Indigenous peoples of Asia

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The indigenous peoples of Asia are made up of the various heterogeneous indigenous groups of Asia. The range of the indigenous population of Asia extends from the various groups in Siberia to the Jarawa in the Andamans in the Indian Ocean.

Besides South America, Asia is the continent with the largest number of isolated peoples . Most of the groups are the minority in their country, but in New Guinea the indigenous population makes up the majority of the population.

Similarities

(see also: Cultural Areas of Northern and Southern Asia )

Even if the indigenous peoples of Asia differ particularly culturally and geographically, they have some things in common as a group. However, a clear demarcation according to cultural areas often remains hypothetical. Indigenous people are by definition the first inhabitants of a country. This often leads to misunderstandings and prejudices, as it is often wrongly assumed that people have not developed any further since then and are therefore characterized as "primitive" and "Stone Age". The people who are very closely connected to their country often experience incomprehension if they do not want to adapt to the mainstream society of the country. They are often subjected to repression by multinational corporations and national governments.

Indigenous Asian peoples by state

Transnational Indigenous Peoples of Asia

The original inhabitants of Southeast Asia are believed to be the so-called Negritos . It is believed that they came to the region from Africa, Australia, and New Guinea more than 60,000 years ago. They speak unclassified languages ​​in the Andaman Islands, while in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand they speak languages ​​that belong to the Mon-Khmer and are likely to descend from the next wave of immigration. The languages ​​of many "Montagnards" in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia also belong to the Mon-Khmer. The "Negritos" are outwardly different from the rest of the Asian population, as they are smaller and have a darker skin color. Many of these people are among the most isolated peoples in the world today.

The hill tribes of Thailand, on the other hand, have largely immigrated from the north since the second half of the 19th century. The Champa were also not dispersed until after the Vietnamese conquest. Several closely related peoples of sea nomads live on the coasts of the Andaman Sea and the offshore islands in Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia, the largest being that of the Moken .

Indigenous people of Japan

The Ainu are the indigenous people of northern Japan . However, these were pushed further north to the island of Hokkaidō early on and now make up around 20,000 to 50,000 people.

In some cases, the two million Ryūkyū peoples of the Ryūkyū Islands in southern Japan are also regarded as indigenous. In contrast to the Ainu, however, they are not recognized as indigenous by the government.

Both are related to the Yamato people ( Japanese ) who descended from the Yayoi people who immigrated in the 1st millennium BC, who mixed with the prehistoric indigenous Jōmon people, most of whom were also the Ainu and the Ryūkyū peoples descend.

Indigenous peoples of the Republic of China

→ Main article: Indigenous peoples of Taiwan

A minority of around 300,000 Austronesian peoples lives on the islands of Taiwan and Lan Yu , which are part of the Republic of China . Before the Han Chinese immigrated , they made up the population of both islands.

Indigenous peoples of the People's Republic of China

Numerous ethnic minorities live in the People's Republic of China , the majority of which can be described as "indigenous", but some do not correspond to the definition. Some ethnic groups, such as the Zhuang with 16 million members, are in no way marginalized. Others, such as the Uyghurs, are not the original population in their settlement area or still have areas in which they form the majority of the population. Others are almost culturally assimilated, like the Manchu . Ultimately, one has to restrict the fact that the Han Chinese , to whom the majority of the population belongs, are not an ethnic group that has immigrated in recent history, even in most regions, but rather belong to the ancestral ethnic groups themselves. Other regions, such as Tibet , have long been part of the Chinese sphere of influence.

