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Eurasian (mixed ancestry)
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The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent.
The term has seen some use in anthropological literature from the 1960s.
Eurasian ethnic groups arose during colonial occupation of Asian regions by European states and private corporations, that started with the great wave of European naval expansion and exploration in the 16th century and continues to the present.
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Encyclopedia
The word Eurasian refers to people of mixed Asian and European ancestry. It was originally coined in 19th century British India to refer to Anglo-Indians of mixed British and Indian descent.
The term has seen some use in anthropological literature from the 1960s.
Overview
Origins
Many Eurasian ethnic groups arose during colonial occupation of Asian regions by European states and private corporations, that started with the great wave of European naval expansion and exploration in the 16th century and continues to the present. The main European colonial powers were Spain and Portugal in the 16th century, followed by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France from the 17th century onwards.
The term 'Eurasian' was first coined in British India in 1844. The term was originally used to refer to what are now known as Anglo-Indians, people of mixed British and Indian descent. In many regions, Eurasians tended to marry and socialize mostly among themselves — thus forming a separate social and economic class, which eventually became a distinctive ethnic group.
Social and economic status
With their close ties to both the ruling Europeans and the local populations, Eurasians often acted as intermediaries --- clerks, administrators, police officers, and the like --- between the two classes; a position that sometimes gave them power and prosperity.
As European colonies gained their independence, different Eurasian groups met with different fortunes. At times they were discriminated against and persecuted, being seen as alien and allies of the former rulers; this was the fate, for example, of the Anglo-Burmese in Burma, and of the Indo people of Indonesia. In other cases, where the Eurasians had citizen status in the colonial power, they chose to emigrate simply for economic reasons. In a few cases, Eurasians were able to retain their status after the transition, or even to take over the status of the former colonial rulers --- as in the Philippines, for example, where the Spanish mestizos and other part-European groups are politically and economically dominant to this day, and are also important in a socio-cultural aspect.
Numbers
There are more Eurasians living in the Philippines than in any other country in Asia.
Today, many relatively small Eurasian communities exist in Sri Lanka (Portuguese Burghers), Singapore, Malaysia, Macau, Hong Kong, India (Anglo-Indians), and Burma (Anglo-Burmese people).
Specific groups
Philippines
The Philippines has the world's largest Eurasian population. Most are descendants of Spanish colonists as well as other European ethnics who largely intermarried with indigenous women. Significant intermarriage between Filipinos with European Americans also occurred during the American colonial period up to the present day. There are also a number of Eurasians in the Philippines who have ancestries from various European countries such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Greece and Belgium.
A recent genetic study put the proportion of Eurasians in the Philippines at approximately 4% of the entire population, although historical accounts put it at around 35-40%.
Overview
Most racial mixtures occurred during the Spanish colonial era from the 16th to 19th century, as well as from the 1960s to the present day, with Spaniards and Americans, respectively. Between these periods, significant Chinese admixtures have also been introduced to the Filipino people.
The same Spanish racial caste system enforced in Latin America existed in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era, with a few differences. A few of them are still applied up to the present day.
The indigenous Austronesian population of the Philippines were referred to as Indios.
| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Indio | person of pure indigenous ancestry | | Sangley | person of pure Chinese ancestry | | Mestizo de Sangley | person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry; also called chino mestizo | | Mestizo de Espanol | person of mixed Spanish and indigenous ancestry | | Filipinos | persons of pure Spanish descent born in the Philippines (literally "from the islands"); also called Insulares or Criollos (Creoles) | | Peninsulares | persons of pure Spanish descent born in Spain (literally "from the peninsula") |
Persons classified as 'blancos' (whites) were the Filipinos (persons born in the Philippines of pure Spanish descent), peninsulares (persons born in Spain of pure Spanish descent), español mestizos (persons born in the Philippines of mixed indigenous and Spanish ancestry), and tornatrás,((persons born in the Philippines of mixed indigenous, Chinese, and Spanish ancestry). Manila was racially segregated, with blancos living in the walled city Intramuros, un-Christianized sangleys in Parían, Christianized sangleys and mestizos de sangley in Binondo, and the rest of the 7,000 islands for the indios. Only mestizos de sangley were allowed to enter Intramuros to work for whites (including mestizos de espanol) as servants and various occupations needed for the colony.
This legal system of racial classification based on patrilineal descent had no parallel anywhere in the Spanish-ruled colonies in the Americas. In general, a son born of a sangley male and an indio or mestizo de sangley female was classified as mestizo de sangley; all subsequent male descendants are mestizo de sangley regardless of whether they marry indio or mestizo de sangley. A daughter born in such manner, however, acquire the legal classification of her husband, i.e., she becomes an indio if she marries an indio but remains mestizo de sangley if she marries another mestizo de sangley or a sangley. In this way, a chino mestizo male descendant of a paternal sangley ancestor could never lose his legal status as a mestizo de sangley no matter how little percentage of sangley blood he has in his veins or how many generations has passed since his first sangley ancestor; he is thus a mestizo de sangley in perpetuity.
