Austronesian peoples are a population in
OceaniaOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
and
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
that speak languages of the
Austronesian languagesThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. It is on par with Bantu, Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic and Uralic as one of the best-established ancient language families...
family. Austronesian peoples include:
Taiwanese aboriginesTaiwanese aborigines is the term commonly applied in reference to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan...
; the majority ethnic groups of
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
,
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
,
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
, the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
,
BruneiBrunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
,
MadagascarMadagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to...
,
MicronesiaMicronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines and Indonesia lie to the west....
, and
PolynesiaPolynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.-Definition:...
, as well as the Polynesian peoples of
New ZealandThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
and
HawaiiNative Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants...
, and the
Austronesian peoplesThe term Papuan languages refers to those languages of the western Pacific which are neither Austronesian nor Australian. That is, the term is defined negatively and does not presuppose a genetic relationship...
of
MelanesiaMelanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
. They are also found in the Pattani region of
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
, and the Cham areas of
VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
,
CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
, and
HainanHainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, all but three percent of its land mass is on Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
(remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam). The territories settled by Austronesian peoples are known collectively as
AustronesiaAustronesia, in historical terms, refers to the homeland of the people who speak Austronesian languages, including Malay, Filipino, Indonesian, Maori, Malagasy, native Hawaiian, the Fijian language and around a thousand other languages...
.
Prehistory and history
Archaeological evidence demonstrates a technological connection between the farming cultures of the south (Southeast Asia and Melanesia) and sites that are first known from mainland
China, whereas a combination of archaeological and linguistic evidence has been interpreted as supporting a northern (southern China and Taiwan) origin for the Austronesian language family. In a recent treatment, all Austronesian languages were classified into 10 subfamilies, with all the extra-Formosan languages grouped in one subfamily and with representatives of the remaining
9 known only in Taiwan (Blust 1999). It has been argued that these patterns are best explained by dispersal of an agricultural people from Taiwan into insular Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and, ultimately, the remote Pacific. Although this model—termed the “express train
to Polynesia” (Diamond 1988) —is broadly consistent with available data, concerns have been raised (Richards et al. 1998). Alternatives to this model posit an indigenous
origin for the Austronesian languages in Melanesia or Southeast Asia (Dyen 1962, 1965; Oppenheimer
1998).
Some western scholars believe Austronesian peoples originated on the island of
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
following the migration of pre-Austronesian speaking peoples from continental
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
approximately 10,000-6000 B.C. According to linguist
Robert BlustRobert A. Blust is a prominent linguist in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in California. He received a B.A. in anthropology, and a PhD in linguistics in 1974 from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa...
, due to a lengthy split from the Pre-Austronesian populations, the Proto-Austronesian language, the cultures and ethnic groups of the Austronesian peoples began on Taiwan approximately 6,000 years ago.
Austronesian peoples themselves have a variety of different traditions, and history of their origins. Some Indonesian scholars believe that the Austronesian peoples originated in Maritime Southeast Asia (modern day Indonesia, and the Philippines). However according to most Western scholars, Austronesian peoples originated on the island of Taiwan, and are spread as far away as
MadagascarMadagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to...
in the
Indian OceanThe Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by South Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean...
,
Easter IslandEaster Island ; is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai , created by the early Rapanui people...
, Maritime Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and to the rest of the Pacific Islands. Some Austronesian informants claimed that the migration was to Taiwan, and not away from it.
According to mainstream Western studies, a large-scale Austronesian expansion began around 5000-2500 B.C. Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers may have landed in northern
LuzonLuzon is the largest and most economically and politically important island in the Philippines and one of the three island groups in the country, with Visayas and Mindanao being the other two...
in the island of the Philippines, intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands about 23,000 years earlier. Over the next thousand years, Austronesian peoples migrated southeast to the rest of the Philippine Islands, and into the islands of the
Celebes SeaThe Celebes Sea ) of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi, and on the west by Kalimantan in Indonesia . The Sea is in the form of a huge...
, Borneo, and Indonesia. The Austronesian peoples of Maritime Southeast Asia sailed eastward, and spread to the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia between 1200 B.C. and 500 A.D. respectively. The Austronesian inhabitants that spread westward through Maritime Southeast Asia had reached some parts of mainland Southeast Asia, and later on Madagascar.
