Aeta
Aeta (pronounced Aïta), Agta or Ayta is a collective name for indigenous peoples who mainly live in the isolated, isolated mountain regions of the island of Luzon in the Philippines . There they are assigned to the Negritos , a group of people who have a dark brown to black skin color and are characterized by a small stature, a narrow body, curly hair, narrow noses and dark brown eyes. They are seen as the descendants of a much earlier wave of immigration to the archipelago, who may have been speaking Austronesian before the immigration People were native to the Philippines.
Origin of name
Etymological studies suggest that Aeta is derived from the word it , which has changed over time to itim or itom , which can be translated as "black" or "dark" in various Filipino languages.
During the Spanish colonial rule, all the locals were referred to as Negritos or "the little brown ones", whose appearance was more reminiscent of the inhabitants of the African continent than of South Sea islanders. The members of the Aeta also belonged to this class of people characterized as "Negrito". Various groups of the Aeta in northern Luzon are also known under the term “Pugut” or “Pugot”, a name that comes from the Ilokano language , which is spoken in the neighborhood of the Aeta. This term is a slang term for people with dark complexions and means something like "goblin" or "forest spirit".
history
The history of the Aeta is a source of controversy among anthropologists and archaeologists. The central question is when and how this ethnic group immigrated to the Philippines. One theory assumes that the Aeta are descendants of the indigenous people of the Philippines who, in contrast to the seafaring Austronesian neighboring peoples, reached the islands via land bridges that connected the present island state to the Asian mainland 30,000 years ago. Traditionally, the Aeta are a people of hunters and gatherers and are among the people who have the best conditions to survive in the jungle.
In contrast to the later immigrants, the Aeta resist any form of change (see also cold and hot cultures or options ). While the people have resisted the influence of other societies for hundreds of years, they have adapted to social, economic, cultural, and political pressures with remarkable resilience. In doing so, they created systems and structures within their culture that weaken rapid change. This was one reason why the Spanish attempt to relocate to reducciones , a form of reservation, failed during their reign .
The emergence and spread of mining, deforestation, illegal logging and slash and burn resulted in a steady decline in the indigenous indigenous population in all parts of the Philippines. In addition, there were natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and landslides, which meant that the indigenous peoples had to repeatedly leave their traditional areas. This also applied to the Aeta. Today this development has reached a point where their numbers are limited to only a few thousand individuals. The remaining groups are found mainly in the center of Luzon, where they live in hollows in the provinces of Zambales , Pampanga , Tarlac , Bataan and Nueva Ecija .
The culture and way of life that the Aeta have preserved over thousands of years are burdened by severe social and economic pressures exerted by the expansion of the civilization that surrounds them. Many members of the Aeta are nomads and only set up provisional accommodation consisting of two sharpened sticks that are stuck into the ground, leaned against a tree or ledge and covered with banana leaves. Some more modern aeta have now learned to live in villages on high plateaus and mountain clearances. They live there in houses made of bamboo and cogongrass.
For a long time, the indigenous peoples of the Philippines were not granted any right to state-guaranteed protection of their land rights and lifestyles. That changed in 1997 when Republic Law 8371, also known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act ( IPRA for short ), was passed, strengthening the rights of Aeta. In the fight for a land claim, the Aeta still have to take legal action. In 2005, the Aeta achieved a political victory when the Philippine government granted them 48 km² of land. This includes a protected area of the rainforest (Pamulaklakin Nature Park) and the mangrove swamps of Subic Bay (Subic Bay Nature Park) around the Pinatubo volcano .
Population science
The life expectancy of a born Aeta is just 16½ years, with only every third child reaching the age of 15 years. But even after that, life expectancy is only 27.3 years. Young women reach their full height (140 cm on average) by the age of 12 or 13. A scientific research program concerned the San Ildefonso Aeta, who live on the elongated San Ildefonso peninsula , separated from the mainland mass of Luzon by the Casiguran Sound . Their living habits were investigated in more detail in a 44-year series of studies, with particular focus on the birth and death rates and migratory movements.