The situation of the indigenous peoples in China is characterized by a certain dominance of the Han Chinese , who are also an indigenous people of China and make up over 91% of the total population. In particular, the settlement areas of the Uighurs and Tibetans have been increasingly populated by Han Chinese for centuries. Due to the strong population growth in the 1960s and 1970s, this settlement pressure increased and the Chinese government could only control and channel it with difficulty. Due to the immigration of Han Chinese, ethnic minorities are increasingly becoming a minority in their own settlement areas. However, in principle, all ethnic minorities in China are exempt from the one-child policy and are allowed to have at least two children per couple. However, this restriction only applies to cities and densely populated areas. In sparsely populated areas (grasslands, high mountains, etc.), three or more children may sometimes be born. Small ethnic groups in particular are allowed to have even more children, and in some cases a higher number of children is even promoted through “child benefit” (for example with the reindeer Evenks in China). As a result, almost all of China's ethnic minorities (including Tibetans and Uyghurs) are experiencing significantly higher population growth than the Han Chinese.

Indigenous peoples of South Asia

The peoples of India , who often still live in traditional small societies , are referred to using the collective term Adivasi (in India itself usually as: "tribals"), which does not necessarily denote a common ethnic origin. The number of Adivasi tribes is estimated to be more than 600. In the Indian caste system , they are at the lowest end, or even fall out of the caste system, which still leads to social disadvantage today, despite progressive rights on the paper of the Indian constitution. Some of the Adivasi still have their traditional religions , but these are more or less syncretistically influenced by Hinduism. Many are Hindus, some are Christians.

Andaman peoples

The Andamans are an archipelago in the Indian Ocean and are located 700 km east of India. They include around 500 individual islands, of which only 27 are inhabited. The islands are home to four indigenous peoples:

The Jarawa and Sentinelese are still relatively uncontacted . All four races are hunters and gatherers with a long history of violence and exploitation. Of the original 8,000 people, 400 to 800 are still alive today.

The great Andamanese still number around 50 people today. When they were contacted 150 years ago, there were still over 5,000 decimated by the settlement of their habitat by the British. Originally the great Andamanese comprised ten peoples.

The Onge describe themselves as the "Perfect People" and are a group of around 100 people. They too suffered from colonization.

The Jarawa, which means "strangers" or "the other people", live voluntarily isolated from the outside world. Their hostile nature made it possible for them to avoid contact for a long time. In 1998, however, they came into contact with some settlers, unarmed, which could be their doom, since the other peoples of the Andaman Islands have also lost large parts of their land as a result of peaceful contact.

The Sentinelese are now defined as the most isolated people. They live in isolation on North Sentinel Island and attack anyone who approaches the island. Through this hostile attitude towards outsiders, the people were able to protect themselves against introduced diseases and settlements, so that they are better off today compared to the other peoples of the Andaman Islands.

The Dongria Kondh

The Dongria Kondh live in the Indian state of Orissa and have 8,000 members. Mount Niyam Dongar is the seat of their god Niyam Raja and the most important religious site of the people. The region around the mountain is endangered, however, as the British mining company Vedanta wants to mine the aluminum ore bauxite there , which endangers the livelihood of the Dongria Kondh. The people are fighting against the project together with international organizations.

Other important peoples of South Asia

Indigenous peoples on Borneo - Dayak

The indigenous population of the island of Borneo is summarized under the collective term Dayak . The Dayak are not a single group, but are made up of hundreds of indigenous groups, most of which speak their own language and differ greatly in their way of life, culture and number. There are peoples who consist of only a few hundred members and who lead a nomadic way of life to this day and are hunters and gatherers , while other Dayak groups have several hundred thousand members and have gained extensive access to modern technology and education. In total, the Dayak include up to 200,000 members in indigenous groups and two million in cities. The largest group of the Dayak are the Iban . The Dayak colonize the entire island of Borneo and are therefore spread over the national territory of Brunei , Indonesia and Malaysia . Most of the indigenous people of Sarawak live in long houses and grow rice.

The Penan

The Penan are the last nomadic people of Borneo today, although many of them are now settled. The nomadic Penan are exclusively hunter-gatherers , while the rest mostly grow rice and sago . The Sarawak government still does not recognize the Penan's land rights. Since the 1970s, it has supported large-scale commercial deforestation throughout Sarawak, including on the Penan land, who would lose their livelihoods due to the loss of the forest. The construction of dams that would flood parts of the habitat of the Penan and other indigenous peoples is also a threat to people.

