The Aeta (pronounced as “eye-ta,”), Agta or Ayta are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of Luzon, Philippines. They are considered to be Negritos, who are dark to very dark brown-skinned and tend to have features such as a small stature, small frame, curly to kinky afro-like textured hair with a higher frequency of naturally lighter hair color (blondism) relative to the general population, small nose, and dark brown eyes. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.

The Aeta were included in the group of people termed "Negrito" during Spanish colonial rule as Negritos. Various Aeta groups in northern Luzon are known as "Pugut" or "Pugot," a name designated by their Ilocano-speaking neighbors, and which is the colloquial term for those with darker complexions. In Ilocano, the word also means "goblin" or "forest spirit."

History[link]

The Aeta people in the Philippines are Australo-Melanesians. Today other groups of Australo-Melanesians are the Aborigines in Australia, Papuans and the Melanesians of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia etc. The history of the Aeta continues to confound anthropologists and archaeologists. One theory suggests that the Aeta are the descendants of the original inhabitants of the Philippines, who, contrary to their sea-faring Austronesian neighbors, arrived through land bridges that linked the country with the Asian mainland about 30,000 years ago. Unlike many of their Austronesian counterparts, the Aetas have shown resistance to change. The attempts of the Spaniards to settle them in reducciones or reservations all throughout Spanish rule failed.

The Aeta are an indigenous people who live in scattered, isolated mountainous parts of the Philippines. Aetas are considered as the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations. They are nomadic and build only temporary shelters made of sticks driven to the ground and covered with the palm of banana leaves. The well-situated and more modernized Aetas have moved to villages and areas of cleared mountains. They live in houses made of bamboo and cogon grass. Aetas are found in Zambales, Tarlac, Pampanga, Angeles, Olongapo, Panay, Bataan and Nueva Ecija. But because of the Mount Pinatubo eruption, some of them moved to resettlement areas in Pampanga and Tarlac.

Young girl of Mariveles, 1901

Mining, deforestation, illegal logging, and slash-and-burn farming has caused the indigenous population in all parts of the Philippines to steadily decrease to the point where they number in the thousands today. The Philippines affords them no protection. In addition, the Aeta have become extremely nomadic due to social and economic strain on their culture and way of life that had previously remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Demographics[link]

The life expectancy at birth of the Aeta is just 16.5 years,^[1][2] with only a third of children surviving to adulthood at 15 years^[2][3] – at which point life expectancy is still only 27.3 years.^[2] Young women reach full adult height (average 140 cm) at age 12 or 13.^[1][2] The most thorough longitudinal study done of any Aeta group (or any ethnic community) is available on the Web. ^[4]

Culture[link]

Language[link]

All Aeta communities have adopted the language of their Austronesian Filipino neighbors, which have sometimes diverged over time to become different languages. These include, in order of number of speakers, Mag-indi, Mag-antsi, Abellen, Ambala, and Mariveleño.^{[citation needed]}

Religion[link]

There are different views on the dominant character of the Aeta religion. Those who believe they are monotheistic argue that various Aeta tribes believe in a supreme being who rules over lesser spirits or deities, with the Aeta of Mt. Pinatubo worshipping "Apo Na". The Aetas are also animists. For example, the Pinatubo Aeta believe in environmental spirits such as anito and kamana. They believe that good and evil spirits inhabit the environment, such as the spirits of the river, sea, sky, mountain, hill, valley and other places.

No special occasion is needed for the Aeta to pray, although there is a clear link between prayer and economic activities. The Aeta dance before and after a pig hunt. The night before Aeta women gather shellfish, they perform a dance which is partly an apology to the fish and partly a charm to ensure the catch. Similarly, the men hold a bee dance before and after the expeditions for honey.

In the mid-60s missionaries of the American-based Evangelical Protestant mission group New Tribes Mission, in their effort to reach every Philippine tribal group with the Christian Gospel reached out to the Agtas/Aetas. The mission agency provided education including pastoral training for natives to reach members of their own tribe. Today, a large percentage of Agtas/Aetas of Zambales and Pampanga are Evangelicals.^{[citation needed]} Jehovah's Witnesses also have members of the Aeta people. (See 1993 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses)

Clothing[link]

Their traditional clothing is very simple. The young women wear wrap around skirts. Elder women wear bark cloth, while elder men wear loin cloths. The old women of the Agta wear a bark cloth strip which passes between the legs, and is attached to a string around the waist. Today most Aeta who have been in contact with lowlanders have adopted the T-shirts, pants and rubber sandals commonly used by the latter.

Practices[link]

The Aetas are skillful in weaving and plaiting.

Women exclusively weave winnows and mats. Only men make armlets. They also produce raincoats made of palm leaves whose bases surround the neck of the wearer, and whose topmost part spreads like a fan all around the body.

Medicine[link]

Aeta women are known around the country as experts of herbal medicines.

Art[link]

A traditional form of visual art is body scarification. The Aetas intentionally wound the skin on their back, arms, breast, legs, hands, calves and abdomen, and then they irritate the wounds with fire, lime and other means to form scars.

Other "decorative disfigurements" include the chipping of the teeth. With the use of a file, the Dumagat modify their teeth during late puberty. The teeth are dyed black a few years afterwards.

The Aetas generally use ornaments typical of people living in subsistence economies. Flowers and leaves are used as earplugs for certain occasions. Girdles, necklaces, and neckbands of braided rattan incorporated with wild pig bristles are frequently worn.

Music[link]

The Aeta have a musical heritage consisting of various types of agung ensembles – ensembles composed of large hanging, suspended or held, bossed/knobbed gongs which act as drone without any accompanying melodic instrument.

References[link]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Ash, Caroline (January 4, 2008). "Editors' Choice: Highlights of the recent literature: Live Fast, Die Young". Science 319 (5859). DOI:10.1126/science.319.5859.13c. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol319/issue5859/twil.dtl. 
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Migliano AB, Vinicius L, Lahr MM (December 2007). "Life history trade-offs explain the evolution of human pygmies". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104 (51): 20216–9. DOI:10.1073/pnas.0708024105. PMC 2154411. PMID 18077366. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=18077366. 
3. ↑ Highfield, Roger (10 December 2007). "Pygmies life expectancy is between 16 and 24". The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/12/10/scipygmy110.xml. 
4. ↑ Aeta demographic database http://www.sil.org/silepubs/abstract.asp?id=49227

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

v t e Indigenous peoples of the Philippines Aeta Ati Bajau Igorot Lumad Mangyan Palawan tribes Suludnon National Commission on Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines

Jessica Soho is Filipino broadcast journalist, documentarian and news director who received a George Foster Peabody Award^[1] and was the first Filipino to win the British Fleet Journalism Award in 1998.^[2]

She has reported for the GMA network for 27 years.

A Ka Doroy Valencia awardee, Soho was also one of the 100 Filipino Women of Distinction chosen during the centennial celebration of the Philippines.

Her story of a hostage crisis in Cagayan Valley made her the first Filipino to win in the New York Film Festival for Coverage of a Breaking Story.

She helped conceptualize the one-hour documentary television program I-Witness, which ran for over 10 years becoming the longest running late-night program on the air as of 2009^[3]

Her documentaries on the Kidneys for Sale business and Kamao death sport made her the first Filipino reporter, with GMA Network as the first Filipino network, to win the George Foster Peabody Award on 1999.^[4]

Soho hosts Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho and was honored on October 14, 2008, by Quezon City with the Outstanding Citizen Award.^[5]

Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho (KMJS) was recognized as the Most Development-Oriented Magazine Program. Program host Jessica Soho got two awards – the Best Public Affairs Program Host and the Best Magazine Program Host in the Gandingan 2009: UPLB Isko’t Iska's Broadcast Choice Awards. Gandingan 2009 is the first award-giving ceremony in the field of broadcasting instituted by Community Broadcasters’ Society (UPCBS) of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). It pays tribute to the best broadcast programs that air over TV and radio.^[6]

In 2004, at the annual Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists event, she stated that "Provincial and regional journalists, in my view, are the real heroes in this profession. The dangers and risks you face and encounter are no doubt far greater than those that we face in Manila," in reference to the 55 journalists in the country that had been killed to date, "But despite the hazards of the job, journalists must work hard and strive to make Philippine media strong, robust and credible."^[7]

Her biggest break in news-casting entitled State of the Nation with Jessica Soho as a news anchor.

Career[link]

Jessica Soho is a Filipino reporter, host, producer and currently the acting news director of GMA Network. She joined the GMA team in the mid-80s, fresh from college, barely finished with her undergraduate thesis.

Soho's first voice-over report was a feature story on the inauguration of the Light Rail Transit from Baclaran to Monumento. Later she was assigned to the defense and military beat. Eventually, Soho's reputation and responsibility have increased dramatically since then.

At the UP College of Mass Communications, Soho met the journalist Luis Beltran who inspired Soho to finish Mass Communications.

She is the first Filipino to win in the New York Film Festival for Coverage of a Breaking Story for her account of a hostage crisis in Cagayan Valley. She also received the Ka Doroy Valencia Award given by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas. In 1994, she received the Grand Prize from the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union for her riveting coverage of a breaking news story. Soho is included in the list of 100 Filipino Women of Distinction.

In the documentary "Kidneys for Sale", Soho explored a depressed area in Manila and discovered the unemployed selling their kidneys to make ends meet.

Work History[link]

Jessica Soho is a graduate of the University of the Philippines.

An accidental journalist whose dream was to become a lawyer, Jessica started as a reporter in 1985, choosing to work in television despite her lack of training in broadcast journalism.

She learned the ropes at GMA-7, where she started as a news reporter covering the military-defense beat among other editorial beats. Then as now, she also covered unusual news events such as man-made and natural calamities, from killer earthquakes to super typhoons, even coup attempts and high-profile hostage situations.

She has helped produce a number of News and Public Affairs special and programs including the network’s election coverage from the 1980s until the most recent one.

She has also been sent on a number of significant overseas assignments such as the exile of the Marcoses in Hawaii; the Hong Kong Handover in 1997; President Corazon Aquino’s first state visit to Indonesia and Singapore in 1986; President Fidel Ramos’ state visit to France and Germany in 1993 and many more.

She has also reported on the plight of overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

She founded and conceptualized the program EMERGENCY. She was the first Executive Producer of the program.