The Spanish caste system based on race was abolished after the Philippines' independence from Spain in 1898, and the word 'Filipino' expanded to include the entire population of the Philippines regardless of racial ancestry.
United States
According to the United States Census Bureau, concerning multi-racial families in 1990:
In the United States, census data indicate that the number of children in interracial families grew from less than one half million in 1970 to about two million in 1990. In 1990, for interracial families with one white American partner, the other parent...was Asian American for 45 percent...
According to James P. Allen and Eugene Turner from California State University, Northridge, by some calculations the largest part white bi-racial population is white/American Indian and Alaskan Native, at 7,015,017, followed by white/black at 737,492, then white/Asian at 727,197, and finally white/Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander at 125,628.
The US Census categorizes Eurasian responses in the "Some other race" section as part of the Asian race. The Eurasian responses the US Census officially recognizes are Indo-European, Amerasian, and Eurasian.
Netherlands
After World War II, most Eurasians of European and Indonesian descent settled (after the overthrow of Dutch colonial rule) in The Netherlands and thereafter in America and elsewhere. Dutch Eurasians were typically Dutch citizens and were seen as having collaborated with the Dutch government by many Indonesians, whereas the Indonesian revolutionary leaders were seen as having collaborated with the Japanese invaders by many Dutch. Both of those perceptions were largely correct. These Dutch Eurasians, also called Indos or Indo-Europeans, have largely assimilated in the Netherlands and, with over 500,000 persons, are the largest ethnic minority in the Netherlands.
United Kingdom
Interracial marriage was fairly common in Britain since the 17th century, when the British East India Company began bringing over thousands of Indian scholars, lascars and workers (mostly Bengali and/or Muslim) to Britain, most of whom married and cohabited with local white British women and girls, due to the lack of Indian women in Britain at the time. This later became an issue, as a magistrate of the London Tower Hamlets area in 1817 expressed disgust at how the local English women and girls in the area were marrying and cohabiting almost exclusively with foreign South Asian lascars. Nevertheless, there were no legal restrictions against 'mixed' marriages in Britain, unlike the restrictions in India. This led to the breeding of “mixed race” Eurasian (Anglo-Indian) children in Britain, which challenged the British elite efforts to "define them using simple dichotomies of British versus Indian, ruler versus ruled." By the mid-19th century, there were more than 40,000 Indian seamen, diplomats, scholars, soldiers, officials, tourists, businessmen and students arriving to Britain, and by the time World War I began, there were 51,616 Indian lascar seamen residing in Britain. In addition, the British officers and soldiers who had Indian wives and Eurasian children in British India often brought them over to Britain in the 19th century.
Following World War I, there was a large surplus of females in Britain, and there were increasing numbers of seamen arriving from abroad, mostly from the Indian subcontinent, in addition to smaller numbers from Yemen, Malaysia and China. This led to increased intermarriage and cohabitation with local white females, which raised concerns over miscegenation and led to several race riots at the time. In the 1920s to 1940s, several writers raised concerns about an increasing 'mixed-breed' population, born mainly from Muslim Asian (mostly South Asian in addition to Arab and Malaysian) fathers and local white mothers, occasionally out of wedlock. They denounced white girls who mixed with Muslim Asian men as 'shameless' and called for a ban on the breeding of 'half-caste' children, though these attempts at imposing anti-miscegenation laws were unsuccessful. As Asian women began arriving to Britain in large numbers from the 1970s, mostly as family members, intermarriage rates have reduced in the British Asian community, though the size of the community has increased. As of 2006, there are 246,400 'British Mixed-Race' people of white and South Asian descent.
India
The first use of the term 'Anglo-Indian' was to describe all British people living in India, regardless of whether they had mixed blood or not. This usage changed to describe people who were of mixed blood descending from the British on the male side and women from the Indian side. People of mixed British and Indian descent were previously referred to as simply 'Eurasians' but are now more commonly referred to as 'Anglo-Indians'.
During the British East India Company's rule in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, it was initially fairly common for British officers and soldiers to take local Indian wives and have Eurasian children. By the mid-19th century, there were around 40,000 British soldiers but less than 2,000 British officials present in India. As British females began arriving to British India in large numbers around the early to mid-19th century, mostly as family members of British officers and soldiers, intermarriage became increasingly uncommon among the British in India and was later despised after the events of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, after which several anti-miscegenation laws were implemented. As a result, Eurasians were neglected by both the British and Indian populations in India.