Sailing from Melanesia, and Micronesia, the Austronesian peoples discovered
PolynesiaPolynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.-Definition:...
by 1000 B.C. These people settled most of the
Pacific IslandsThe Pacific Islands comprise 20,000 to 30,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. Those islands lying south of the tropic of Cancer are traditionally grouped into three divisions: Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.-Oceania:...
. They had settled Easter Island by 300 A.D.,
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
by 400 A.D., and into New Zealand by 800 A.D. In the Indian Ocean they sailed west from Maritime Southeast Asia; the Austronesian peoples reached Madagascar by 200 A.D.
By the beginning of the first millennium A.D., most of the Austronesian inhabitants in Maritime Southeast Asia began trading with
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
which allowed the creation of
Indianized kingdomThe concept of the Indianized kingdom, first described by George Coedès, is based upon the Hindu and Buddhist cultural and economic influences in Southeast Asia. Despite being culturally akin to Hindu cultures to western historians these kingdoms were truly indigenous and independent of India...
s such as
SrivijayaSrivijaya or Sriwijaya was an ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra, Southeast Asia which influenced much of the Maritime Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6 months...
,
MelayuMelayu Kingdom was a classical Southeast Asian kingdom that existed between the 4th and the 13th century of the common era. It was established around present-day Jambi on Sumatra, Indonesia. The location is approximately 200km north of Palembang...
, Majapahit, and the establishment of
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
and Buddism. Muslim traders from the
Arabian peninsulaThe Arabian Peninsula , Arabia, Arabistan, and the Arabian subcontinent is a peninsula in Southwest Asia at the junction of Africa and Asia...
were thought to have brought
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
by the 10th century. Islam was established as the dominant religion in the Indonesian archipelago by the 16th century. The Austronesian inhabitants of Polynesia were unaffected by this cultural trade, and retained their indigenous culture in the Pacific region.
Europeans in search of spices later colonized most of the Austronesian speaking countries of the Asia-Pacific region, beginning from the 16th century with the Portuguese, and Spanish colonization of some parts of Indonesia (present day
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
), the Philippines Islands,
PalauPalau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles east of the Philippines and 2,000 miles south of Tokyo. Having emerged from United Nations trusteeship in 1994, it is one of the world's youngest and smallest sovereign states...
,
GuamGuam is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. The island's capital is Hagåtña...
, and the
Mariana IslandsThe Mariana Islands are an arc-shaped archipelago made up by the summits of 15 volcanic mountains in the north-western Pacific Ocean between the 12th and 21st parallels north and along the 145th meridian east...
; the Dutch colonization of the Indonesian archipelago; the British colonization of Malaysia and
OceaniaOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
; the French colonization of
French PolynesiaFrench Polynesia is a French overseas collectivity in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is made up of several groups of Polynesian islands, the most famous island being Tahiti in the Society Islands group, which is also the most populous island and the seat of the capital of the territory...
; and later, the American governance of the Pacific.
Meanwhile, the British, Germans, French, Americans, and Japanese began establishing spheres of influence within the Pacific Islands during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Japanese later invaded most of Southeast Asia and some parts of the Pacific during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The latter half of the 20th century initiated independence of modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, and many of the Pacific Island nations.
Geographic distribution
Austronesian peoples consist of the following groupings by name and geographic location.
- Formosan
Taiwanese aborigines is the term commonly applied in reference to the indigenous peoples of Taiwan...
: TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
. ex. Amis, Atayal, BununThe Bunun , also historically known as the Vonum, are a tribe of Taiwanese aborigines and are best-known for their sophisticated polyphonic vocal music. They speak the Bunun language. Unlike other aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, the Bunun are widely dispersed across the island. In the year 2000 the...
, Paiwan.
- Malayo-Polynesian
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 351 million speakers. These are widely dispersed throughout the island nations of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean, with a smaller number in continental Asia...
:
- Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided among Indonesia , Malaysia and Brunei . Indonesians refer to the island as Kalimantan...
Groups, KadazanThe Kadazans are an ethnic group indigenous to the state of Sabah in Malaysia,early they came from Mongolia and mixed with Tiong-kok. They are found mainly on the west coast of Sabah, the surrounding locales, and various locations in the interior...
, IbanIban could be:*The Iban people , an ethnic group in Kalimantan and Sarawak*The Iban language spoken by those people...