She is one of the founders of the premiere investigative news magazine show, Brigada Siete. She was also the host and chief reporter of the program.

She was head of the Special Assignments Team (SAT) of GMA News and Public Affairs. This section produced special/investigative reports for GMA’s news programs, Saksi and Frontpage: Ulat ni Mel Tiangco.

She conceptualized I-Witness, the pioneering and highly-acclaimed documentary series of GMA. She is also one of the original hosts of the program.

On the side, Ms. Soho has been a member of the screening committee of TOYM for four (4) consecutive years. This committee screens and selects TOYM nominees.

Recently, Ms. Soho has pioneered in the coverage of world events such as the crisis in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Israel.

She is currently Vice President for News of GMA News & Public Affairs.

Awards[link]

• George Foster Peabody Award for Investigative Journalism.

• British Fleet Journalism Award, 1998^[2]

• 2003 Rotary Club of Manila, Journalism Awards, Hall of Fame Recipient

• 2002 PMPC Star Awards for Television, Best News Magazine Show and Best News Magazine Host – jessica soho reports

• 2002 Catholic Mass Media Awards, Best News Magazine Show – jessica soho reports

• 2002 KBP Golden Dove Awards, Best Public Affairs Program for Metro Manila and Best Public Affairs Host – jessica soho reports

• George Foster Peabody Award for Investigative Journalism. This is regarded as the Pulitzer Prize for Broadcasting. Two documentaries reported and produced by Ms. Soho, “Kidneys for Sale” and “Kamao” (Fist) has won for her network, the Philippines’ first Peabody award.

• New York Film and Television Festival for Coverage of a Breaking Story. Ms. Soho’s coverage of a hostage crisis in Cagayan Valley in Northern Philippines won the bronze in the festival. She is the first Filipino to have won this award and in the news category. She has also been a consistent finalist in this same festival since.

• Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Grand Prize Winner. “Kape at Balita”, hosted by Ms. Soho for both radio and TV won this award in Kyoto, Japan for coverage of a breaking story.

• Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award. Ms. Soho won this award in 1993. This is usually given to the best and brightest Filipinos in various fields.

• TV Journalist of the Year given by the prestigious Rotary Club of Manila. Ms. Soho won this award for two (2) consecutive years: 1989 and 1990.

• Golden Dove Awardee / Broadcaster of the Year (Ka Doroy Valencia Award) given by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas. She is the first recipient of this award.

• Journalist of the Year given by the Rotary Club District 3180

• Cultural Center of the Philippines or CCP Gawad Natatanging Parangal (Special Awardee) for two (2) consecutive years: 1989 and 1990.

• Best TV Special for “The Anatomy of Rape”, a documentary/special report hosted, reported and produced by Ms. Soho. The award was given by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

• Best TV News Magazine for “Within the Walls”, a documentary/special report hosted, reported and produced by Ms. Soho on prison life. The award was given by the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

• Political Reporter of the Year Award for coverage of “The Ipil Massacre” given by the Metro Pacific Corporation Journalism Awards.

• Best Host in the 1999 Golden Dove Awards given by the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkasters sa Pilipinas.

• Fleet Street Awardee for Investigative Journalism given by the British Embassy in Manila in 1998.

• Special Award for Journalism given to the program I-WITNESS by the Star Awards for Television. The program was hosted then by Ms. Soho and three (3) other hosts : Cheche Lazaro, Luchi Cruz-Valdes and Mike Enriquez.

• Ambassador of Dreams given to Five Outstanding Filipinas led by the former President Corazon Aquino.

• 100 Filipino Women of Distinction. Ms. Soho was included in a book on top 100 Filipinos of the first 100 years of the Philippine Republic. The book was authored by Joy Buensalido and Abe Florendo.

• Community Outstanding Young Achievers (COYA) given by the Quezon City Capitol Jaycees and the Sampaguita Jaycees Inc.

• Outstanding Alumnae of the College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines.

• Outstanding Citizen of the Province of La Union and the City of San Fernando, La Union respectively given by the Governor and the Mayor.

• Finalist, Best Documentary in the Asian TV Festival for “Kamao” (Fist), a documentary on the plight of Filipino boxers.

• Finalist, Best Documentary and UNESCO Awardee in the 2000 New York Film and Television Festival for “Katas ng Payatas” (The Essence of Payatas), a documentary on the tragic garbage dump in Metro Manila.

• Outstanding Contribution in the field of Media for the successful People Power II revolt given by the Council on Philippine Affairs or COPA. COPA is composed of various organizations that make up the “civil society” in the Philippines.

• Outstanding Broadcast Journalist Award given by the Metrobank Foundation in October 2001.

• Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) Awardee for Media for 2001.

• Best Documentary Program for I-WITNESS given by the Star Awards for Television for 2001.

• Best TV News Magazine for I-WITNESS (episode by Jessica Soho) given by the Catholic Mass Media Awards for 2001.

• Best News and Current Affairs Special for 2001 given by the Asian TV Festival for SAKSI sa KASAYSAYAN. Ms. Soho was Supervising Producer for this special.

• Juror, 37th Grand Anvil Awards - Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP)

• Grandslam Winner, 2002

Golden Dove Awards Best Public Affairs Show for Jessica Soho Reports Golden Dove Awards Best Public Affairs Show Host for Jessica Soho Reports Star Awards for TV Best News Magazine Show for Jessica Soho Reports Star Awards for TV Best News Magazine Show Host for Jessica Soho Reports CMMA Best Public Affairs Show for Jessica Soho Reports CMMA Best Public Affairs Show Host for Jessica Soho Reports

• Best Public Affairs Presenter, Highly Recommended : 2001-2002 Asian TV Festival

• Journalism Awards for Broadcast Journalism Hall of Fame : Rotary Club of Manila, 2003

• Finalist, Best Social Issue/Current Events Program : New York Festival, 2004 (Mona Lisa Hospital, Jessica Soho Reports)

• Awardee, Mary Kay Philippines 3rd Anniversary, 2003 (Women with a Heart)

• Finalist, Unicef Children’s Rights Awards, 2004 (Missing Story, Jessica Soho Reports)

• Finalist, Best Current Affairs Program : Asian TV Awards, 2004 (Hospital, Lova Palooza and Manok ni Idol, Jessica Soho Reports)

• Finalist, Japan Prize, 2004 (Quiz Bee, Jessica Soho Reports)

• Finalist, Barcelona TV Awards, 2004 (Quiz Bee, Jessica Soho Reports)

• Best Magazine Show : Star Awards for TV, 2004 (Jessica Soho Reports)

• Anak TV Seal, 2004 (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho)

• Certificate, Special Issues : US International Film and Video Festival, 2005 (Sana’y Muling Makapiling)

• Anak TV Seal, 2005 (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho)

• Certificate Special Issues : US International Film and Video Festival, 2006 (Sana’y Muling Makapiling)

^[8]

• Anak TV Seal, 2007 (10 Most Admired Femal Personalities )

• Best Magazine Show : Catholic Mass Media Awards 2007 (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho)

• Finalist, Best Infotainment : Asian TV Awards 2007 (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho)

• Finalist, Best Public Service Program : Catholic Mass Media Awards 2007 ( Sana’y Muling Makapiling)

• Finalist, Social Issues Category : New York Film Festival 2008 ( Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho and Sana’y Muling Makapiling )

• Best Magazine Program Host : UPLB Gandingan Awards 2008 (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho)

• Recipient 2nd Adamson University Media Awards 2012

Membership in Organizations/Conferences Attended

• Former Director and Secretary of the National Press Club

• Former President, Defense Press Corps

• Fellow, Nihon Shimbun Kyokai (Association of Newspaper Editors and Publishers of Japan)

• Grantee, International Visitors Program of the United States Information Service

• Delegate, Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (Singapore, 1991)

• Delegate, International Media Seminar organized by the United Nations Population Fund (Bali, Indonesia 1992)

• Delegate, Producers’ Meeting organized by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1992)

• Delegate, Radio-TV News Directors of America (RTNDA) Convention (Los Angeles, California 1996)

• Delegate, Radio-TV News Directors of America (RTNDA) Convention (New Orleans, Louisiana 1997)

• Delegate, Seminar on Democracy given by the British Council (Colchester, Essex, England 1998)

• Voting Member. Radio TV News Directors of America Convention

• Vice President for External Affairs UP College of Mass Communication Alumni Association

References[link]

Raoni Metuktire, Kaye, Kadjor and Panara, leaders of the Indigenous Kayapo tribe, Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Sven-Roald Nystø, Aili Keskitalo and Ole Henrik Magga, the three first presidents of the Norwegian Sami Parliament.

The New Zealand delegation endorses the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in April 2010.

Baka dancers in the East Province of Cameroon

Inuit people on a traditional qamutik (dog sled), Cape Dorset, Canada

Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as "indigenous" according to one of the various definitions of the term, though there is no universally accepted definition.^[1]

In the late twentieth century, the term began to be used primarily to refer to ethnic groups that have historical ties to groups that existed in a territory prior to colonization or formation of a nation state, and which normally preserve a degree of cultural and political separation from the mainstream culture and political system of the nation state within the border of which the indigenous group is located.^[2] The political sense of the term defines these groups as particularly vulnerable to exploitation and oppression by nation states. As a result, a special set of political rights in accordance with international law have been set forth by international organizations such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank.^[3] The United Nations have issued a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to protect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and natural resources. Depending on which precise definition of "indigenous people" used, and on the census, estimates of a world total population of Indigenous people range from 220 million Indigenous peoples in 1997^[4] to 350 million in 2004.^[2]

Definitions[link]

Ati woman, the Philippines, 2007.^[5] The Negritos were the earliest inhabitants of Southeast Asia.^[6]

The adjective indigenous has the common meaning of "from" or "of the original origin". Therefore, according to its meaning in common usage in English, any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as being indigenous in reference to some particular region or location. However during the late twentieth century the term Indigenous peoples evolved into a legal category that refers to culturally distinct groups that had been affected by the processes of colonization. These are usually collectives that have preserved some degree of cultural and political separation from the mainstream culture and political system that has grown to surround or dominate them economically, politically, culturally, or geographically.

