Colloquium with Maximilian Larena (Uppsala University)

Tuesday, January 13, 2026
12:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Fowler A222

Island Southeast Asia has become a key region for understanding human evolution, yet its population history is far more complex than once assumed. Drawing on extensive genomic data from diverse Philippine communities and new ancient DNA from archaeological sites, we uncover a deeply layered sequence of human movements and interactions that shaped the archipelago. The Philippines was settled through several distinct waves, beginning with longstanding Negrito groups related to early populations of Australia and New Guinea, followed by arrivals connected to ancestral Manobo, Sama, Papuan, and Cordilleran peoples. The Cordilleran lineage appears to have separated from Indigenous Taiwanese communities well before the spread of agriculture, suggesting that cultural and linguistic changes in Island Southeast Asia cannot be explained by a single, uniform dispersal. Genomic evidence also reveals unusually high levels of Denisovan ancestry among some Negrito groups, pointing to a unique encounter between Denisovans and early humans in the Philippines. Ancient genomes from across the archipelago further show that the closest genetic links to early Pacific voyagers lie in eastern Indonesia rather than the Philippines and that interactions between East Asian– and Australasian-related groups varied widely from region to region. Together, these findings portray the Philippines as a dynamic crossroads for diverse populations, leaving a lasting imprint on the genetic landscape of the Asia–Pacific region.

Maximilian Larena is a population geneticist whose work integrates ancient and modern DNA to illuminate the complex population history of Island Southeast Asia and the wider Asia–Pacific region. He is a Docent researcher in the Human Evolution program at the Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden.

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, SEAALab