, MurutMurut may refer to:* Murut people, an ethnic group of the northern inland regions of Borneo* Murutic languages or Murut languages, spoken by those people* Tagol Murut language, the most widely spoken of the Murutic languages* Murut, Azerbaijan, a village...
,
- Central Filipino: Central and Southeastern Luzon
Luzon is the largest and most economically and politically important island in the Philippines and one of the three island groups in the country, with Visayas and Mindanao being the other two...
. ex. TagalogThe Tagalog people is an ethnic group in the Philippines. The name Tagalog comes from either the native term tagá-ilog, meaning 'people living along the river', or another native term, tagá-alog, meaning 'people living along the ford', a ford being a shallow part of a river or stream where people,...
, Bicolano
- Chamic
The Chamic languages are a group of ten languages spoken in parts of Cambodia, Vietnam, and Hainan, classified as Malayic languages in the Austronesian language family....
group: CambodiaThe Kingdom of Cambodia , formerly known as Kampuchea , is a country in South East Asia with a population of over 14 million people. The kingdom's capital and largest city is Phnom Penh...
, HainanHainan is the smallest province of the People's Republic of China . Although the province comprises some two hundred islands scattered among three archipelagos off the southern coast, all but three percent of its land mass is on Hainan Island , from which the province takes its name...
, VietnamVietnam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam , is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east...
. ex. Chams, JaraiThe Jarai is an ethnic group based primarily in Vietnam's Central Highlands. The Jarai language is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family...
, Utsuls.
- Igorot
Igorot name for the people of the Cordillera region, in the Philippines island of Luzon. The Igorot form two subgroups: the larger group lives in the south, central and western areas, and is very adept at rice-terrace farming; the smaller group lives in the east and north...
: CordillerasThe Cordillera Administrative Region is the Philippines' only land-locked region. It is consisted of the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga, Mountain Province and Baguio City . The Cordillera region encompasses most of the areas within the Cordillera Central mountain range of...
. ex. BalangaoBalangao is a term that refers to both the barangay in the Natonin, Mountain Province, Philippines as well as the tribe that inhabits it.-Balangao tribe:...
, IbaloiThe Ibaloi or Nabaloi is an indigenous ethnic group found in the northern Philippines. The Ibaloi are one of the indigenous peoples collectively known as Igorot, who live in the mountains of the Cordillera Central on the island of Luzon...
, IsnegThe Isneg are a tribe living in Luzon, the Philippines. The Isneg and other ethnic groups of the Cordillera Administrative Region are collectively known as Cordillerans. They speak the Isnag language....
, Kankanaey.
- Lumad
The Lumad is a term being used to denote a group of indigenous peoples of the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous"...
: MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also one of the three island groups in the country, along with Luzon and Visayas...
. ex. KamayoKamayo is a minor language spoken in the area of Bislig City and also in San Agustin and Marihatag, Surigao del Sur, in the Southern Philippines. It has 7,565 speakers...
, ManoboCotabato Manobo is a Manobo language spoken in Mindanao, the Philippines.-Vowels: are realized as in closed syllables. is realized as when it is preceded by and in an open syllable. is realized as when it is followed by or . is realized as when it is followed by , , or , or when word-initial...
, TasadayThe Tasaday were purportedly a group of uncontacted people living deep in the rainforest on the Philippine island of Mindanao. When the media reported they had been living in isolation since the Stone Age, the group gained international fame in the 1970s...
, T'boli.
- Malagasy
The Malagasy ethnic group forms about a half of the population of Madagascar. They are divided into two subgroups: the "Highlander" Merina, Sihanaka and Betsileo of the central plateaux around Antananarivo, Alaotra and Fianarantsoa, and the côtiers elsewhere in the country...
: MadagascarMadagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the fourth-largest island in the world, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are endemic to...
. ex. BetsileoThe Betsileo are a highland ethnic group of Madagascar, the third largest in terms of population, numbering around one million. Their name means "The Many Invincible Ones" which they chose for themselves after the failed invasion of Ramitraho King of the Menabe kingdom in the early 19th...
, MerinaThe Merina is an ethnic group in Madagascar. They speak a Malayo-Polynesian language and are concentrated in the central highlands.Their ancestors, the Austronesians, migrated from the Borneo in the Malay archipelago around the beginning of the common era...