The status of the indigenous group in this relationship can be characterized in most instances as an effectively marginalized, isolated or minoritised one, in comparison to other groups or the nation-state as a whole. Their ability to influence and participate in the external policies that may exercise jurisdiction over their traditional lands and practices is very frequently limited. This situation can persist even in the case where the indigenous population outnumbers that of the other inhabitants of the region or state; the defining notion here is one of separation from decision and regulatory processes that have some, at least titular, influence over aspects of their community and lands.

The presence of external laws, claims and cultural mores either potentially or actually act to variously constrain the practices and observances of an indigenous society. These constraints can be observed even when the indigenous society is regulated largely by its own tradition and custom. They may be purposefully imposed, or arise as unintended consequence of trans-cultural interaction; and have a measurable effect even where countered by other external influences and actions deemed to be beneficial or which serve to promote indigenous rights and interests within the wider community.

A definition of "indigenous people" has criteria which includes cultural groups (and their continuity or association with a given region, or parts of a region, and who formerly or currently inhabit the region) either:

• before or its subsequent colonization or annexation, or
• alongside other cultural groups during the formation or reign of a colony or nation-state, or
• independently or largely isolated from the influence of the claimed governance by a nation-state,

and who:

• have maintained at least in part their distinct cultural, social/organizational, or linguistic characteristics, and in doing so remain differentiated in some degree from the surrounding populations and dominant culture of the nation-state, and
• are self-identified as indigenous, or those recognized as such by other groups.

Another defining characteristic for an indigenous group is that it has preserved traditional ways of living, such as present or historical reliance upon subsistence-based production (based on pastoral, horticultural and/or hunting and gathering techniques), and a predominantly non-urbanized society. Not all indigenous groups share these characteristics. Indigenous societies may be either settled in a given locale/region or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they are dependent. Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world.^[3][7]

There are various formulations of these defining characteristics in existence. Most are commonly drawn from a few widely-acknowledged authorities, in particular the Martínez Cobo – WGIP statement. These several definitions are recognised and employed by international and rights-based non-governmental organizations, as well as among national/sub-national governments themselves. The degree to which indigenous peoples' rights and issues are accepted and recognised in practical instruments such as treaties and other binding and non-binding agreements varies, sometimes considerably.

Many organizations advocating for indigenous rights, and the indigenous communities themselves, seek to particularly and explicitly identify peoples in this position as indigenous. This identification may also be made or acknowledged by the surrounding communities and nation-state, although there are some instances where the identity claim is the subject of some dispute, particularly with regard to recognizing assertions made over territorial rights. Even if all the above criteria are fulfilled, some people may either not consider themselves as indigenous or may not be considered as indigenous by governments, organizations or scholars.

United Nations[link]

Veddha chief Uruwarige Wannila Aththo, leader of the indigenous people Sri Lanka.

Orang Asli near Cameron Highlands , Malaysia playing a nose flute.

In 1972 the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations (WGIP) accepted as a preliminary definition a formulation put forward by Mr. José Martínez Cobo, Special Rapporteur on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations:

Indigenous populations are composed of the existing descendants of the peoples who inhabited the present territory of a country wholly or partially at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there from other parts of the world, overcame them, by conquest, settlement or other means, reduced them to a non-dominant or colonial condition; who today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic and cultural customs and traditions than with the institutions of the country of which they now form part, under a state structure which incorporates mainly national, social and cultural characteristics of other segments of the population which are predominant.

This definition has some limitations which were subsequently noted by the organization. The definition applies mainly to pre-colonial populations, and would likely exclude other isolated or marginal societies. In 1983 the WGIP enlarged this definition (FICN. 41Sub.211983121 Adds. para. 3 79) to include the following criteria:

• (a) they are the descendants of groups, which were in the territory at the time when other groups of different cultures or ethnic origin arrived there;
• (b) precisely because of their isolation from other segments of the country's population they have almost preserved intact the customs and traditions of their ancestors which are similar to those characterised as indigenous;
• (c) they are, even if only formally, placed under a state structure which incorporates national, social and cultural characteristics alien to their own.

In 1986 it was further added that any individual who identified himself or herself as indigenous and was accepted by the group or the community as one of its members was to be regarded as an indigenous person (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1986/7/Add.4. para.381).

The draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples prepared by the DWIG does not provide a specific definition of indigenous peoples or populations. According to the Chairperson, Ms. Erica Irene Daes, Rapporteur of the Working Group, this was because "historically, indigenous peoples have suffered, from definitions imposed by others" (E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.4/1995/3, page 3).

International Labour Organisation[link]

A definition as used by the International Labour Organisation (Convention No. 169, concerning the working rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, 1989) applies to:

both tribal peoples whose social, cultural and economic conditions distinguish them from other sections of the national community and whose status is regulated wholly or partially by their own customs or traditions or by special laws or regulations, and to peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabit the country at the time of conquest or colonisation.

World Bank[link]

A description of Indigenous Peoples given by the World Bank (operational directive 4.20, 1991) reads as follows:

Indigenous Peoples can be identified in particular geographical areas by the presence in varying degrees of the following characteristics:

a) close attachment to ancestral territories and to the natural resources in these areas;

b) self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group;

c) an indigenous language, often different from the national language;

d) presence of customary social and political institutions;

and e) primarily subsistence-oriented production.

The World Bank's policy for indigenous people states:

Because of the varied and changing contexts in which Indigenous Peoples live and because there is no universally accepted definition of “Indigenous Peoples,” this policy does not define the term. Indigenous Peoples may be referred to in different countries by such terms as "indigenous ethnic minorities," "aboriginals," "hill tribes," "minority nationalities," "scheduled tribes," or "tribal groups."^[8]

Philippine Definition[link]

Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines (Tagalog: Katutubong Tao sa Pilipinas; Cebuano: Lumad or Tumandok; Ilocano: Umili a Tattao iti Filipinas) refers to a group of people or homogenous societies, identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as an organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and used such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions, and cultures, become historically differentiated from the majority of the Filipinos.^[9]

The indigenous peoples also include peoples who are regarded as indigenous based on their descent from the populations which inhabited the country at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains.

Individual states[link]

Different states designate the groups within their boundaries that are recognized as indigenous peoples according to international legislation by different terms. These include, for example "Native Americans" and "Pacific Islander" in the United States; "Aboriginals (Inuit", "Métis" and "First Nations)" in Canada;^[10] Aborigines in Australia; Hill tribes in Southeast Asia; indigenous ethnic minorities, scheduled tribes or Adivasi in India; tribal groups, or autochthonous groups.^[8]

Population and distribution[link]

Indigenous societies range from those who have been significantly exposed to the colonizing or expansionary activities of other societies (such as the Maya peoples of Mexico and Central America) through to those who as yet remain in comparative isolation from any external influence (such as the Sentinelese and Jarawa of the Andaman Islands).

Precise estimates for the total population of the world's Indigenous peoples are very difficult to compile, given the difficulties in identification and the variances and inadequacies of available census data. Recent source estimates range from 300 million^[11] to 350 million^[12] as of the start of the 21st century. This would equate to just fewer than 6% of the total world population. This includes at least 5000 distinct peoples^[12] in over 72 countries.

Contemporary distinct indigenous groups survive in populations ranging from only a few dozen to hundreds of thousands and more. Many indigenous populations have undergone a dramatic decline and even extinction, and remain threatened in many parts of the world. Some have also been assimilated by other populations or have undergone many other changes. In other cases, indigenous populations are undergoing a recovery or expansion in numbers.

Certain indigenous societies survive even though they may no longer inhabit their "traditional" lands, owing to migration, relocation, forced resettlement or having been supplanted by other cultural groups. In many other respects, the transformation of culture of indigenous groups is ongoing, and includes permanent loss of language, loss of lands, encroachment on traditional territories, and disruption in traditional lifeways due to contamination and pollution of waters and lands.

Historical cultures[link]

An Adivasi woman from the Kutia Kondh tribal group in Orissa, India.

The migration, expansion and settlement of societies throughout different territories is a universal, almost defining thread which runs through the entire course of human history. Many of the cross-cultural interactions which arose as a result of these historical encounters involved societies which might properly be considered as indigenous, either from their own viewpoint or that of external societies.

Alonso Fernández de Lugo presenting the captured Guanche kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella.

Most often, these past encounters between indigenous and "non-indigenous" groups lack contemporary account or description. Any assessment or understanding of impact, result and relation can at best only be surmised, using archaeological, linguistic or other reconstructive means. Where accounts do exist, they frequently originate from the viewpoint of the colonizing, expansionary or nascent state or from rather scarce and fragmented ethnographic sources compiled by those more congenial with indigenous communities and/or representatives thereof.

Classical antiquity[link]

Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the prior existence of indigenous people(s), whom they referred to as "Pelasgians". These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors. The disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent Hellenic cultures (and distinct from non-Greek speaking "foreigners", termed "barbarians" by the historical Greeks). Greco-Roman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. But because already existent populations within other parts of Europe at the time of classical antiquity had more in common culturally speaking with the Greco-Roman world, the intricacies involved in expansion across the European frontier were not so contentious relative to indigenous issues. But when it came to expansion in other parts of the world, namely Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, then totally new cultural dynamics had entered into the equation, so to speak, and one sees here of what was to take the Americas, South East Asia, and the Pacific by storm a few hundred years later. The idea that peoples who possessed cultural customs and racial appearances strikingly different to that of the colonizing power is no new idea borne out of the Medieval period or the Enlightenment.

European expansion and colonialism[link]

The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century onwards had a profound impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into contact. The exploratory and colonial ventures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific often resulted in territorial and cultural conflict, and the intentional or unintentional displacement and devastation of the indigenous populations.

The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians and linguists.^[13]

Indigenous peoples by region[link]

Indigenous populations are distributed in regions throughout the globe. The numbers, condition and experience of indigenous groups may vary widely within a given region. A comprehensive survey is further complicated by sometimes contentious membership and identification.

Africa[link]

Tuareg nomads in southern Algeria.

A San man from Namibia.

In the post-colonial period, the concept of specific indigenous peoples within the African continent has gained wider acceptance, although not without controversy. The highly diverse and numerous ethnic groups which comprise most modern, independent African states contain within them various peoples whose situation, cultures and pastoralist or hunter-gatherer lifestyles are generally marginalized and set apart from the dominant political and economic structures of the nation. Since the late 20th century these peoples have increasingly sought recognition of their rights as distinct indigenous peoples, in both national and international contexts.

