mestizo
Mestizo ( French Métis , Portuguese mestiço , Spanish mestizo , English Mestee, from late Latin mixticius "half-breed") referred to in the German descendants of Europeans and the indigenous population , especially in Latin America .
The name comes from the Romance languages and came up during the colonial era . Today's usage of language differs considerably in different countries and languages. In Brazilian, mestiço can be translated as “mixed race” or refer specifically to the descendants of European and Afro-Brazilian parents. The largest population groups, known as mestizos, are found in Latin America .
The term "Mestize" in the German-speaking area
In German, the term used to refer to descendants of whites and indigenous peoples in Latin America, while descendants of a black and a white parent were referred to as mulattos .
Nowadays a designation of different phenotypes of humans (in common parlance also “ races ”) is generally rejected as politically incorrect . In the opinion of critics, the term “mestizo” comes from the colonial era and from its time anthropological and racial ideas. As a sub-form of the designation " Mischling ", mestizo is classified as racist .
Spanish speaking Latin America and the Caribbean
In the caste system of colonial Latin America (system of castas ), children with one parent of European and the other of Indian origin were originally called mestizo . Children whose parents were both mestizo received this name, while other names were used for children with a different mixture ratio, such as castizo , cuarterón de indio and cholo . Nowadays all people with European and Indian ancestry are called mestizos, but depending on the region, the term is perceived as either discriminatory or racist, but elsewhere it is also used as a self-term. Other terms such as mulatto or morena (female form) or moreno (male form) are used for people of African-European origin .
In Chile and Costa Rica , mestizos and people of European origin are counted as one ethnic group. Genetic studies have shown that 65% of Chileans have Indian and European ancestors, but people of purely Spanish ancestry are also not uncommon. In Argentina , the proportion of people with mixed origins is 56% according to genetic tests, but the proportion of Indian characteristics is only clear at 13%. Mestizo are only mentioned here as the mixed descendants of Indians and Africans. The residents of Puerto Rico see themselves as a white population, although genetic research shows that at least 60% have Indian ancestors. The ethnic-national designation Puerto Rican has a greater meaning here than an ethnic-racial classification. In Honduras, Panama, and to a lesser extent Mexico, the mestizos also have a proportion of African descent.
In Mexico and Peru, mestizo is also used in a cultural sense. People who live in the traditional Indian way are called mestizo, e.g. B. with clothing, customs or Indian languages. In addition, most of the Mexicans of African descent are referred to as mestizo because of their adherence to African traditions rather than their origins. Otherwise they are often referred to as ladino , corresponding to the “European” inhabitants. This cultural classification sometimes leads to irritations when dividing the population according to origin, in the case of Mexico a mestizo share of up to 80% arises, since the Indian population is simply included. The numbers for Peru and Mexico are only estimates anyway, as census does not make a difference in ethnicity. The majority of mestizos speak Spanish or English depending on their home country.
In most Latin American countries, mestizos constitute the majority or a large proportion of the population:
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Brazil
In Brazil , the word mestiço is commonly used for people of mixed origins. Their share in the population is given as 38.5%. People of European-Indian descent are called caboclos or somewhat outdated mamelucos , people of African-Indian descent are called cafuso / cafuzo . The June 27 is the Brazilian state of Amazonas as Dia do Mestiço ( day of mestizos committed).
Canada
In Canada , the Métis are recognized as a separate ethnic group. They are considered indigenous people of Canada, but not as a First Nation , which gives them a special legal position. They are the descendants of Indians, mainly Cree , Ojibway and Saulteaux , and French and English immigrants. Its history goes back to the 17th century. They were recognized as a separate people in the early 18th century. They live in Manitoba , Alberta and Saskatchewan , parts of Ontario , British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, and parts of the northern United States such as North Dakota and Montana . They traditionally speak the mixed language Michif , which originated from French and the language of the Cree. According to the 2001 census, Canada has around 292,000 Métis. The number of Métis is estimated at a total of 300,000 to 700,000.
United States of America
In the USA , descendants of Europeans and Indians who come from Latin America are referred to as mestizo , while the term mixed-blood is used for "native" . One ethnic group recognized today as an indigenous group are the Genízaros , who descend from Hispanic Indians and Spaniards. The general name is multiracial . Some of the Mexican Americans from the southwest of the USA, who originally belonged to Mexico, refer to themselves as metizo , especially the Chicano group .
