Uncovering the hidden history of transpacific contact between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia through skeletal population genetics

Abstract

AbstractObjectivesThe long history of contact between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia extending back to the 16th century has only recently been focused upon in the literature, documenting the intersection of their population histories. Specifically, Chinese laborers immigrated to work in a variety of occupations in the region, along with Japanese workers and those of other Asian nationalities. In this study, we seek to uncover these hidden relationships and hypothesize that Latin American and Caribbean populations will show a close affinity to Asian populations due to a shared population history extending from the 16th century and later.Materials and methodsUsing a population structure approach with craniometrics, we analyzed samples of modern individuals from Panamá, Cuba, China, and Japan, using Mahalanobis D2, principal coordinates analysis (PCoA), canonical variates analysis (CVA), minimum Fst, and an R matrix.ResultsThe results from the population structure analyses are consistent with more recent contact between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia as they cluster together on 3D plots and population genetics parameters align with knowledge of contact among these populations.ConclusionsTranspacific contact between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia in the 16th–20th centuries is detailed, showing an extensive trade network and evidence of Asian migrations into Latin America and the Caribbean that may be under‐enumerated in the censuses. The population signal in the craniometric data closely follow documented events with Asian populations in Panamá and Cuba in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as the construction of the Asian Latina/o identity.