Batwa Pygmy with traditional bow and arrow.

Although the vast majority of African peoples can be considered to be indigenous in the sense that they have originated from that continent and middle and south east Asia, in practice identity as an "indigenous people" as per the term's modern application is more restrictive, and certainly not every African ethnic group claims identification under these terms. Groups and communities who do claim this recognition are those who by a variety of historical and environmental circumstances have been placed outside of the dominant state systems, and whose traditional practices and land claims often come into conflict with the objectives and policies promulgated by governments, companies and surrounding dominant societies. Given the extensive and complicated history of human migration within Africa, being the "first peoples in a land" is not a necessary precondition for acceptance as an indigenous people. Rather, indigenous identity relates more to a set of characteristics and practices than priority of arrival. For example, several populations of nomadic peoples such as the Tuareg of the Sahara and Sahel regions now inhabit areas in which they arrived comparatively recently; their claim to indigenous status (endorsed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights) is based on their marginalization as nomadic peoples in states and territories dominated by sedentary agricultural peoples. The Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC) is one of the main trans-national network organizations recognized as a representative of African indigenous peoples in dialogues with governments and bodies such as the UN. IPACC identifies several key characteristics associated with indigenous claims in Africa:

• political and economic marginalization rooted in colonialism;
• de facto discrimination based often on the dominance of agricultural peoples in the State system (e.g. lack of access to education and health care by hunters and herders);
• the particularities of culture, identity, economy and territoriality that link hunting and herding peoples to their home environments in deserts and forests (e.g. nomadism, diet, knowledge systems);
• some indigenous peoples, such as the San and Pygmy peoples are physically distinct, which makes them subject to specific forms of discrimination.

With respect to concerns expressed that identifying some groups and not others as indigenous is in itself discriminatory, IPACC states that it:

• "...recognises that all Africans should enjoy equal rights and respect. All of Africa's diversity is to be valued. Particular communities, due to historical and environmental circumstances, have found themselves outside the state-system and underrepresented in governance...This is not to deny other Africans their status; it is to emphasise that affirmative recognition is necessary for hunter-gatherers and herding peoples to ensure their survival."

At an African inter-governmental level, the examination of indigenous rights and concerns is pursued by a sub-commission established under the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), sponsored by the African Union (AU) (successor body to the Organization of African Unity (OAU)). In late 2003 the 53 signatory states of the ACHPR adopted the Report of the African Commission's Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities and its recommendations. This report says in part (p. 62):

• ...certain marginalized groups are discriminated in particular ways because of their particular culture, mode of production and marginalized position within the state[; a] form of discrimination that other groups within the state do not suffer from. The call of these marginalized groups to protection of their rights is a legitimate call to alleviate this particular form of discrimination.

The adoption of this report at least notionally subscribed the signatories to the concepts and aims of furthering the identity and rights of African Indigenous peoples. The extent to which individual states are mobilizing to put these recommendations into practice varies enormously, however, and most Indigenous groups continue to agitate for improvements in the areas of land rights, use of natural resources, protection of environment and culture, political recognition and freedom from discrimination.

Peruvian Quechua people reading.

Americas[link]

A Nahua man, ploughing his cornfield in Morelos, Mexico.

Indigenous peoples of the American continents are broadly recognized as being those groups and their descendants who inhabited the region before the arrival of European colonizers and settlers (i.e., Pre-Columbian). Indigenous peoples who maintain, or seek to maintain, traditional ways of life are found from the high Arctic north to the southern extremities of Tierra del Fuego.

A Navajo boy on horseback in Monument valley, Arizona.

The impact of European colonization of the Americas on the indigenous communities has been in general quite severe, with many authorities estimating ranges of significant population decline due to the ravages of various genocide campaigns, epidemic diseases (smallpox, measles, etc.), displacement, conflict, compulsory boarding schools, massacres and exploitation. The extent of this impact is the subject of much continuing debate. Several peoples shortly thereafter became extinct, or very nearly so.

All nations in North and South America have populations of indigenous peoples within their borders. In some countries (particularly Latin American), indigenous peoples form a sizable component of the overall national population—in Bolivia they account for an estimated 56%–70% of the total nation, and at least half of the population in Guatemala and the Andean and Amazonian nations of Peru. In English, indigenous peoples are collectively referred to by several different terms which vary by region and include such ethnonyms as Native Americans, Amerindians, and Indians. In Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries one finds the use of terms such as pueblos indígenas, amerindios, povos nativos, povos indígenas, and in Peru, Comunidades Nativas, particularly among Amazonian societies like the Urarina^[14] and Matsés.

In Brazil, the term índio (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈĩdʒi.u] or ˈĩdʒju) is used by most of the population, the media, the indigenous peoples themselves and even the government (FUNAI is acronym for Fundação Nacional do Índio), although its Hispanic equivalent indio is widely not considered politically correct and falling into desuse. Nevertheless, Portuguese for Amerindian and amerindio, ameríndio (ameˈɾĩdʒi.u or ameˈɾĩdʒju in the standard South American dialects) is gaining some popularity, still, it seems odd for many.^{[citation needed]} The widespread completely politically correct term of which Brazilians are used to is indígena ĩˈdʒiʒenɐ (although its literal translation is "indigenous person or peoples from anywhere", it is colloquially intended as synonym for Amerindian, without need for specifications in reference to the indigenous peoples of what continent). It has more ethnic meanings than racial ones, and a "Westerner" in Brazil can be an acculturated ameríndio/índio but not an indígena, which officially means indigenous in the narrow sense.

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations,^[15] Inuit^[16] and Métis.^[17] The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" are falling into disuse in Canada.^[18][19] There are currently over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands encompassing 1,172,790 ²⁰⁰⁶ peoples spread across Canada with distinctive Aboriginal cultures, languages, art, and music.^[20][21][22] National Aboriginal Day recognises the cultures and contributions of Aboriginals to the history of Canada

The indigenous people of Greenland, previously a Danish colony, achieved self rule in 2009.

The Inuit have achieved a degree of administrative autonomy with the creation in 1999 of the territories of Nunavik (in Northern Quebec), Nunatsiavut (in Northern Labrador) and Nunavut, which was until 1999 a part of the Northwest Territories. The self-ruling Danish territory of Greenland is also home to a majority population of indigenous Inuit (about 85%).

A Yanomami shabono in the northern Amazon Rainforest.

In the United States, the combined populations of Native Americans, Inuit and other indigenous designations totalled 2,786,652 (constituting about 1.5% of 2003 US census figures). Some 563 scheduled tribes are recognized at the federal level, and a number of others recognized at the state level.

In Mexico, approximately 6,011,202 (constituting about 6.7% of 2005 Mexican census figures) identify as Indígenas (Spanish for natives or indigenous peoples). In the southern states of Chiapas, Yucatán and Oaxaca they constitute 26.1%, 33.5% and 35.3%, respectively, of the population. In these states several conflicts and episodes of civil war have been conducted, in which the situation and participation of indigenous societies were notable factors (see for example EZLN).

The Amerindians make up 0.4% of Brazil's population, or about 700,000 people.^[23] Indigenous peoples are found in the entire territory of Brazil, although the majority of them live in Indian reservations in the North and Center-Western part of the country. On 18 January 2007, FUNAI reported that it had confirmed the presence of 67 different uncontacted tribes in Brazil, up from 40 in 2005. With this addition Brazil has now overtaken the island of New Guinea as the country having the largest number of uncontacted tribes.^[24]

Guatemala is 50 to 80% indigenous, depending on whose statistics are used (Nelson, Finger in the Wound 1999)

Asia[link]

See also: Category:Indigenous peoples of Asia

Ainu people of Hokkaidō, Japan in traditional garb.

The vast regions of Asia contain the majority of the world's present-day Indigenous populations, about 70% according to IWGIA figures.^{[citation needed]}

The most substantial populations are in India, which constitutionally recognizes a range of "Scheduled Tribes" within its borders. These various peoples (collectively referred to as Adivasis, or tribal peoples) number about 68 million (1991 census figures, approximately 8% of the total national population).

A Nenets family in their tent, Yamal peninsula, Russia.

Nivkh people are an ethnic group indigenous to Sakhalin, having a few speakers of the Nivkh language, but their fisher culture has been endangered due to the development of oil field of Sakhalin from 1990s.^[25]

Ainu people are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. As Japanese settlement expanded, the Ainu were pushed northward, until by the Meiji period they were confined by the government to a small area in Hokkaidō, in a manner similar to the placing of Native Americans on reservations.^[26]

The languages of Taiwanese aborigines have significance in historical linguistics, since in all likelihood Taiwan was the place of origin of the entire Austronesian language family, which spread across Oceania.^[27][28][29]

There are also indigenous people in Southeast Asia.

There are indigenous peoples of the Philippines, which Spain and the United States colonized.

The Assyrians and Marsh Arabs are indigenous to areas of the geocultural region of Mesopotamia which includes parts of Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. The Lurs also inhabit parts of Iraq close to the Iranian border with the provinces of Lorestan and Ilam.

The Bahrani are the indigenous people of the archipelago of Bahrain and the oasis of Qatif on the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia (see historical region of Bahrain).

Europe[link]

See also: Category:Indigenous peoples of Europe and European ethnic groups

Since most of Europe in historical times was never colonized by non-European powers with lasting effect (arguably except for Hungary and Romania, Turkish Thrace, Tatarstan, Kalmykia and islands such as Malta or Cyprus^[30]), the vast majority of Europeans could be considered indigenous. However several widely accepted formulations, which define the term "Indigenous peoples" in stricter terms, have been put forward by internationally recognized organizations, such as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank. Indigenous peoples in this article is used in such a narrower sense.

In Europe, present-day recognized indigenous populations are relatively few, mainly confined to northern and far-eastern reaches of this Eurasian peninsula. Whilst there are various ethnic minorities distributed within European countries, few of these still maintain traditional subsistence cultures and are recognized as indigenous peoples, per se. Notable indigenous populations include the Sami people of northern Scandinavia, the Nenets and other Samoyedic peoples of the northern Russian Federation, and the Komi peoples of the western Urals.

Oceania[link]

Huli man from the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. New Guinea has more than 1,000 indigenous languages.

Indigenous Australians playing football.