Of the more than 35 million Hispanics who were counted in the 2000 census in the USA, 42.2% described themselves as belonging to "another race", 47.9% classified themselves as white Hispanics . 6.3% of Hispanics identified themselves as coming from several races.
A historical figure with mixed-blood in the USA was for example Jean Baptiste Charbonneau , who was depicted on a dollar coin with his Indian mother Sacagawea .
There are many Mestee groups in the American Southeast. Most are small, but some, like the Lumbee and Melungeon , include many members. The Melungeon are an ethnic group that lives in the Appalachians . Their members come from several ethnic groups, presumably from Europeans, Africans and Indians.
Philippines
In the early Spanish colonial times, mestizo only referred to people of mixed Filipino - Spanish or Filipino- Mexican origin. The meaning soon changed to a synonym for "mixed races". Today, all Filipinos with ancestors from different ethnic groups are considered mestizos . A genetic test found that 3.6% of the Filipino population has Spanish, Mexican, or other European ancestry. There are also around 300,000 Sino-Filipino and 20,000 Japanese- Filipino mestizos here. People of mixed Asian origin are also called chinito . Other names for people of Chinese-Filipino origin are sangley or tsinoy . People of Hispanic-Chinese origin are called tornatras . In the Philippines, unlike in Latin America, the mestizos managed to gain political and economic power early on. One reason was the only small group of insular Filipinos of purely Spanish origin.
In the 19th century, most movements and revolts against the Spanish colonial power were led by Filipino mestizos - the national hero José Rizal , a Filipino-Chinese mestizo, should be mentioned . This placed them in a good position to continue to play a crucial role after independence from the United States. The first President of the First Philippine Republic , Emilio Aguinaldo , was a Chinese Filipino, and the first President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines , Manuel L. Quezón , was a Spanish Filipino.
Today the mestizos are one of the smallest minorities in the Philippines, but still control the economy and politics. Spanish Filipinos made up the majority of the upper and middle classes for a long time and mixed little with other ethnic groups. Many hold high positions in politics, business and industry, but also in sport. The Chinese Filipinos also belong to the upper and middle classes and control large parts of the Philippine economy.
East Timor
Descendants from relationships between the Portuguese and the original population of East Timor are called mestiços . As in the Philippines, the mestizos have a great influence on the economy and politics. They were already part of the growing elite during the colonial days and occasionally even had access to Portuguese universities. In 1974 they founded the first parties in East Timor. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate José Ramos-Horta is mestiço . Likewise the influential Carrascalão family . 1,400 (as of 2015) of the well over one million East Timorese residents name Portuguese as their mother tongue. Many East Timorese have lived in Australia since the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia in 1974. Others have fled to Mozambique or Portugal. Some returned to their old homeland when they gained independence.
After the large-scale invasion of the interior of Timor by the Portuguese in 1642, the immigration of the Topasse (also called Bidau or black Portuguese ) to Timor increased. The topasse were descendants of Portuguese soldiers, sailors and traders who married the wives of Solor and Larantuka . They decisively determined the developments on Timor in the 17th and 18th centuries and controlled the sandalwood trade . They were supported by the Dominicans . The center of the Topasse was Lifau , the main base of the Portuguese on Timor at that time. The topasse formed an important power factor in the struggle for rule over the island between the Dutch , Portuguese and Timorese. The administrators of the districts were almost exclusively mestizo at the end of the Portuguese colonial era. Only one of the 13 was European.
The Portuguese Creole language of East Timor, Português de Bidau , died out in the 1960s. The speakers gradually started using standard Portuguese. Bidau was spoken almost exclusively by the Topasse in the Bidau district , in the east of the capital Dili .
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka , too , descendants of the Portuguese and local people ( Sinhalese and Tamils ) were called mestiço or casados . Its story begins in the 16th century after Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to India. When the Dutch conquered the shores of what was then Ceylon, the mestiços sought refuge in the Kingdom of Kandy , which remained under Sinhalese control inland. In the 18th century, the mestiços sometimes mixed with the Dutch. These descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch, Tamils and Sinhalese are called Burgher (0.2% of the population). Some of them still speak Portuguese today, others Dutch , which is why a distinction is made between Dutch and Portuguese Burgher. In the rural regions, the Portuguese had a significant influence on the society, culture and administration of Sri Lanka. At least 1000 words in the Sinhala language come from Portuguese.
