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The Austronesian people are a population group in Oceania and Southeast Asia who speak or had ancestors who spoke one of the Austronesian languages. They form a diverse group of peoples inhabiting roughly half the globe, ranging from Madagascar to Easter Island.
History The original Austronesians from southern China crossed the strait of Taiwan and settled modern day Taiwan around 8000-4000 B.C.E.. Starting around 5000-2500 B.C.E., the large scale Austronesian expansion began. Population growth primarilly fueled this expansion. A society that gives prestige and a higher status to the descendants of a community's founder added more incentive to settle new lands. These first settlers landed in northern Luzon in the Philippines. Over the next thousand years up until 1500 BCE, their descendants started to spread south to the rest of the Philippine islands, Celebes (modern-day Sulawesi), northern Borneo, Moluccas (modern-day Maluku), and Java. The settlers in Moluccas sailed eastward and began to spread to the islands of Melanesia and Micronesia between 1200 BCE and 500 B.C.E. repectively. Those that spread westward reached Sumatra, the Malay peninsula and southern Vietnam by 500 B.C.E. The oceanic Austronesians reached Polynesia in 0 C.E. and Hawaii and Easter Island in 500 C.E. while those in the Indian Ocean finally reached Madagascar. They finally reach New Zealand by 1300 C.E.. Trade with India and China flourished within the first millennia C.E., which allowed the creation of Indianized states. Muslim traders began arriving during the 10th century and brought with them Islam as well as the sultanates. Europeans in search of spices later colonized most of Austronesia, starting from the 14th century, with British and Portuguese colonization of Malaysia, Portuguese and the Dutch colonization of Indonesia and East Timor, and the Spanish, and later, the American colonization of the Philippines. Meanwhile, the British, Germans, French, Americans, and Japanese began establishing spheres of influence within the Pacific Islands during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Japanese later invaded during World War II. The latter half of the 20th century initiated independence of modern day Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and many of the Pacific Island nations. Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines enjoyed a high rate of economic growth but the dictatorships of Suharto and Marcos were later established years after the independence of Indonesia and the Philippines, resulting in stagnation. Marcos' regime was toppled in 1986 and Suharto's rule ended in 1998 and the economies of the two countries are finally recovering but problems and challenges remain. The Asian financial crisis in the mid to late 1990s largely devastated the economies of the Austronesian nations in Southeast Asia. Most economic indicators are back to pre-crisis levels as of 2006. The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake hit Indonesia in 2004 killing 130,000 individuals with a worldwide total of 230,000 casualties and displacing at least a million people. Geographic Distribution Austronesian peoples consist of three primary groupings by name and geographic location. They are classified based on the Stanford University study described below: According to a recent Stanford University study, there is wide variety of paternal ancestry among the Austronesian peoples. Aside from few European introgression found in the Malay Archipelago (especially in Borneo and the Philippines) as well as in French Polynesia, the vast majority of Austronesian peoples are of autochthonous descent. They constitute the dominant ethnic group in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, the Pattani region of Thailand, and East Timor inside the Malay Archipelago, in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia inside Oceania, in Madagascar, and in the Cham areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, and China (the remnants of the Champa kingdom which covered central and southern Vietnam). An estimated 380,000,000 people around the world are thought of to be of Austronesian descent. Culture
Language Writing
Religion Indigenous religions were initiallly predominant. Mythologies vary by culture and geographical location, but are generally bound by the belief in an all-powerful Divine being. Other beliefs such as Ancestor Worship, Animism, and Shamanism are also practiced. Currently, many of these beliefs have gradually been replaced. Examples of native religions include: Anito, Gabâ, Kejawen, and the Māori religion. The moai of the Rapa Nui is another example since they are built to represent deceased ancestors. Southeast Asian contact with India and China allowed the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism. Later, Muslim traders introduced the Islamic faith during the 12th century. The European Age of Discovery brought Christianity to various parts of the region. Currently, the dominant religions are Christianity (East Timor, Madagascar, Pacific Islands, Philippines), Islam (Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei), and Hinduism (Indonesia and Fiji). Arts Body art is common, especially tatooing. Jars and pottery are also common. Those in closer to the Asian mainland are largely influenced by the chinese, indian and islamic forces. Elaborate rice terraces can be found in Indonesia and the Philippines, with the Banaue Rice Terraces a dramatic example. Music See also | ||||||||||||
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