, SakalavaThe Sakalava is a traditional name for a group of people of Madagascar numbering approximately 700,000 in population. They occupy the Western edge of the island from Toliara in the south to Sambirano in the north...
, TsimihetyThe Tsimihety are an ethnic group located in north central Madagascar, numbering around one million in population. They are part of the Malagasay peoples of Madagascar descended from Austronesian and African immigrants. The name Tsimihety means "those who do not cut their hair"...
.
- Malays: Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
, BruneiBrunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, PattaniPatani is a term that has been used to describe a region in South Thailand consisting of the province of Pattani proper along with the neighbouring Yala Province , Narathiwat Province , parts of Songkhla , and much of the northern part of modern Malaysia...
, SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
, SumatraSumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world .-Etymology:Sumatra was known in ancient times by the Sanskrit...
.
- Melanesians: Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
. Fijians, ex. KanakKanak are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific.Kanak comprise 44.1% of the total population of New Caledonia...
, Ni-VanuatuNi-Vanuatu is a demonym used to refer to all Melanesian ethnicities originating in Vanuatu.It also refers, more generally, to nationals and citizens of Vanuatu, whatever their ethnicity...
.
- Micronesian
Micronesian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania composed of hundreds of small islands in the Pacific Ocean....
s: MicronesiaMicronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines and Indonesia lie to the west....
. ex. Carolinian-Languages:*The Carolinian language, an Austronesian language spoken in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean-People:*A person from the Carolinas...
, ChamorrosThe Chamorro people or Chamoru people are the indigenous people of the Mariana Islands, which include the American territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, significant Chamoru populations also exist in several U.S. states including...
, Palauan.
- Moken
The Moken , are an Austronesian ethnic group with about 2,000 to 3,000 members who maintain a nomadic, sea-based culture. They speak their own language which belongs to the Austronesian language family.-Nomenclature:They refer to themselves as Moken...
: MyanmarBurma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the...
, ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
.
- Moro: Bangsamoro
Bangsamoro is the name of the region governed by the Moro people. The term comes from the Malay word bangsa, meaning nation or people, and the Spanish word moro, from the older Spanish word for Moor, inherited from the Reconquista-period term for Arabs or Muslims in Al-Andalus. It may also refer to...
(MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also one of the three island groups in the country, along with Luzon and Visayas...
, Sulu archipelagoSulu Archipelago is an island chain in the southwest Philippines. It is considered to be part of Moroland by the local independence movement. With the centers in Maimbung and Jolo, the whole of this archipelago, Palawan and coastal regions of the Zamboanga Peninsula and North Borneo used to be...
). ex. MaguindanaoThe Maguindanao are part of the wider Moro ethnic group, who constitute the sixth largest Filipino ethnic group. Their name means “people of the plains”.-Pre-Spanish:...
, MaranaoMaranao is the term used for the people of Lanao, a predominantly Muslim region in the Philippine island of Mindanao. They are famous for their artwork, sophisticated weaving, wood and metal craft, and their epic literature...
, Tausug.
- Northern Filipino: Northern Luzon
Luzon is the largest and most economically and politically important island in the Philippines and one of the three island groups in the country, with Visayas and Mindanao being the other two...
. ex. IlocanoThe Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...
, KapampanganKapampangan or Pampangan may refer to:*Kapampangan people of the Philippines*Kapampangan language...
, PangasinanThe Pangasinan are the eighth largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. They are the residents or indigenous peoples of the Province of Pangasinan, one of the provinces of the Republic of the Philippines, located on the west central area in the island of Luzon along Lingayen Gulf...
- Polynesians
The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that traditionally spoke Polynesian languages and inhabited Polynesia.-Polynesian peoples:The Polynesian peoples include:*Aniwa*Anuta*Austral*Fijian*Futunan*Hawaiian*Kapingamarangi...
: PolynesiaPolynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.-Definition:...
. MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
, Native Hawaiians, SamoansSamoans are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa ; and American Samoa an unincorporated territory of the United States.The Samoan...
.
- Visayans: Visayas
Visayas is one of the three island groups in the Philippines, along with Mindanao and Luzon. It consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea. Its population are referred to as the Visayans....