Many of the present-day Pacific Island nations in the Oceania region were originally populated by Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian peoples over the course of thousands of years. European colonial expansion in the Pacific brought many of these under non-indigenous administration. During the 20th century several of these former colonies gained independence and nation-states were formed under local control. However, various peoples have put forward claims for Indigenous recognition where their islands are still under external administration; examples include the Chamorros of Guam and the Northern Marianas, and the Marshallese of the Marshall Islands.

The remains of at least 25 miniature humans, who lived between 1,000 and 3,000 years ago, were recently found on the islands of Palau in Micronesia.^[31]

In most parts of Oceania, indigenous peoples outnumber the descendants of colonists. Exceptions include Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii. According to the 2001 Australian census, indigenous Australians make up 2.4% of the total population, while in New Zealand 14.6% of the population identify at least partially as indigenous Māori, with slightly more than half (53%) of all Māori residents identifying solely as Māori. The Māori are indigenous to Polynesia and settled New Zealand relatively recently, the migrations were thought to have occurred between 1000–1200 CE. In New Zealand pre-contact Māori tribes were not a single people, thus the more recent grouping into tribal (iwi) arrangements has become a more formal arrangement in more recent times. Many Māori tribal leaders signed a treaty with the British, the Treaty of Waitangi, so that the modern geo-political entity that is New Zealand was established by partial consent. However, the Māori language translation of the Treaty of Waitangi which they signed is worded ambiguously and does not fully match the English version. The treaty process gave British citizenship to the "native" population. However, some of the British settlers ignored the Treaty of Waitangi and through some illegal acts of colonization and war (though there were legitimate land sales between Maori and the settlers) Maori lost 95% of their land and resources from the 1850s through to the 1970s, which resulted in the large scale socio-economic marginalization of the vast majority of Maori. Since the 1970s there has been a cultural renaissance by Maori, and a political drive to assert their Treaty rights to their land, resources and culture through the Waitangi Tribunal process. This has resulted in the legal recognition of the Maori language and culture and has resulted in the return of some land, resources and money so that today Māori businesses have an estimated value of over NZD$14 billion. Māori have also formed an important political party.

The independent state of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a majority population of indigenous societies, with more than 700 different tribal groups recognized out of a total population of just over 5 million.^{[citation needed]} The PNG Constitution and other Acts identify traditional or custom-based practices and land tenure, and explicitly set out to promote the viability of these traditional societies within the modern state. However, several conflicts and disputes concerning land use and resource rights continue to be observed between indigenous groups, the government and corporate entities.

Rights, issues and concerns[link]

Part of a series on
Indigenous rights
Rights
Conflict resolution · Cultural diversity Cultural heritage · Forced assimilation Forced relocation · Freedom of religion Gender equality · Human rights Intellectual property · Land rights Land-use planning · Language Racial discrimination · Right to identity Self-determination · Traditional knowledge
Governmental organizations
AADNC · ACHPR · Arctic Council Bureau of Indian Affairs · CDI Council of Indigenous Peoples FUNAI · NCIP · UNPFII
NGOs and political groups
AFN · Amazon Watch · CAP · COICA CONAIE · Cultural Survival · EZLN · fPcN IPACC · IPCB · IWGIA · NARF · ONIC Survival International · UNPO · (more ...)
Issues
Colonialism · Civilizing mission Cultural genocide · Manifest Destiny Postdevelopment theory · Bantustan Indian reservation · Indian reserve
Legal representation
ILO 169 · United Nations Declaration
Category
v t e

Indigenous peoples confront a diverse range of concerns associated with their status and interaction with other cultural groups, as well as changes in their inhabited environment. Some challenges are specific to particular groups; however, other challenges are commonly experienced. Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi (2003) explore why and how the circumstances of indigenous peoples are improving in some places of the world, while their human rights continue to be abused in others.^[32] These issues include cultural and linguistic preservation, land rights, ownership and exploitation of natural resources, political determination and autonomy, environmental degradation and incursion, poverty, health, and discrimination.

The interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous societies throughout history has been complex, ranging from outright conflict and subjugation to some degree of mutual benefit and cultural transfer. A particular aspect of anthropological study involves investigation into the ramifications of what is termed first contact, the study of what occurs when two cultures first encounter one another. The situation can be further confused when there is a complicated or contested history of migration and population of a given region, which can give rise to disputes about primacy and ownership of the land and resources.

The Bangladesh Government has stated that there are "no Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh".^[33] This has angered the Indigenous Peoples of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, collectively known as the Jumma (whichs include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tenchungya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, Gurkha, Assamese, Santal and Khumi).^[34] Experts have protested against this move of the Bangladesh Government and have questioned the Government's definition of the term "Indigenous Peoples".^[35][36] This move by the Bangladesh Government is seen by the Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh as another step by the Government to further erode their already limited rights.^[37]

Wherever indigenous cultural identity is asserted, some particular set of societal issues and concerns may be voiced which either arise from (at least in part), or have a particular dimension associated with, their indigenous status. These concerns will often be commonly held or affect other societies also, and are not necessarily experienced uniquely by indigenous groups.

Despite the diversity of Indigenous peoples, it may be noted that they share common problems and issues in dealing with the prevailing, or invading, society. They are generally concerned that the cultures of Indigenous peoples are being lost and that indigenous peoples suffer both discrimination and pressure to assimilate into their surrounding societies. This is borne out by the fact that the lands and cultures of nearly all of the peoples listed at the end of this article are under threat. Notable exceptions are the Sakha and Komi peoples (two of the northern indigenous peoples of Russia), who now control their own autonomous republics within the Russian state, and the Canadian Inuit, who form a majority of the territory of Nunavut (created in 1999).

It is also sometimes argued that it is important for the human species as a whole to preserve a wide range of cultural diversity as possible, and that the protection of indigenous cultures is vital to this enterprise.

An example of this occurred in 2002 when the Government of Botswana expelled all the Kalahari Bushmen known as the San from their lands^[38] on which they had lived for at least twenty thousand years. President Festus Mogai has described the Bushmen as "stone age creatures"^[39] and a minister for local government, Margaret Nasha, likened public criticism of their eviction to criticism of the culling of elephants.^[40] In 2006, the Botswanan High Court ruled that the Bushmen had a right to return to their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.^[41][42]

Health issues[link]

In December 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, and requested UN specialized agencies to consider with governments and indigenous people how they can contribute to the success of the Decade of Indigenous People, commencing in December 1994. As a consequence, the World Health Organization, at its Forty-seventh World Health Assembly established a core advisory group of indigenous representatives with special knowledge of the health needs and resources of their communities, thus beginning a long-term commitment to the issue of the health of indigenous peoples.^[43]

The WHO notes that "Statistical data on the health status of indigenous peoples is scarce. This is especially notable for indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia and eastern Europe", but snapshots from various countries, where such statistics are available, show that indigenous people are in worse health than the general population, in advanced and developing countries alike: higher incidence of diabetes in some regions of Australia;^[44] higher prevalence of poor sanitation and lack of safe water among Twa households in Rwanda;^[45] a greater prevalence of childbirths without prenatal care among ethnic minorities in Vietnam;^[46] suicide rates among Inuit youth in Canada are eleven times higher than the national average;^[47] infant mortality rates are higher for indigenous peoples everywhere.^[48]

Accredited organizations[link]

Various organizations are devoted to the preservation or study of indigenous peoples. Of these, several have widely recognized credentials to act as an intermediary or representative on behalf of indigenous peoples' groups, in negotiations on indigenous issues with governments and international organizations. These include:

• African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR)
• Center for World Indigenous Studies
• Cultural Survival
• Friends of Peoples Close to Nature (fPcN)
• Incomindios Switzerland
• Indigenous Dialogues
• Indigenous Peoples of Africa Co-ordinating Committee (IPACC)
• International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
• Survival International

International Day of the World's Indigenous People[link]

The International Day of the World's Indigenous People falls on 9 August as this was the date of the first meeting in 1982 of the United Nations Working Group of Indigenous Populations of the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights.

The UN General Assembly decided on 23 December 1994 that the International Day of the World's Indigenous People should be observed on 9 August every year during the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (resolution 49/214). Thereafter, on 20 December 2004, the General Assembly decided to continue observing the International Day of Indigenous People every year during the Second International Decade of the World's Indigenous People (2005–2014) (resolution 59/174).^[49]

Knowledge and culture[link]

The preservation and investigation of specialized Indigenous knowledge, particularly in relation to the resources of the natural environment with which the society is associated, is a goal of both the Indigenous and the societies who thereby seek to identify new resources and benefits (example: partnerships established to research biological extracts from vegetation in the Amazon rainforests).

For some people (e.g. Indigenous communities from India, Brazil, and Malaysia and some NGOs such as GRAIN and Third World Network),^{[clarification needed]} Indigenous peoples have often been victims of biopiracy when they are subjected to unauthorized use of their natural resources,^{[citation needed]} of their traditional knowledge on these biological resources, of unequal share of benefits between them and a patent holder.

Viewpoints[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

A range of differing viewpoints and attitudes have arisen from the experience and history of contact between Indigenous and "non-indigenous" communities. The cultural, regional and historical contexts in which these viewpoints have developed are complex, and many competing viewpoints exist simultaneously in any given society, albeit promulgated with greater or lesser force depending on the extent of cross-cultural exposure and internal societal change. These views may be noted from both sides of the relationship.

Indigenous viewpoints[link]

Indigenous peoples are increasingly faced with threats to their sovereignty, environment, and access to natural resources. Examples of this can be the deforestation of tropical rainforests where many native tribe's subsistence lifestyles are threatened. Assimilative colonial policies resulted in ongoing issues related to aboriginal child protection.

Non-indigenous viewpoints[link]

"Savages of Mokka and Their House in Formosa", pre-1945, Taiwan under Japanese rule.