Culture
language
Over time, the members of this ethnic group adopted the Austronesian languages of their island neighbors. In the course of time the dialects changed and developed into their own forms of language. These dialects include Mag-indi, Mag-antsi Abellen, Ambala and Mariveleño, in order of the number of speakers they speak.
Skills
The senses of the Aeta are highly developed. In particular, their sense of smell and their sense of direction can be described as exceptional. They are able to detect a snake by the smell it emits and they are able to identify different types of plants and their inflorescence by their scent alone.
Aeta women are also known across the country for their knowledge of herbal medicine.
religion
The traditional religion of the aeta, which is closely interwoven with everyday life, is still unbroken. Their world of belief includes a large number of spirits , mostly male. All living beings and also inanimate nature were created and are animated by spirit forces (→ animism ). For example, the Aeta des Pinatubo believe in various surrounding ghost beings such as Anito (good spirits) and Kamana (evil spirits) who inhabit their environment. Anito live in the woods, the tree trunks, in the bamboo, the streams and caves. Though benevolent, they can become evil and afflict a sinful person with unhappiness and illness. Gifts or offerings are necessary to regain grace in the mind. Other spirits can be found in the rivers , the seas , the sky , the mountains, the plains and other places.
They believe in Kaelwa or Kalola (soul), which inhabits the body as an independent unit. The soul is able to leave the body temporarily during the dream phase and finally leaves it behind after death. However, they have no specific conception of the afterlife. Some believe that the soul ascends to heaven, while others claim it is floating to the top of Pinatubo, which is one reason they worship the mountain.
In addition to the nature spirits , they believe in the spirits of recently deceased ancestors, who on the one hand are considered dangerous, but on the other hand are the guardian spirits of their descendants. An example: A hunter has great success, which he attributes to the help of his paternal guardian spirit. The spirit took possession of his son at times. The hunter becomes very tired as a result and other people who are in his vicinity can become ill through the "radiation" of the spirit. The ancestral spirits are said to enter their families' homes at night and bring them sickness and death. Sometimes small sacrifices are made to the spirits when something is taken from the forest or a garden is cleared. Both men and women can be spirit media who diagnose illnesses with the help of their "spirit friends" and treat them through medicinal herbs and simple prayers. In difficult cases, they perform séances , whereby the medium invokes a ghost until the medium goes into a trance that also spreads to the audience. The audience then enters into a dialogue with the mind to find out the cause of the disease.
The Aeta do not need a specific occasion for prayer , although there is a direct connection between intercession and their economic activities. On the night before they set out to collect mussels , the women perform a dance that can partly be understood as an apology to the marine animals and partly as a magic that is supposed to ensure their happiness in foraging for food. In the same way, the men pay homage to the bees by staging a specific dance before an upcoming hunt for honey. Pig hunting should also be positively influenced by dancing and, if successful, should be a thank you. In contrast to many other tribal peoples in the world, however, religious considerations do not play a major role.
Thomas N. Headland, who has researched the Aeta for a long time, believes he recognizes a god of the Aeta who can be regarded as omnipotent as in monotheism , since he is not part of the local spirit world and is above it. Among the Aeta on Mount Pinatubo this supreme god is called "Apo Namalyari" , whereby the Mamanua in turn worship "Magbabaya" . Here the influence of the other Filipino "old religions" is very likely recognizable. The cosmology of the Aeta as well as their social organization and worldview is a simple, egalitarian version of the neighboring non-Christian cosmologies. Moreover, the animistic belief was syncretistically influenced by Catholicism early on .
According to the ongoing surveys of the evangelical-fundamentalist conversion network Joshua Project , an average of 69% of the Aeta groups still profess their ancestral religions. For many of these tribes it is over 90% of the members.
dress
Their traditional clothing is kept very simple. For example, young women put fabric around their hips as wrap skirts, while older women wear clothes made of tree bark, which lie against the body between their legs and are held by a rope that is tied around their hips. Older men wear simple genital cords.
