Negrito Explained

Group:Negrito
Regions:Isolated geographic regions in India and Maritime Southeast Asia
Languages:Andamanese languages, Aslian languages, Philippine Negrito languages
Religions:Animism, folk religion, Anito, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism

The term Negrito (;) refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa, and the Sentinelese) of the Andaman Islands, the Semang peoples (among them, the Batek people) of Peninsular Malaysia, the Maniq people of Southern Thailand, as well as the Aeta of Luzon, the Ati and Tumandok of Panay, the Mamanwa of Mindanao, and about 30 other officially recognized ethnic groups in the Philippines.

Etymology

The word Negrito, the Spanish diminutive of negro, is used to mean "little black person." This usage was coined by 16th-century Spanish missionaries operating in the Philippines, and was borrowed by other European travellers and colonialists across Austronesia to label various peoples perceived as sharing relatively small physical stature and dark skin.[1] Contemporary usage of an alternative Spanish epithet, Negrillos, also tended to bundle these peoples with the pygmy peoples of Central Africa on the basis of perceived similarities in stature and complexion.[1] (Historically, the label Negrito has also been used to refer to African pygmies.)[2] The appropriateness of bundling peoples of different ethnicities by similarities in stature and complexion has been called into question.[1]

Population

There are over 100,000 Negritos in the Philippines. In 2010, there were 50,236 Aeta people in the Philippines.[3] The Ati people 55,473 (2020 census)[4] Officially, Malaysia had approximately 4,800 Negrito (Semangs).[5] This number increases if we include some of the populations or individual groups among Orang Asli who have either assimilated Negrito population or have admixed origins. According to the 2006 census, the number of Orang Asli was 141,230 [6] Andamanese of India with just c. over 500. Thailand Negrito Maniq is estimated 300, divided into several clans.[7] [8] Other puts it at 382[9] or less than 500.[10]

Culture

Most groups designated as "Negrito" lived as hunter-gatherers, while some also used agriculture, such as plant harvesting. Today most live assimilated to the majority population of their respective homeland. Discrimination and poverty are often problems, caused either by their lower social position and/or their hunter-gatherer lifestyles.[11]

Origins

See also: Genetic history of East Asians and Peopling of Southeast Asia. Based on perceived physical similarities, Negritos were once considered a single population of closely related people. However, genetic studies suggest that they consist of several separate groups descended from the same ancient East Eurasian meta-population that gave rise to modern East Asian peoples and Oceanian peoples, as well as displaying genetic heterogeneity. The Negritos form the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, but were largely absorbed by Austroasiatic- and Austronesian-speaking groups who migrated from southern East Asia into Mainland and Insular Southeast Asia with the Neolithic expansion. The remainders form minority groups in geographically isolated regions.[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Genetic studies provided mixed evidence of modern Negrito populations, with admixtures in different. Studies indicate that Negrito populations are closer to their neighboring non-Negrito communities in their paternal heritage and overall DNA on average.[20] [21]

It has been found that the physical and morphological phenotypes of Negritos, such as short stature, a wide and snub nose, curly hair and dark skin, "are shaped by novel mechanisms for adaptation to tropical rainforests" through convergent evolution and positive selection, rather than a remnant of a shared common ancestor, as suggested previously by some researchers.[22] [23] [24] [25]

A Negrito-like population was most likely also present in Taiwan before the Neolithic expansion and must have persisted into historical times, as suggested by evidence from morphological features of human skeletal remains dating from around 6,000 years ago resembling Negritos (especially Aetas in northern Luzon), and further corroborated by Chinese reports from the Qing period rule of Taiwan (1684 to 1895) and from tales of Taiwanese indigenous peoples about people with "dark skin, short-and-small body stature, frizzy hair, and occupation in forested mountains or remote caves".[26]