. ex. AklanonThe Akeanon or Aklanon people are part of the wider Visayan ethnolinguistic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group.-Area:Aklanons form the majority in the province of Aklan in Panay....
, CebuanoCebuano people are an ethnic group in Cebu and form the largest Visayan ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines.- Demography :The Cebuano language is spoken by about 20 million people in the country. Most speakers are found in the Central Visayas and in certain parts of Mindanao. Other languages...
, HiligaynonThe Hiligaynon are the indigenous inhabitants of the large coastal plain of East Panay island. Over the years, intermigrations and intramigrations have contributed to the diaspora of the Hiligaynon to different parts of the country. Now, the Hiligaynon form the majority in Iloilo province, Capiz...
, WarayThe Waray-Waray are an ethnoliguistic group located in Samar and Leyte. Geographically, they are located in the Visayas, although they are not Bisaya....
.
According to a recent studies by
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
in the United States, there is wide variety of paternal ancestry among the Austronesian people. Aside from European introgression found in Maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Madagascar. They constitute the dominant ethnic group in Maritime Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar. An estimated figure of around 380,000,000 people living in these regions are of Austronesian descent.
They constitute the dominant ethnic groups in
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
,
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
,
BruneiBrunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
, the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, the southern most part of
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
and
East TimorEast Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, which together with
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
make up what is called the
Malay archipelagoThe Malay Archipelago and Maritime Southeast Asia are names given to the archipelago located between mainland Southeastern Asia and Australia. Located between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the group of 20,000 islands is the world's largest archipelago by area...
. Outside this area, they inhabit Palau, Guam and the Northern Marianas, most of Madagascar, the Cham areas of Vietnam and Cambodia (the remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam), and all countries in the Micronesian and Polynesian sphere of influence.
Culture
The native culture of Austronesia is diverse, varying from region to region.
The early Austronesian peoples considered the sea as the basic tenet of their life. Following their diaspora to
Southeast AsiaManila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...
and
OceaniaOceania is a geographical, often geopolitical, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Dumont d'Urville...
, they used boats to migrate to other islands. Boats of different sizes and shapes have been found in every Austronesian culture, from Madagascar, Maritime Southeast Asia, to Polynesia, and have different names.
In Southeast Asia, head-hunting was particularly restricted to the highlands as a result of warfare. Mummification is only found among the highland Austronesian Filipinos, and in some Indonesian groups in Celebes and Sumatra.
Writing
Writings among pre-modern Austronesians were limited to the Indianized states, and sultanates in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. However, prehistoric petroglyphs like the
RongorongoRongorongo is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that appears to be writing or proto-writing. It cannot be read despite numerous attempts at decipherment. Although some calendrical and what might prove to be genealogical information has been identified, not even...
, and
Angono PetroglyphsThe Angono Petroglyphs is the oldest known work of art in the Philippines. There are 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall dating back to 3000 BC...
may suggest otherwise.
Writing systems include abugidas from the
Brahmic familyThe Brahmic family is a family of abugidas used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, descended from the Brāhmī script.The individual writing systems may be called Brahmic scripts or Indic scripts....
, such as
BaybayinBaybayin or Alibata , is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system that originated from the Javanese script Old Kawi. The writing system is a member of the Brahmic family and is believed to have been in use as early as the 14th century...
, the
Javanese scriptThe Javanese script, natively known as Hanacaraka or Carakan is the pre-colonial script used to write the Javanese language.As of 2008 Javanese is difficult to render on a computer, though the script was added to Unicode in version 5.2.-History:...
, and
Old KawiKavi is the name given to the writing system used in Java and surrounding areas in inscriptions and texts from the 8th century to around 1500 AD...
. Other writing systems include Jawi, an
abjadAn abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol always or usually stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel....
derived from the Arabic script, as well as the modern alphabets derived from the
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
which are found in the Hawaiian alphabet,
Tagalog alphabetAbakada is the indigenized Latin alphabet of most Philippine languages and was the original alphabet of the Wikang Pambansâ na Batay sa Tagalog or simply Wikang Pambansâ...
,
Māori alphabetMāori or te reo Māori commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Maori people, where it has is the status of an official language...
,
Malay alphabetThe modern Malay alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. It is the more common of the two scripts currently used to write Malay . Like the English language, it contains the 26 letters of the Modern Latin alphabet without any diacritics.-Letter names and pronunciations:Letter names in the Malay...