Nowadays, however, one encounters many Aeta who have approximated western customs and are dressed in T-shirts, pants and plastic sandals.
Craft
The Aeta are skilled weavers and plasters. Women weave almost exclusively winnowers and mats. Household items are usually made of coconut, shells and bamboo, while baskets are also made of bamboo or rattan. The manufacture of bangles is reserved for men. They also make raincoats out of palm leaves, the lower part of which is placed around the neck of the wearer and the top of which spreads around the body like a fan.
Art and jewelry
A traditional form of body decoration is scarification , the wearing of decorative scars ( tuktuk ). The Aeta deliberately inflict wounds on the back, arms, chest, legs, hands, calves and stomach, which they then irritate with fire, lime and other agents so that effective wounds develop. (see also: Filipino Tribal Tattoos )
The filing and sharpening of the teeth ( tayad ) is another "decorative disfigurement" . With the help of knives or machetes, the Dumagat work their teeth towards the end of puberty. The teeth turn black a few years later.
In general, the aeta adorn themselves with objects that are typical for people who meet their needs solely from the nature around them. Flowers and leaves are used as ear plugs for certain occasions, and belts, necklaces and collars are made of braided rattan with the bristles of wild boars worked into them. Both men and women wear necklaces and beads made from seeds and bones. The baggery , a collar made of rattan and grass, is generally worn by men.
music
Their entertainment consists of singing and dancing, with their musical instruments being sophisticated. The Aeta have a musical culture that includes different types of agung ensembles: music-making groups who use large hanging, carried or held hump gongs for their performances on which they play their melodies.
The other instruments of the Aeta are the tabengbeng , a two-string bamboo tube zither , the kulibaw , a bamboo jaw harp related to the Indonesian genggong , a guitar with five strings made of solid wood and the bamboo flute bulongodyong .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Agta Demographic Database: Chronicle of a Hunter-Gatherer Community in Transition p. 24 ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.6 MB)
- ↑ a b Science: Volume 319, Issue 5859, January 4 2008. Editors' Choice: Highlights of the recent literature: Live Fast, Die Young by Caroline Ash
- ↑ a b c d Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences December 18, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 51 | 20216-20219 Life history trade-offs explain the evolution of human pygmies, by Andrea Bamberg Migliano, Lucio Vinicius, and Marta Mirazón Lahr ( Memento from April 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ A b Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences December 18, 2007 | vol. 104 | no. 51 | 20216-20219 Life history trade-offs explain the evolution of human pygmies, by Andrea Bamberg Migliano, Lucio Vinicius, and Marta Mirazón Lahr
- ↑ The Telegraph: Pygmies life expectancy is between 16 and 24, By Roger Highfield, Science Editor, Last Updated: 10:01 pm GMT 10/12/2007
- ^ Population Dynamics of a Philippine Rain Forest People: The San Ildefonso Agta by John D. Early and Thomas N. Headland
- ↑ a b c d e f g pinatubo aeta by Khristin Fabian ( Memento from February 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Richard B. Lee and Richard Daly (eds.): The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers. 4th edition, Cambridge University Press, New York 2010 (first printed 1999), ISBN 978-0-521-60919-7 . P. 292.
- ↑ a b c Göran Burenhult (Hrsg.): Illustrated history of mankind. Volume: Primitive people today. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0745-8 (Original: Traditional Peoples Today , Harpercollins 1994). P. 72f.
- ↑ Raymond L. Patterson, Gemma T. Domondon, Brenda N. Sumang: Indigenous Dances of Aetas. In: Trames , 22 (72/67), 2, 2018, pp. 159–172, here p. 161
- ↑ Joshua Project: Philippines ( Memento from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (Aggay-, Agta- […], Alta- […], Atta- […], Ayta- […] in Philippines), accessed on 30 May 2016.