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Manickham, Sandra Khor. Hägerdal, Hans. Responding to the West: Essays on Colonial Domination and Asian Agency. https://books.google.com/books?id=Onr3-thtL2MC&pg=PA69. 2009. Amsterdam University Press. 978-90-8964-093-2. 69–79. Africans in Asia: The Discourse of 'Negritos' in Early Nineteenth-century Southeast Asia.
  2. See, for example: Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, 1910–1911: "Second are the large Negrito family, represented in Africa by the dwarf-races of the equatorial forests, the Akkas, Batwas, Wochuas and others..." (p. 851)
  3. Web site: 2010 Census of Population and Housing, Report No. 2A: Demographic and Housing Characteristics (Non-Sample Variables) - Philippines . Philippine Statistics Authority . May 19, 2020 . June 7, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200607120654/https://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/PHIILIPPINES_FINAL%20PDF.pdf . live .
  4. Web site: Ethnicity in the Philippines (2020 Census of Population and Housing). Philippine Statistics Authority. 6 July 2023.
  5. Book: Kirk Endicott. Malaysia's Original People: Past, Present and Future of the Orang Asli. Introduction. NUS Press, National University of Singapore Press. 2016, pp. 1-38. 978-9971-69-861-4. 2019-01-12. 27 November 2015.
  6. Web site: JAKOA Program. Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli (JAKOA). 2021-03-28. https://web.archive.org/web/20170923134202/http://www.jakoa.gov.my/en/orang-asli/program-jakoa/. 2017-09-23. dead.
  7. Web site: Thonghom. Weber. George. 36. The Negrito of Thailand; The Mani. Andaman.org. 23 December 2017. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20130520173144/http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/chapter36/text36.htm. 20 May 2013.
  8. Primal Survivor: Season 5, episode 1
  9. News: Calls for Maniq tribe to get their own patch . Bangkok Post .
  10. 2016 https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/special-reports/1139777/no-common-ground
  11. Web site: The revival of Negrito culture in the Philippines. 2015-05-06. Rutu Foundation. en-US. 2019-07-19.
  12. Book: Sofwan Noerwidi . https://books.google.com/books?id=CDDFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA92 . New Perspectives in Southeast Asian and Pacific Prehistory . 2017 . ANU Press . 978-1-76046-095-2 . Piper . Philip J. . Acton, Australian Capital Territory . 92 . en . Using Dental Metrical Analysis to Determine the Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene Population History of Java . Matsumura . Hirofumi . Bulbeck . David.
  13. Chaubey . Gyaneshwer . Endicott . Phillip . The Andaman Islanders in a Regional Genetic Context: Reexamining the Evidence for an Early Peopling of the Archipelago from South Asia . Human Biology . June 2013 . 85 . 1–3 . 153–172 . 10.3378/027.085.0307 . 24297224 . 7774927 .
  14. Basu. Analabha. Sarkar-Roy. Neeta. Majumder. Partha P.. 2016. Genomic reconstruction of the history of extant populations of India reveals five distinct ancestral components and a complex structure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 113. 6. 1594–1599. 10.1073/pnas.1513197113. 4760789. 26811443. 2016PNAS..113.1594B. free.
  15. Larena. Maximilian. Sanchez-Quinto. Federico. Sjödin. Per. McKenna. James. Ebeo. Carlo. Reyes. Rebecca. Casel. Ophelia. Huang. Jin-Yuan. Hagada. Kim Pullupul. Guilay. Dennis. Reyes. Jennelyn. 2021. Multiple migrations to the Philippines during the last 50,000 years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 118. 13. e2026132118. 10.1073/pnas.2026132118. 8020671. 33753512. 2021PNAS..11826132L . free .
  16. Carlhoff. Selina. Duli. Akin. Nägele. Kathrin. Nur. Muhammad. Skov. Laurits. Sumantri. Iwan. Oktaviana. Adhi Agus. Hakim. Budianto. Burhan. Basran. Syahdar. Fardi Ali. McGahan. David P.. 2021. Genome of a middle Holocene hunter-gatherer from Wallacea. Nature. en. 596. 7873. 543–547. 10.1038/s41586-021-03823-6. 8387238 . 34433944. 2021Natur.596..543C. 10072/407535. free.
  17. Tagore. Debashree. Aghakhanian. Farhang. Naidu. Rakesh. Phipps. Maude E.. Basu. Analabha. 2021. Insights into the demographic history of Asia from common ancestry and admixture in the genomic landscape of present-day Austroasiatic speakers. BMC Biology. 19. 1. 61. 10.1186/s12915-021-00981-x. 8008685. 33781248 . free .