, and other Austronesian writing forms.
Religion
Indigenous religions were initially predominant. Mythologies vary by culture and geographical location, but are generally bound by the belief in an all-powerful
DivineDivinity and divine are broadly applied but loosely defined terms, used variously within different faiths and belief systems — and even by different individuals within a given faith — to refer to some transcendent or transcendental power, or its attributes or manifestations in the world...
being. Other beliefs such as Ancestor Worship,
AnimismAnimism is a philosophical, religious or spiritual idea that souls or spirits exist not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, natural phenomena such as thunder, geographic features such as mountains or rivers, or other entities of the natural environment, a proposition also...
, and
ShamanismShamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. It is a prominent term in anthropological research. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, , noun...
are also practiced. Currently, many of these beliefs have gradually been replaced. Examples of native religions include:
AnitoAnito is the collective name for Pre-Hispanic belief system/s that existed in the Philippines. It is also the name for spirits, which may include deceased ancestors and nature-spirits or diwatas. Native Filipinos usually keep idols to represent these spirits and to ask guidance and even magical...
,
GabâGabâ or gabaa, for the Cebuano people , is the concept of a non-human and non-divine, imminent retribution. A sort of negative karma, it is generally seen as an evil effect on a person because of their wrongdoings or transgressions...
, Kejawen, and the
Māori religionMāori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...
. The
moaiMoai or mo‘ai are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter...
of the Rapa Nui is another example since they are built to represent deceased ancestors.
Southeast Asian contact with India, and China allowed the introduction of Hinduism, and Buddhism. Later, Muslim traders introduced the Islamic faith between the periods of the 10th, and 13th century. The European
Age of DiscoveryThe Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the 15th century and continuing into the 17th century, during which Europeans and its descendants intensively explored and mapped the world...
, brought
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
to various parts of the region. Currently, the dominant religions are Islam which are found in Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Thailand, the southern Philippine Islands, and Brunei; Hinduism in Bali, and Fiji; and Christianity in the Philippines Islands, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, most of the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and Madagascar.
Arts
Body art among Austronesian peoples is common, especially tattooing. It is particularly prominent in Polynesian cultures, from where the word "
tattooA tattoo is a marking made by inserting ink into the layers of skin to change the pigment for decorative or other reasons. Tattoos on humans are a type of decorative body modification, while tattoos on animals are most commonly used for identification or branding.Tattooing has been practiced...
" derives. One such example is the
Tā mokoTā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. It is distinct from tattoo and tatau in that the skin was carved by uhi rather than punctured...
of New Zealand
MāoriThe Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand . The group probably arrived in southwestern Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300...
, but tattooing is also prominent among Austronesian groups in the Philippine Islands, Indonesia, and Borneo. Decorated jars and other forms of pottery are also common.
Austronesian peoples living close to mainland Asia, are influenced by the native,
ChineseChinese art is art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese artists or performers. Early so-called "stone age art" dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. This early period was followed by a series of art dynasties,...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n, and Islamic art forms.
Music
The Austronesian music in Maritime Southeast Asia had a mixture of Chinese, Indian, and Islamic musical styles and sounds that had fused together with the indigenous Austronesian culture and music. In Indonesia,
GamelanA gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....
, a type of orchestra that incorporates Xylophone and Metallophone elements, is widely used in its Islamic cultural tradition. In some parts of the southern, and northern Philippine Islands, an Islamic gong-drum known as
KulintangKulintang is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally-laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums...
, and a gong-chime known as
GangsaA gangsa is a type of metallophone which is used mainly in Balinese and Javanese Gamelan music. It consists of several tuned metal bars each placed over an individual resonator. The bars are hit with a mallet, each producing a different pitch...
, is also used. The Austronesian music of Oceania have retained their indigenous Austronesian sounds. The Slit drums is an indigenous Austronesian musical instrument that were invented and used by the Southeast Asian-Austronesian, and Oceanic-Austronesian ethnic groups.
Books
- Bellwood, Peter, Man's conquest of the Pacific: The prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania, 1979
- Bellwood, Peter, Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago, 1986
- Bellwood, Peter, James J. Fox, and Darrell Tryon eds., The Austronesians : historical and comparative perspectives, Australian National University, 1995
External links