Negrito

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

Human skeletal remains dating from around 6,000 years ago and resembling the Negrito people have been discovered in Taiwan.[3]

Historically they engaged in trade with the local population but were also often subjected to slave raids while also paying tributes to the local Southeast Asian rulers and kingdoms since 724 AD.[4]

Batek family in Malaysia.

Most groups designated as "Negrito" lived as hunter-gatherers, while some also used agriculture, such as plant harvesting. Today most live assimilated to the majority population of their respective homeland. Discrimination and poverty are often problems, caused either by their lower social position, and or their hunter-gatherer lifestyles.[5]

Position of various ethnic groups considered "Negrito". Negritos and Oceanians are most closely related to East Asians followed by Native Americans.

Genetic studies showed that they descended from the same ancient East Eurasian meta-population which gave rise to modern East Asian peoples and Oceanian peoples,[6] and consist of several separate groups, as well as displaying genetic heterogeneity. The groups designated as "Negritos", form the indigenous population of Southeast Asia, but were largely absorbed into the more recent Austronesian peoples. The remainders form minority groups in geographically isolated regions.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

It has been found that the physical and morphological phenotypes of Negritos, such as short stature, a wide and snub nose, curly hair and dark skin, "are shaped by novel mechanisms for adaptation to tropical rainforests" through convergent evolution and positive selection, rather than a remnant of a shared common ancestor, as suggested previously by some researchers.[14][15][16][17]

• Andamanese peoples – People of Andaman archipelago
• Australo-Melanesian – Outdated grouping of human beings
• Mbabaram people – Aboriginal Australian people of the Atherton Tableland
• Melanesians – Broad ethnolinguistic classification

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Negritos". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman. The Negritos of Malaya. Cambridge [Eng.]: University Press, 1937.
• Benjamin, Geoffrey. 2013. 'Why have the Peninsular "Negritos" remained distinct?’ Human Biology 85: 445–484. [ISSN 0018-7143 (print), 1534-6617 (online)]
• Garvan, John M., and Hermann Hochegger. The Negritos of the Philippines. Wiener Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik, Bd. 14. Horn: F. Berger, 1964.
• Hurst Gallery. Art of the Negritos. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Hurst Gallery, 1987.
• Khadizan bin Abdullah, and Abdul Razak Yaacob. Pasir Lenggi, a Bateq Negrito Resettlement Area in Ulu Kelantan. Pulau Pinang: Social Anthropology Section, School of Comparative Social Sciences, Universití Sains Malaysia, 1974.
• Mirante, Edith (2014). The Wind in the Bamboo: Journeys in Search of Asia's 'Negrito' Indigenous Peoples. Bangkok, Orchid Press.
• Schebesta, P., & Schütze, F. (1970). The Negritos of Asia. Human relations area files, 1–2. New Haven, Conn: Human Relations Area Files.
• Armando Marques Guedes (1996). Egalitarian Rituals. Rites of the Atta hunter-gatherers of Kalinga-Apayao, Philippines, Social and Human Sciences Faculty, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
• Zell, Reg. About the Negritos: A Bibliography. Edition blurb, 2011.
• Zell, Reg. Negritos of the Philippines. The People of the Bamboo - Age - A Socio-Ecological Model. Edition blurb, 2011.
• Zell, Reg, John M. Garvan. An Investigation: On the Negritos of Tayabas. Edition blurb, 2011.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Negrito.

Wikisource has the text of the 1879 American Cyclopædia article Negritos.

• Negritos of Zambales—detailed book written by an American at the turn of the previous century holistically describing the Negrito culture
• Andaman.org: The Negrito of Thailand
• The Southeast Asian Negrito