Indigenous peoples have been denoted primitives, savages, or uncivilized. These terms were common during the heights of European colonial expansion, but still continue in modern times.^[50] During the 17th century, indigenous peoples were commonly labeled "uncivilized". Whilst there was a swell in bringing back creative elements of classical antiquity in artistic pursuits, there was also the not so creative side of regurgitating xenophobic ideas from that period. Some philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes considered indigenous people to be merely 'savages', while others are purported to have considered them to be "noble savages". Those who were close to the Hobbesian view tended to believe themselves to have a duty to civilize and modernize indigenes. Although anthropologists, especially from Europe, used to apply these terms to all tribal cultures, it has fallen into disfavor as demeaning and, according to anthropologists, inaccurate (see tribe, cultural evolution). Survival International runs a campaign to stamp out media portrayal of indigenous peoples as 'primitive' or 'savages'.^[51] Friends of Peoples Close to Nature considers not only that indigenous culture should be respected as not being inferior, but also sees their way of life as a lesson of sustainability and a part of the struggle within the "corrupted" western world, from which the threat stems.^[52]

After World War I, however, many Europeans came to doubt the value of civilization. At the same time, the anti-colonial movement, and advocates of indigenous peoples, argued that words such as "civilized" and "savage" were products and tools of colonialism, and argued that colonialism itself was savagely destructive. In the mid 20th century, European attitudes began to shift to the view that indigenous and tribal peoples should have the right to decide for themselves what should happen to their ancient cultures and ancestral lands.

See also[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Portal:Aboriginals

Look up indigenous in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Indigenous people

• Awareness raising film by Rebecca Sommer for the Secretariat of the UNPFII

Institutions[link]

• UNEP Indigenous People's Website
• IFAD and indigenous peoples (International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD)
• IPS Inter Press Service News on indigenous peoples from around the world

• Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources

v t e Indigenous rights Rights Conflict resolution Cultural diversity Cultural heritage Freedom from forced assimilation Freedom from forced removal Freedom from racial discrimination Freedom of religion Gender equality Human rights Indigenous intellectual property Indigenous language Land rights Land-use planning Right to determine indigeneity Self-determination Traditional knowledge Governmental organizations Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights Arctic Council Bureau of Indian Affairs Council of Indigenous Peoples Fundação Nacional do Índio National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (Philippines) United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Non-governmental and political organizations Amazon Watch Assembly of First Nations Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador Congress of Aboriginal Peoples Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin Cultural Survival Friends of Peoples Close to Nature Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs National Indigenous Organization of Colombia Native American Rights Fund Survival International Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization Zapatista Army of National Liberation (more ...) Issues Bantustan / Indian reservation / Indian reserve / Ranchería Civilizing mission Colonialism Cultural genocide Manifest destiny Postdevelopment theory Settler colonialism Legal representation Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 2007 Historical cases 2009 Peruvian political crisis Chiapas conflict Depopulation of Diego Garcia High Arctic relocation Indian removal Mapuche conflict Oka Crisis Rubber boom San controversy Stolen Generations Category

Filipino people

Epifanio de los Santos Manuel Tinio
1st row: Corazon Aquino · Emilio Aguinaldo · Lorenzo Ruiz · Manny Pacquiao 2nd row: Julian Felipe · Andrés Bonifacio · Carlos P. Romulo · Mutya Buena 3rd row: Ramon Magsaysay · Juan Luna · Epifanio de los Santos · Imelda Marcos 4th row: Ferdinand Marcos · Charlene Gonzales · Mariano Gómez · Lea Salonga 5th row: Manuel Tinio · Melchora Aquino · Benigno Aquino III · Lakandula 6th row: Manuel L. Quezon · José Rizal · Lapu-Lapu
Total population
105,000,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
Philippines 94,000,000[2]  United States 3,416,840[3]  Saudi Arabia 1,066,401[4]  Malaysia 636,544[5]  United Arab Emirates 529,114[4]  Canada 436,190[6]  Japan 305,972[7]  United Kingdom 203,035[4]  Mexico 200,000  Qatar 195,558[4]  Kuwait 139,802[4]  Italy 134,154[8]  Hong Kong 130,810[9]  Australia 129,400[10]  Taiwan 74,483[11]  Israel 70,000[12]  South Korea 63,464[13]  Spain 40,000[14]  New Zealand 16,938[15]  Nigeria  Norway 12,262[16]  Netherlands 12,000[17]  Pakistan 3,000[18]
Languages
Philippine languages, English; Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Lan-nang
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism), Islam, Buddhism, Traditional and folk religions, or other religions.
Related ethnic groups
other Southeast Asians and Austronesian-speaking people.

The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 94 million Filipinos in the Philippines,^[19] and about 11 million living outside the Philippines.^[20]

There are around 180 languages spoken in the Philippines, most of them belonging to the Austronesian language family, with Tagalog and Cebuano having the greatest number of native speakers.^[21] The official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English and most Filipinos are bilingual or trilingual.^[22][23]

Most Filipinos refer to themselves colloquially as "Pinoy" (feminine: "Pinay"), which is a slang word formed by taking the last four letters of "Pilipino" and adding the diminutive suffix "-y". The lack of the letter "F" in the pre-1987 Philippine alphabet, Abakada, had caused the letter "F" to be substituted with "P". This is why, when the 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet was made official in 1987, the name Filipino was preferred over Pilipino. The name Filipino was chosen by the Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos, who named the islands "las Islas Filipinas" ("the Philippine Islands") after Philip II of Spain.^[24]

In colloquial speech, English language words borrowed from the Filipino language are inflected for gender. It is quite unnatural, for example, for women to call themselves Filipino in daily conversation and they will generally refer to themselves instead as Filipina. Also, adjectives that have to do with women (e.g. "Filipina beauty") are modified to use the feminine form. In legal documents such as bank accounts and passports, however, both genders are referred to as Filipino.

History[link]

Pre – Colonial[link]

In 2010, a metatarsal from "Callao Man" discovered in 2007 was dated through uranium-series dating as being 67,000 years old.^[25]

Prior to that, the earliest human remains found in the Philippines were thought to be the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone, discovered in the 1960s by Dr. Robert B. Fox, an anthropologist from the National Museum.^[26] Anthropologists who examined these remains agreed that they belonged to modern human beings. These include the Homo sapiens, as distinguished from the mid-Pleistocene Homo erectus species.

The "Tabon Man" fossils are considered to have come from a third group of inhabitants, who worked the cave between 22,000 and 20,000 BCE. An earlier cave level lies so far below the level containing cooking fire assemblages that it must represent Upper Pleistocene dates like 45 or 50 thousand years ago.^[27] Researchers say this indicates that the human remains were pre-Mongoloid, from about 40,000 years ago. Mongoloid is the term which anthropologists applied to the ethnic group which migrated to Southeast Asia during the Holocene period and evolved into the Austronesian people (associated with the Haplogroup O1 (Y-DNA) genetic marker), a group of Malayo-Polynesian-speaking people including those from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Malagasy, the non-Han Chinese Taiwanese Aboriginals.^[28]

Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano of the University of the Philippines, in 2001 postulates that the present indigenous Filipinos are products of the long process of evolution and movement of people.^[29]

A page from the Boxer Codex showing a Filipino couple bedecked in gold thread. The use of Gold as jewelry and household purposes was common in any social castes of the pre-colonial Filipino society.

Fluctuations in ancient shorelines between 150,000 BP and 17,000 BP connected to the Malay Archipelago region with Maritime Southeast Asia and the Philippines. This may have enabled ancient migrations into the Philippines from Maritime Southeast Asia approximately 50,000 BP to 13,000 BP.^[30]

A January 2009 study of language phylogenies by R. D. Gray at UCLA published in Science (journal), suggests that the population expansion of Austronesian peoples was triggered by rising sea levels of the Sunda shelf at the end of the last ice age in a two-pronged expansion, which moved north through the Philippines and into Taiwan, while a second expansion prong spread east along the New Guinea coast and into Oceania and Polynesia.^[31]

The Negritos are likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia.^[32] Multiple studies also show that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians.^[32][33] They were the ancestors of such tribes of the Philippines as the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and other tribes of the Philippines, today making up .03% of the total Philippine population.^[34]

The majority of present day Filipinos are a product of the long process of evolution and movement of people.^[35] After the mass migrations through land bridges, migrations continue by boat during the maritime era of South East Asia. The ancient races became homogenized into the Malayo-Polynesians which colonized the majority of the Philippine, Malaysian and Indonesian Archipelagos.^[29]

Since at least the 3rd century, various ethnic groups established several communities. These were formed by the assimilation of various native Philippine kingdoms.^[34] South Asian and East Asian people together with the people of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, traded with Filipinos and introduced and passed Hinduism and Buddhism to the native tribes of the Philippines. Most of these people stayed in the Philippines where they were slowly absorbed into the local society.

Many of the barangay (tribal municipalities) were, to a varying extent, under the de-jure jurisprudence of one of several neighboring empires, among them the Malay Sri Vijaya, Javanese Majapahit, Brunei, Melaka, Indian Chola, Persia, Arabia, Seljuq/Turkish Ottoman, Greece, Funan, Champa, and Khmer empires, although de-facto had established their own independent system of rule. Trading links with Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Malay Peninsula, Indochina, China, India, Arabia, Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom flourished during this era. A thalassocracy had thus emerged based on international trade.

Even scattered barangays, through the development of inter-island and international trade, became more culturally homogeneous by the 4th century. Hindu-Buddhist culture and religion flourished among the noblemen in this era.

In the period between the 7th to the beginning of the 15th centuries, numerous prosperous centers of trade had emerged, including the Kingdom of Namayan which flourished alongside Manila Bay,^[36][36][37] Cebu, Iloilo,^[38] Butuan, the Kingdom of Sanfotsi situated in Pangasinan, the Kingdom of Luzon now known as Pampanga which specialized in trade with China, Japan and the Kingdom of Ryukyu in Okinawa, and most of what is now known as South East Asia.

From the 9th century onwards, a large number of Arab traders from the Middle East settled in the Malay Archipelago and intermarried with the local Malay, Indonesian, and Filipino populations.^[39]

The Laguna Copperplate Inscription: The oldest known legal document from the Dynasty of Tondo.

