cranial nonmetric traits of the Pacific and other Asian populations were investigated. The frequency of the supraorbital foramen in the Hawaiian people is as high as in the Asian peoples with the Chamorro people having low incidence. The Hawaiian and Chamorro peoples have the lowest incidences of transverse zygomatic suture vestige of all populations compared, and distance analyses revealed that although not being very near each other, they are both closer to the East Asian and inland Siberians than to the Jomon-Ainu or to other Siberian or Arctic peoples. The analysis of cranial nonmetric variation failed to support a direct affinity for the Jomon to the Pacific peoples.