Southeast Asia: Migration of People

• Anthropologists formulate theories about the origins of humans in a region as a foundation to study other related matters.

Migration of People in Southeast Asia

• The Austronesians are a group of people from Southeast Asia or Oceania who speak or have ancestors who spoke the Austronesian language.
• Aside from the Polynesians of Oceania, Austronesians include indigenous Taiwanese, a large ethnic group in East Timor (Timor-Leste), Indonesia, and Malaysia.
• There are theories that the Austronesians are the origin of the population of the Philippines.

Mainland Origin Hypothesis by Bellwood

• Peter Bellwood, an archaeology and anthropology professor at the Australian National University, and Wilhelm Solheim II are proponents of the Mainland Origin Hypothesis.
• Bellwood's out-of-Taiwan hypothesis is based on linguistic similarities of people in Southeast Asia.
• From 4500 to 2000 BCE, agriculture development in China may have caused a population push, which led people to Taiwan.
• People may have developed their own language called Proto-Austronesian around 3,000 to 3,500 BCE.
• Around 2600 and 1500 BCE, a group began migrating south to the Philippines and continued to Sumatra and Java by 2000 BCE.
• Continued migration led to northern New Guinea around 1500 BCE, Samoa around 1200 BCE, and Easter Island, Hawaii, and Madagascar around 500 CE.
• Bellwood referred to all languages developed outside of Taiwan as Malayo-Polynesian
• He referred to the language developed in the Philippines and Indonesia as Western Malayo-Polynesian.
• The Malayo-Polynesian language did not exhibit innovative characteristics, unlike Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, which incorporated elements from other branches.
• The most widespread and well-known Malayo-Polynesian languages include Ilokano, Tagalog, and Cebuano in the Philippines; Malay, Acehnese, Toba Batak, Minangkabau, Sundanese, Javanese, Balinese, Buginese, Makasarese, and Malagasy in Indonesia.
• The Austronesian language family has the widest distribution of languages in the world geographically.
• Filipinos are descendants of Austronesians who remained in the Philippines while others migrated southward, then eastward and westward.
• According to Bellwood, the first inhabitants of the Philippines established the foundation of the country's population, which grew and developed.
• Austronesian-speaking people brought Neolithic culture to the Philippines, including their knowledge of agriculture, traditions, technology (such as tattooing), tool polishing, pottery, skills in building stilt houses, jade carving, wetland agriculture, and rock painting.
• They also introduced animal husbandry and farming methods, including rice or rice grains, bananas, coconuts, chickens, pigs, and dogs, which are commonly found in the Philippines and most of Southeast Asia.
• From 5000 BCE to 6000 BCE, groups of Indonesians and Malaysians arrived on the islands of the Philippines and settled, bringing their culture, traditions, and the Austronesian language.
• Over time, these were influenced by other languages, but the roots remained Austronesian.
• Because the Philippines is an archipelago of 7,641 islands, many Filipinos in each community developed their own languages or dialects.
• Filipino is significant to the country and is the national or official language.
• Filipino is the accepted form of the Tagalog language that has been influenced by other languages from Austronesian regions.
• There are currently 120 to 187 types of languages in the Philippines.
• All languages in the Philippines except Chavacano belong to the Austronesian language family.
• The Austronesian language is the backbone of the Filipino language; despite the amalgamation of cultural influences from Western colonizers, the languages of the Malay ancestors influenced it the most, shaping the unique and rich Filipino language.

Island Origin Hypothesis of Wilhelm Solheim II

• Wilhelm Solheim II stated Austronesian is the name of a language and a language family, and the more accurate term is Austronesian-Speaking people, because it is a group of languages instead of a group of people.
• Solheim II's concept of the Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network states that Nusantao is derived from "Nusa" which means south and "tan" means "people."
• The spread of the Austronesians occurred from the south to the north, originating from Sarawak and southern Mindanao.
• Solheim II emphasizes the cultural aspects of the people in Southeast Asia.
• The spread of language and culture in the mentioned lands resulted from long-term trade (The Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network) that took place between these lands 30,000 years ago instead of migration.
• Cultural similarities in Southeast Asia with the Hoabinhian, the ancient Korean Neolithic of South Korea, the ancient Jomon of Japan, and the Yayoi period of eastern Honshu demonstrate this.
• There are Japanese words related to agriculture that originated from Southeast Asia.
• The species of rice known as Javanica, which originated from Sarawak, Malaysia, can also be found in mainland China.
• The Nusanto Maritime and Communication Network began in 5000 BCE.