  18. Yang . Melinda A. . A genetic history of migration, diversification, and admixture in Asia . Human Population Genetics and Genomics . 6 January 2022 . 1–32 . 10.47248/hpgg2202010001 . free .
  19. Yew . Chee-Wei . Lu . Dongsheng . Deng . Lian . Wong . Lai-Ping . Ong . Rick Twee-Hee . Lu . Yan . Wang . Xiaoji . Yunus . Yushimah . Aghakhanian . Farhang . Mokhtar . Siti Shuhada . Hoque . Mohammad Zahirul . Voo . Christopher Lok-Yung . Abdul Rahman . Thuhairah . Bhak . Jong . Phipps . Maude E. . Xu . Shuhua . Teo . Yik-Ying . Kumar . Subbiah Vijay . Hoh . Boon-Peng . Genomic structure of the native inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia and North Borneo suggests complex human population history in Southeast Asia . Human Genetics . February 2018 . 137 . 2 . 161–173 . 10.1007/s00439-018-1869-0 . 29383489 . 253969988 . The analysis of time of divergence suggested that ancestors of Negrito were the earliest settlers in the Malay Peninsula, whom first separated from the Papuans ~ 50-33 thousand years ago (kya), followed by East Asian (~ 40-15 kya)....
  20. Aghakhanian . Farhang . Yunus . Yushima . Naidu . Rakesh . Jinam . Timothy . Manica . Andrea . Hoh . Boon Peng . Phipps . Maude E. . 2 . Unravelling the Genetic History of Negritos and Indigenous Populations of Southeast Asia . Genome Biology and Evolution . 14 April 2015 . 7 . 5 . 1206–1215 . 10.1093/gbe/evv065 . 25877615 . 4453060 . 1759-6653.
  21. Endicott et al. 2003; Thangaraj et al. 2005; Wang et al. 2011), Y chromosome (Delfin et al. 2011; Scholes et al. 2011), and autosomal (HUGO Pan-Asia SNP Consortium 2009) studies indicate that Negrito populations are closer to their neighboring non-Negrito communities.
  22. Stock . Jay T. . The Skeletal Phenotype of 'Negritos' from the Andaman Islands and Philippines Relative to Global Variation among Hunter-Gatherers . Human Biology . June 2013 . 85 . 1–3 . 67–94 . 10.3378/027.085.0304 . 24297221 . 32964023 . Although general similarities in size and proportions remain between the Andamanese and Aeta, differences in humero-femoral indices and arm length between these groups and the Efé demonstrate that there is not a generic 'pygmy' phenotype. Our interpretations of negrito origins and adaptation must account for this phenotypic variation..
  23. Zhang . Xiaoming . Liu . Qi . Zhang . Hui . Zhao . Shilei . Huang . Jiahui . Sovannary . Tuot . Bunnath . Long . Aun . Hong Seang . Samnom . Ham . Su . Bing . Chen . Hua . The distinct morphological phenotypes of Southeast Asian aborigines are shaped by novel mechanisms for adaptation to tropical rainforests . National Science Review . 31 March 2022 . 9 . 3 . nwab072 . 10.1093/nsr/nwab072 . 35371514 . 8970429 .
  24. Deng . Lian . Pan . Yuwen . Wang . Yinan . Chen . Hao . Yuan . Kai . Chen . Sihan . Lu . Dongsheng . Lu . Yan . Mokhtar . Siti Shuhada . Rahman . Thuhairah Abdul . Hoh . Boon-Peng . Xu . Shuhua . Genetic Connections and Convergent Evolution of Tropical Indigenous Peoples in Asia . Molecular Biology and Evolution . 3 February 2022 . 39 . 2 . msab361 . 10.1093/molbev/msab361 . 34940850 . 8826522 . We hypothesize that phenotypic convergence of the dark pigmentation in TIAs could have resulted from parallel (e.g., DDB1/DAK) or genetic convergence driven by admixture (e.g., MTHFD1 and RAD18), new mutations (e.g., STK11), or notably purifying selection (e.g., MC1R)..
  25. Endicott . Phillip . Gilbert . M. Thomas P. . Stringer . Chris . Lalueza-Fox . Carles . Willerslev . Eske . Hansen . Anders J. . Cooper . Alan . The Genetic Origins of the Andaman Islanders . The American Journal of Human Genetics . January 2003 . 72 . 1 . 178–184 . 10.1086/345487 . 12478481 . 378623 . D-loop and protein-coding data reveal that phenotypic similarities with African pygmoid groups are convergent..
  26. Hung . Hsiao-chun . Matsumura . Hirofumi . Nguyen . Lan Cuong . Hanihara . Tsunehiko . Huang . Shih-Chiang . Carson . Mike T. . Negritos in Taiwan and the wider prehistory of Southeast Asia: new discovery from the Xiaoma Caves . World Archaeology . 4 October 2022 . 54 . 2 . 207–228 . 10.1080/00438243.2022.2121315 . 252723056 . free .

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