Other countries in East Asia
About one percent of Macau's residents are of mixed Portuguese-Chinese origins. Here this ethnic group is called macaense . Sometimes all Macau residents are referred to as macaense . The actual macaense make up the affluent class in the former Portuguese colony. They speak their own Creole language , which is called Patuá or Macanesian (Macaista Chapado) . Before Macau's return to China in 1999, many macaense emigrated to Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Peru and the USA.
In Goa , the former Portuguese-India , people of Portuguese-Indian were also referred to as mestiço . Today, despite their Portuguese ancestry, they are called Anglo Indians , which includes all those whose male ancestors were directly European.
In Malacca , which was over a hundred years under Portuguese rule, still lives a minority who speak a Portuguese Creole. Traditions such as Intrudu (a water festival at the beginning of Christian Lent), the traditional Branyu dance and the Santa Cruz street festival still exist today.
Other mestizos of Portuguese origin in Southeast Asia live on the Indonesian island of Flores .
In 1665 the Dutch East India Company built a military base on Kisar . Common descendants of the European soldiers and locals still live on the island today. The Mestiezen van Kisar are clearly distinguishable from the original population due to their European family names: Joostenz, Wouthyusen, Caffin, Lerrick, Peelman, Lander, Ruff, Bellmin-Belder, Coenradi, van Delsen, Schilling and Bakker. The term mestizo is still worn with pride here. The Dutch counterpart to the Portuguese topasse (see chapter East Timor ) in western Timor and its neighboring islands were the Mardick .
Africa
The archipelagos São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde were uninhabited before the Portuguese voyages of discovery. From the 15th century, the Portuguese settled the islands and brought black African slaves with them from Benin, Gabon, the Congo and Angola. Today the majority of the inhabitants are mestiço (also crioulo ), of mixed sub-Saharan-African-Portuguese origin (on Cape Verde 71%).
In the former Portuguese colonies on the African mainland Angola (2%), Guinea-Bissau (<1%) and Mozambique (0.2%), mestiços form small but important minorities.
In Francophone Africa, people of African-European descent are called métis . In no country is their share of the population higher than one percent.
See also
- Castas
- Cholo
- Genízaros
- Goa Catholics
- Hispanic
- Creoles
- Latino
- Mestizo music
- Poulains
- Signaries
- Turkopolan
- Zambo
literature
- Eduardo Fonseca Jr .: Brasil mestiço. Origens Raciais Brasileiras (Portuguese).
Web links
- Mestizos.net (Spanish).
- Nação Mestiço (Portuguese).
Individual evidence
- ^ Arndt / Hornscheidt: Africa and the German language. 2004, p. 179; Nataly Fletcher: Más allá del cholo: Evidencia lingüística del racismo poscolonial en el Ecuador. 2003 (Spanish; online at sincronia.cucsh.udg.mx).
- ↑ El mestizaje en la America colonial. ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Mestizos.net, August 23, 2011.
- ↑ a b Estructura racial. Website of the Universidad de Chile ( Memento of March 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ a b La identidad genética de los argentinos. Bioetica.org ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Mestizo (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Costa Rica (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: El Salvador (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Honduras (English)
- ↑ a b c d e f Fischer World Almanac 2007
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Panama (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Nicaragua (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Ecuador (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Mexico (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Colombia (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Belize (English)
- ↑ Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Bolivia (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Cuba (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Uruguay (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Brazil (English)
- ↑ Census 2000 (PDF; 149 kB)
- ^ Stanford genetic study ( Memento from July 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 826 kB)
- ↑ Direcção-Geral de Estatística : Results of the 2015 census , accessed on November 23, 2016.
- ↑ Patricia Thatcher: The Timor-Born in Exile in Australia , p. 50, Master's Thesis, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Monash University, Melbourne 1992.
- ↑ The languages of East Timor ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Macao (English)
- ↑ Dr. Ernst Rodenwaldt: The Mestizos on Kisar, Jena 1928
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Sao Tomé and Principe (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Cape Verde (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Angola (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Guinea-Bissau (English)
- ↑ CIA World Factbook: Mozambique (English)