Over generations, Anglo-Indians intermarried with other Anglo-Indians to form a community that developed a culture of its own. Anglo-Indian cuisine, dress, speech and religion all served to further segregate Anglo-Indians from the native population. They established a school system focused on English language and culture and formed social clubs and associations to run functions like their regular dances at occasions like Christmas and Easter. Over time Anglo-Indians were specifically recruited into the Customs and Excise, Post and Telegraphs, Forestry Department, The Railways and teaching professions - but they were employed in many other fields as well. A number of factors fostered a strong sense of community among Anglo-Indians. Their English language school system, their Anglocentric culture, and their Christian beliefs in particular helped bind them together. Today, there are estimated to be at least 200,000 Anglo-Indians living in India.
Sri Lanka
Due to prolonged colonial contact with Portugal, The Netherlands and Britain, Sri Lanka has had a long history of intermarriage between locals and colonists. Originally these people were known as Mestiços (see Mestizo), literally "Mixed People", today they are collectively classified as Burghers. The current state of affairs in Sri Lanka (Sri Lankan Civil War) has forced many of the Burghers to flee the Island, most have have settled down in Europe, The Americas, Australia and New Zealand.
Portuguese Burghers are usually descended from a Sri Lankan mother and a Portuguese father or a Sri Lankan mother of Portuguese descent and a Sri Lankan father (the former is more common), this is also the case with the Dutch Burghers.
When the Portuguese arrived on the island in 1505, they were accompanied by African Slaves, Kaffirs are a mix of Africans, Portuguese Colonists and Sri Lankans. The free mixing between the various groups of people was encouraged by the colonials and soon the Mestiços or the "Mixed People" began speaking a creole known as the Ceylonese Portuguese Creole which was based on Portuguese, Sinhala and Tamil.
The Burgher population numbers 39,374 in Sri Lanka and thousands more worldwide, concentrated mostly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Phenotypically Burghers can be either light skinned or dark skinned, depending on their ancestral history it is common to find Burghers with dark to light brown skin (usually Portuguese Burghers or Kaffirs) and possess European facial features common to the Mediterranean basin (see Mediterraneans), they have a very distinct look compared to unmixed Sri Lankans. In some Portuguese Burgher families it is common to have both, very dark children and children with fair skin. Most light skinned Burghers are usually of Dutch or British descent.
Most Burghers are of the Roman Catholic faith.
The long and rich colonial past of Sri Lanka had left lasting impressions on the cultures and the languages of the island, both Sinhalaese and Sri Lankan (Ceylonese) Tamil contains a large number of words from Portuguese, Dutch and English.
Languages
Eurasians will usually speak the native language of their home country, and may or may not speak the language(s) of an ancestral or parental ethnicity.
The overwhelming majority of all Eurasians with Filipino ancestry of the younger generations speak English as their first language, and have a basic command of at least one Philippine language. Many also speak Lan-nang (Philippine Hokkien), if they also have Chinese ancestry, as well as other European languages like Spanish, German, or French. Among Eurasians, there is a phenomenon of language codeswitching between English, Spanish, and indigenous Philippine languages, called Tagalog-English, which is becoming an English variety of its own.
The Kristang and Macanese groups have also formed their own languages. The Kristang language is a dialect of Portuguese influenced by Malay as well as Petjo, a dialect comprised of Dutch words based on a Malay grammatical structure.
Intermixing between locals and colonials gave rise to the Ceylonese Portuguese Creole which was the lingua franca on the island for over 400 years, Dutch was also in common use by members of the Burgher community on the island of Sri Lanka, however the use of Portuguese was so dominant, even the Dutch began to speak it.
Modern lexicon of Sri Lankan Tamil and Sinhala are infused with words from Portuguese, Dutch, English.
Culture
Eurasian culture is mostly tied-up with their ethnic affiliation.
In East Asian countries such as China, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan, most Eurasians choose to identify with the culture of the country they live in.
Eurasians in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Laos and Thailand have developed a separate culture from the rest of the indigenous populations in their respective countries, as they typically are regarded by both the foreign and indigenous communities in their respective countries as a separate entity. Many Eurasians with Chinese ancestry in Singapore nevertheless do share the same culture with their Chinese Singaporean counterparts.
Many Eurasians in The Philippines inherit light skin from their ancestors. Eurasian Filipinos may be in lower, middle, or upper class.
In Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands, an annual Eurasian festival is organized under the name Pasar Malam Besar.
The culture of Eurasians in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Burgher community worldwide are deeply rooted in Portuguese and Dutch tradition, see Sri Lankan Culture.
See also
Lists
- Category:People of mixed Asian-European ethnicity
Subcategories
External links
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