In the years leading up to 1000 C.E., there were already several maritime societies existing in the islands but there was no unifying political state encompassing the entire Philippine archipelago. Instead, the region was dotted by numerous semi-autonomous barangays (settlements ranging is size from villages to city-states) under the sovereignty of competing thalassocracies ruled by datus, rajahs or sultans^[40] or by upland agricultural societies ruled by "petty plutocrats". States such as the Kingdom of Maynila and Namayan, the Dynasty of Tondo, the Confederation of Madyaas, the rajahnates of Butuan and Cebu and the sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu existed alongside the highland societies of the Ifugao and Mangyan.^{[41][42][43][44]} Some of these regions were part of the Malayan empires of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Brunei.^[45][46][47]

By the 13th century, Arab and Indian Missionaries/Traders from Malaysia and Indonesia brought Islam to the Philippines, where it both replaced and was practiced together with indigenous religions. Most indigenous tribes of the Philippines practiced a mixture of Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Native villages, called barangays were populated by locals called Timawa (Middle Class/ freemen) and Alipin (servants & slaves). They were ruled by Rajahs, Datus and Sultans, a class called Maginoo (royals) and defended by the Maharlika (Lesser nobles, royal warriors and aristocrats).^[34] These Royals and Nobles are descended from native Filipinos with varying degrees of Indo-aryan, East Asian, Dravidian, Arab and even Greek ancestry which is evident in today's DNA analysis among South East Asian Royals who mostly claim their ancestry from the Alexandrian Era. This tradition continued among the Spanish and Portuguese traders who also intermarried with the local populations.^[48]

Colonial influence[link]

A mestiza de sangley woman in a photograph by Francisco Van Camp, c. 1875.

The arrival of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 began a period of European colonization. During the period of Spanish colonialism beginning in the 16th century, the Philippines was governed by Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government officials and religious missionaries born in Spain and Mexico. Most Spaniards who settled were of Andalusian ancestry but there were also Catalonian, Moorish and Basque settlers. The Peninsulares (governors born in Spain), mostly of Castilian ancestry, settled in the islands to govern their territory. Most settlers married the daughters of rajahs, datus and sultans (chieftains) to reinforce the colonization of the islands. The Ginoo and Maharlika castes (royals and nobles) in the Philippines prior to the arrival of the Spanish formed the privileged Principalia (nobility) during the Spanish period. In the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of Japanese traders also migrated to the Philippines and assimilated into the local population.^[49]

A caricature of General Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero taken from the Catalan newspaper la Campana de Gràcia. He became the only Spanish prime minister of Filipino descent.

As a part of the Seven years war, the British forces occupied Manila between 1762 and 1764. However, the only part of the Philippines which the British held was the Spanish colonial capital of Manila and the principal naval port Cavite, both of which are located on Manila Bay. The war was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1763). At the end of the war the treaty signatories were not aware that Manila had been taken by the British and was being administered as a British colony. Consequently, no specific provision was made for the Philippines. Instead they fell under the general provision that all other lands not otherwise provided for be returned to the Spanish Empire.^[50] Many Indian Sepoy troops and their British captains mutinied and were left in Manila and some parts of the Ilocos and Cagayan. The ones in Manila settled at Cainta, Rizal and the ones at the north settled at Isabela. Most were assimilated into the local population.

The arrival of the Spaniards to the Philippines attracted new waves of immigrants from China, and maritime trade flourished during the Spanish period. The Spanish recruited thousands of Chinese migrant workers called sangleys to build the colonial infrastructure in the islands. Most Chinese immigrants converted to Christianity, intermarried with the locals, and adopted Hispanized names and customs and became fully assimilated. The children of unions between Filipinos and Chinese that became fully assimilated were designated in official records as mestizos de sangley but viewed themselves as Filipinos. The Chinese mestizos were largely confined to the Binondo area until the 19th century. However, they eventually spread all over the islands, and became traders, moneylenders and landowners.

A total of 110 Manila-Acapulco galleons set sail between 1565 to 1815, during the Philippines trade with Mexico. Until 1593, three or more ships would set sail annually from each port. European criollos, mestizos and mulattos of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Mexican descent from the Americas, mostly from Latin America came in contact with the Filipinos. Japanese, Indian and Cambodian Christians who fled from religious persecutions and killing fields also settled in the Philippines during the 17th until the 19th centuries.

With the inauguration of the Suez Canal in 1867, Spain opened the Philippines for international trade. European investors such as British, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Russian, Italian and French were among those who settled in the islands as business increased. More Spaniards arrived during the next century. Many of these European migrants intermarried with local mestizos and some assimilated with the indigenous population. Their enterprises became the precursors of the current Chinese and oriental dominated major corporations and conglomerates of the country.

Water carriers in Iloilo, 1899.

After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, Filipino general, Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence on 12 June while general Wesley Merritt became the first American governor of the Philippines. On 10 December 1898, the Treaty of Paris formally ended the war, with Spain ceding the Philippines and other colonies to the United States in exchange for $20 million dollars.^[51][52] After the Philippine–American War, the United States civil governance was established in 1901, with William Howard Taft as the first American Governor-General.^[53] A number of Americans settled in the islands and thousands of interracial marriages between Americans and Filipinos have taken place since then. Due to the strategic location of the Philippines, as many as 21 bases and 100,000 military personnel were stationed there since the United States first colonized the islands in 1898. These bases were decommissioned in 1992 after the end of the Cold War, but left behind thousands of Amerasian children.^[54] The country gained independence from the United States in 1946. The Pearl S. Buck International Foundation estimates there are 52,000 Amerasians scattered throughout the Philippines. In addition, numerous Filipino men enlisted in the US Navy and made careers in it, often settling with their families in the United States. Some of their second or third generation-families returned to the country.

Filipino students from Lamitan.

Following its independence, the Philippines has seen both small and large-scale immigration into the country, mostly involving Americans, British, Europeans, and some Chinese and Japanese peoples. After WWII, South Asians continued to migrate into the islands. Most of which assimilated and avoided the local social stigma instilled by the early Spaniards against them by keeping a low profile and/or by trying to pass as Spanish mestizos. This was also true for the Chinese and Arab immigrants, majority of whom are also post WWII arrivals. More recent migrations into the country by Koreans, Persians, Brazilians, and other Southeast Asians have contributed to the enrichment of the country's ethnic landscape, language and culture. Centuries of migration, diaspora, assimilation, and cultural diversity made most Filipinos open-minded in embracing interracial marriage and multiculturalism. Philippine nationality law is currently based upon the principles of your place of birth or origin, and therefore descent from a parent who is a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines is the primary method of acquiring national citizenship. Birth in the Philippines to foreign parents does not in itself confer Philippine citizenship, although RA9139, the Administrative Naturalization Law of 2000, does provide a path for administrative naturalization of certain aliens born in the Philippines.

Filipinos of mixed ethnic origins are still referred to today as mestizos. However in common parlance, mestizos are only used to refer to Filipinos mixed with Spanish or any other European ancestry. Filipinos mixed with any foreign ethnicities are named depending on their predominant physical aspect.

Genetic studies[link]

Migration of the Austronesian peoples and their languages based on archeological studies.

A study by Leeds University and published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, showed that mitochondrial DNA lineages have been evolving within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) since modern humans arrived approximately 50,000 years ago. Population dispersals occurred at the same time as sea levels rose, which resulted in migrations from the Philippine Islands to as far north as Taiwan within the last 10,000 years.^[55]

Filipinos are an Austronesian people, a linguistic and genetic group that includes other ethnicities from maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and the Pacific islands.^[56] Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this study), is commonly found among Filipinos and is shared with other Austronesian-speaking populations.^[57][58] After the 16th century, the colonial period saw the influx of limited genetic influence from Europeans and other populations from the Americas, Oceania, and Asia.

Filipinos also exhibit Sundadonty.^[59] The latter is regarded as having a more generalised morphology and having a longer ancestry than its offspring, Sinodonty. Dental morphology provides clues to prehistoric migration patterns, with Sinodont dental patterns occurring in East Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and the Americas. Sundadont patterns occur in mainland and maritime Southeast Asia as well as Oceania.^[60] Filipinos are also one of the Austronesian ancestors of modern Oceanic populations, including the Māori people of New Zealand. The current predominant theory of Austronesian migrations holds that Austronesians are believed to have reached Oceania through successive southward and eastward migrations ultimately from Taiwan.^[61]

Languages[link]

Austronesian languages have been spoken in the Philippines for thousands of years. According to a recent study by Mark Donohue of the Australian National University and Tim Denham of Monash University, there is no linguistic evidence for an orderly north-to-south dispersal of the Austronesian languages from Taiwan through the Philippines and into Island Southeast Asia (ISEA).^[62] Many adopted words from Sanskrit were incorporated during the Indian cultural influence starting from the 5th century BC, in common with its Southeast Asian neighbours. Starting in the second half of the 16th century, Spanish was the official language of the country for the more than three centuries that the islands were governed through Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Spanish was the preferred language among Ilustrados and educated Filipinos in general. Significant disagreement exists, however, on the extent Spanish use beyond that. It has been argued that the Philippines were less hispanized than Canaries and America, with Spanish only being adopted by the ruling class involved in civil and judicial administration and culture. Spanish was the language of only approximately ten percent of the Philippine population when Spanish rule ended in 1898.^[63] As a lingua franca or creole language of Filipinos, major languages of the country like Chavacano, Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, and Ilocano assimilated many different words and expressions from Castilian Spanish.

In sharp contrast, another view is that the ratio of the population which spoke Spanish as their mother tongue in the last decade of Spanish rule was 10% or 14%.^[64] An additional 60% is said to have spoken Spanish as a second language until World War II.^[65] Various sources reported the widespread use of Spanish by the Philippine population, among them the secretary of education during the period of US rule, as well as Henry Ford, who reported what he observed and the Filipino speech that he heard in his travels through the archipelago, sixteen of whose provinces where said to be Spanish-speaking in 1906.^[64]

In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced universal education, creating free public schooling in Spanish.^[66] It was also the language of the Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution proclaimed it as the "official language" of the First Philippine Republic. Spanish continued to be the predominant lingua franca used in the islands and formed a second language for most Filipinos before and during the American colonial regime. Following the American occupation of the Philippines and the imposition of English, the overall use of Spanish declined gradually, especially after the 1940s.

According to Ethnologue, there are about 180 languages spoken in the Philippines.^[67] The Constitution of the Philippines designates Filipino (which is based on Tagalog^[68][69]) as the national language and designates both Filipino and English as official languages. Regional languages are designated as auxiliary official languages. The constitution also provides that Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.^[70]

Other Philippine languages in the country with at least 320,000 native speakers include Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, Chavacano (Spanish creole), Northern Bicol, Pangasinan, Southern Bicol, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a, Tausug, Surigaonon, Masbatenyo, Aklanon, and Ibanag. The 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet, adopted in 1987, is the official writing system.^[71]

Religion[link]

Main article: Religion in the Philippines

A 2004 California wedding between a Filipina bride and a Nigerian groom.

Most Filipinos are Roman Catholics. About eighty percent of the total Filipino population follows the Roman Catholic faith. Historically, the ancient Filipinos were Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims. The Spanish arrival converted a vast majority of the Filipinos to Roman Catholicism. There are also large groups of Protestants and members of the Iglesia ni Kristo, an independent branch of Christianity unique only to the Philippines. Five to ten percent of Filipinos still follow the Islamic religion. The Muslims in the Philippines are situated in southwestern Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. The Filipino Muslims call themselves the Moros, which is a Spanish word that refers to the Moors, a Muslim empire that had once ruled Spain. Although the Filipino Moros and Arab Moors have no cultural connection, other than following Islam. Indigenous groups like the Aeta are Animists. Four to five percent of Filipinos also follow the Buddhist religion. These are mostly the ethnic Chinese and Chinese-Filipinos living in Metro Manila.^[72]

Diaspora[link]

Filipinos form a minority ethnic group in the Americas, Europe, Oceania,^[73][74] the Middle East, and other countries in the world.

There are an estimated four million Americans of Filipino ancestry in the United States, and more than 300,000 American citizens in the Philippines.^[75]

Filipinos make up about half of the entire population of the Northern Marianas Islands, an American territory in the North Pacific Ocean, and a large proportion of the populations of Guam, Palau, and the Malaysian state of Sabah.^[74]

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: People of the Philippines

• Demographics of the Philippines
• Ethnic groups in the Philippines
• List of Filipinos
• List of Filipino athletes

Publications[link]

• Peter Bellwood (July 1991). "The Austronesian Dispersal and the Origin of Languages". Scientific American 265 (1): 88–93. DOI:10.1038/scientificamerican0791-88. 
• Bellwood, Peter; Fox, James; & Tryon, Darrell (1995). The Austronesians: Historical and comparative perspectives. Department of Anthropology, Australian National University. ISBN 0-7315-2132-3. 
• Peter Bellwood (1998). "Taiwan and the Prehistory of the Austronesians-speaking Peoples". Review of Archaeology 18: 39–48. 
• Peter Bellwood & Alicia Sánchez-Mazas (June 2005). "Human Migrations in Continental East Asia and Taiwan: Genetic, Linguistic, and Archaeological Evidence". Current Anthropology 46 (3): 480–485. DOI:10.1086/430018. 
• David Blundell. "Austronesian Disperal". Newsletter of Chinese Ethnology 35: 1–26. 
• Robert Blust (1985). "The Austronesian Homeland: A Linguistic Perspective". Asian Perspectives 20: 46–67. 
• Peter Fuller (2002). "Asia Pacific Research". Reading the Full Picture. Canberra, Australia: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. http://rspas.anu.edu.au/qb/articleFile.php?searchterm=3-4-3. Retrieved 28 July 2005. 
• "Homepage of linguist Dr. Lawrence Reid". http://www2.hawaii.edu/~reid/. Retrieved 28 July 2005. 
• Malcolm Ross & Andrew Pawley (1993). "Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history". Annual Review of Anthropology 22: 425–459. DOI:10.1146/annurev.an.22.100193.002233. 
• Scott, William Henry (1984). Prehispanic Source Materials for the study of Philippine History. New Day Publishers. ISBN 978-971-10-0227-5. http://books.google.com/?id=bR2XAQAACAAJ. Retrieved 2008-08-05.  ISBN 978-971-10-0226-8.
• John Edward Terrell (Dec. 2004). "Introduction: 'Austronesia' and the great Austronesian migration". World Archaeology 36 (4): 586–591. DOI:10.1080/0043824042000303764. 
• Zaide, Sonia M. (1999) [1994]. The Philippines: A Unique Nation. All-Nations Publishing. ISBN 971-642-071-4. http://books.google.com/?id=otdEGQAACAAJ. 

References[link]

• Penny, Ralph; Penny, Ralph John (2002). A history of the Spanish language (22nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-01184-6. http://books.google.com/?id=ZjcrhyQlFa0C 

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Colbie Caillat
Colbie Caillat performing in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Colbie Marie Caillat
Born	(1985-05-28) May 28, 1985 (age 27) Newbury Park, California, United States
Origin	Malibu, California, United States
Genres	Pop, folk pop, pop rock, blue-eyed soul
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist
Instruments	Vocal, acoustic guitar, ukulele, piano
Years active	2007–present
Labels	Universal Republic Records
Website	www.colbiecaillat.com

Colbie Marie Caillat (ⁱ/ˈkoʊlbi kəˈleɪ/; born May 28, 1985) is an American pop singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist from Malibu, California. She debuted in 2007 with Coco, which included hit singles "Bubbly" and "Realize". In 2008, she recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, "Lucky", which won a Grammy. Caillat released her second album, Breakthrough, in August 2009. Breakthrough was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards. She was also part of the group that won Album of the Year at the 2010 Grammys for her background vocals and writing on Taylor Swift's Fearless album. She has sold over six million albums worldwide and sold over 10 million singles. In 2009, Billboard magazine's 94th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade.^[1]

Life and career[link]

Childhood and youth[link]

Caillat performing in Birmingham, Alabama

Caillat was born in Malibu, California, and grew up in Newbury Park, California. Her father, Ken Caillat, co-produced Fleetwood Mac's Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979) albums. When she was an infant, her parents gave her the nickname "Coco", which she would later name her debut album.^[2] Caillat took piano lessons as a child, but lacked significant inspiration until she turned 11 years old, when she became enthralled with Lauryn Hill's performance in Sister Act 2.^[3] She realized that she wanted to be a singer, and began taking vocal lessons, performing onstage for the first time in sixth grade.^[4] Since then she has covered the Roberta Flack song that Lauryn Hill immortalized, "Killing Me Softly", and Hill's own^{[citation needed]} "Tell Him" (an import bonus song from her solo debut album).

Caillat soon met producer Mikal Blue, who hired her to sing on techno songs used at fashion shows. Caillat began playing the acoustic guitar at age 19, and Blue helped her record her first song.^[3] She auditioned for American Idol but was rejected at the pre-audition stage and was unable to sing for the judges.^[5] The second time she auditioned for the show, she sang her own original song, "Bubbly", and was rejected once again. However, Caillat expressed gratitude at the judges' decision, saying "I was shy. I was nervous. I didn't look the greatest. I wasn't ready for it yet. I was glad, when I auditioned, that they said no."^[6] The popularity of Caillat's MySpace profile led her to become the number-one unsigned singer in her genre for four consecutive months.^[7]

[edit] 2007–2008: Coco

Caillat performing at The Malibu Inn during the Coco Summer Tour

Caillat performing at The Malibu Inn

Caillat's debut album, Coco was released in 2007. Her debut single "Bubbly" peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Pop 100. Two other singles followed, "Realize" (#20, Hot 100) and "The Little Things" (#94, Pop 100).^[8] After touring with The Goo Goo Dolls and Lifehouse in 2007, she was the supporting act for John Mayer on his 2008 Summer Tour.

In 2008, Caillat recorded a duet with Jason Mraz, called "Lucky," on his album, We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things.^[9] In August 2008, Caillat released a song and video for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics called "Somethin' Special".^[10] Caillat also sings on "You" by Schiller and appears in the music video. She has been involved in the soundtrack of the movie Imagine That; she and Mikal Blue cover the Beatles song "Here Comes the Sun". She is also featured in Colombian singer Juanes' album La vida... es un ratico (en vivo) in the song "Hoy Me Voy". In October 2008, the song "Midnight Bottle" was included in the soundtrack of Brazilian soap opera Três Irmãs. She also played herself on this soap opera and performing the song. Caillat provided background vocals for and co-wrote Taylor Swift's song "Breathe", on her album, Fearless.

[edit] 2009–2010: Breakthrough

Caillat on the red carpet at the 2009 American Music Awards

Caillat's second album, Breakthrough, was released in August 2009. Most of the album was co-written by Jason Reeves and features guitarist David Becker on two tracks. Becker has worked with Caillat's father Ken.^[11] Caillat had writer's block during the recording sessions, so she enlisted her friends Kara DioGuardi and Jason Reeves, and they went to Hawaii for three weeks, rented a beach house and wrote songs. The first single from Breakthrough, "Fallin' for You", was released in June. The second single, "I Never Told You," was released in February 2010. Caillat released two Christmas songs for the 2009 holiday season: the standard "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and the Beach Boys song "Merry Christmas, Baby".^[12]

Caillat was recognized as BMI's songwriter of the year. In July 2010, Caillat performed "God Bless America" during the seventh inning stretch at the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. In September 2010, Caillat performed the national anthem in the season opener game of the National Football League in New Orleans and a Monday Night Football game in Chicago. In December 2010, Caillat performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. In 2010, Caillat visited the Watkins Glen, New York shelter of Farm Sanctuary, an organization she supports.^[13]

[edit] 2011–present: All of You

Caillat with with longtime-collaborator Jason Reeves

Caillat's third album, All of You, was released on July 12, 2011. The first single, "I Do" was released in February. The second single, "Brighter Than the Sun", was released in June.^[14] Caillat performed an acoustic version of the National Anthem before the San Diego Chargers v Minnesota Vikings game at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego on September 11, 2011, during the day of remembrance for 9/11. Caillat performed "Brighter Than the Sun" on Disney Channel's Original Series So Random.

Caillat appeared in the third episode of the cancelled NBC television series The Playboy Club as 1960s singer Lesley Gore. In the episode broadcast on October 3, 2011, Caillat sang Gore's 1963 hit, "It's My Party".^[15] Cast for the part in August 2011,^[16] Caillat taped her portion of the episode in Chicago.^[17]

Discography[link]

• Coco (2007)
• Breakthrough (2009)
• All of You (2011)

Tours[link]

Caillat performing at The Nobel Peace Price Concert 2010

• 2008: John Mayer 2008 Summer Tour
• 2008: Coco Summer Tour
• 2008: Coco World Tour
• 2009/2010: Breakthrough World Tour
• 2011: All of You Summer Tour
• 2012: Co-Headlining Summer Tour with Gavin DeGraw

Filmography[link]