Further subgroups of the Dayak

Indigenous peoples of Indonesia (excluding Borneo)

An unknown but large (three-digit) number of peoples live in Indonesia. They are assimilated by the Indonesian state, often forcibly relocated to other areas and also marginalized in their homeland by people resettled from Java. Sometimes these peoples fight back, which leads to bloody battles; best known is the conflict in Aceh in the far north of Sumatra . Many of these peoples no longer have a chance of survival. They are dying out and their languages ​​are disappearing. Known for living near a tourist route, the Karo Batak are in the middle of Sumatra. The tribal areas of the Korowai are still relatively barely developed today . This also applies in part to the Asmat who live in the immediate vicinity .

Indigenous peoples of West Papua

Western New Guinea is the western Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea , the second largest island in the world. Although only 0.01% of the population live there, 15% of all languages ​​are spoken by 2.2 million people here.

312 indigenous peoples live on the island, many of them uncontacted . The Papuans are ethnically different from the Indonesians who rule the country.

West Papua has been part of Indonesia since 1963. The indigenous peoples suffer very much from this, as the extraction of natural resources is responsible for the fact that they have to fear for their land. Human rights violations, particularly racism, are common throughout the country's history.

Indigenous peoples in the Philippines

About 6 million people in the Philippines belong to the group of indigenous peoples, of which there are about 30.

The Batak

The Batak are an indigenous people of around 300 people who live in the forests of northern Palawan in the western part of the Philippines. They are hunters and gatherers and also make a living from fishing and growing rice, root crops and vegetables.

One theory has it that the Batak are descendants of the first people in the Philippines who immigrated to the island an estimated 50,000 years ago. Their number has halved over the last century.

Today the survival of the people is threatened by land grabbing, disease and deforestation of their habitat.

The Palawan

The Palawan live in the south of the Palawan Islands in the Philippines and have about 40,000 members. Some of them live very isolated and have little contact with the outside world.

The Palawan do shifting cultivation . To do this, they clear small areas of the rainforest and grow food. After a while they move on so that the forest can regenerate. Some communities hold a ceremony every seven years in which they "purify the world" and restore its cosmic balance.

The Palawan's habitat is threatened by the construction of a new road in 2000. Planned mining projects also pose a great risk to people's lives, as forests would be cut down and all of nature would suffer, which is home to particularly important religious sites in the Palawan.

More peoples in the Philippines

Indigenous people in Siberia

Siberia is home to more than 200,000 people in over 30 indigenous groups. Their languages ​​belong to different families, none of which is related to the Russian language. The habitat of indigenous people comprises 58% of Russia. Some of the peoples are nomadic reindeer herders in the tundra , while others make a living in the taiga from herding reindeer and from hunting and gathering. Today only ten percent of the indigenous population of Siberia live in a nomadic or semi-nomadic way.

As a result of the Soviet government in the 1930s and 1940s, people lost much of their land that was used for state-owned companies, which resulted in the colonization of the regions. In the following decades the indigenous peoples were oppressed and adapted to Russian society through state measures. Children were sent to schools that did not teach their mother tongue. As a result, the different generations can no longer communicate today.

A major problem today is the destruction of the environment by oil, gas and wood companies in human areas. Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity about their national rights.

The chanting

The Khanty are a people of reindeer herders from western Siberia. Like most of the pastoral tribes in their region, the Khanty people are semi-nomads. In their homeland, the Siberian taiga, temperatures can drop to −50 degrees Celsius and crops do not grow well. They hunt and fish and collect berries. For additional food, the Chants sell reindeer and animal skins.

Like the rest of the indigenous peoples in Siberia, the Khanty are also affected by the assimilation of the Russian government and environmental issues.

Peoples with their own republics within Russia

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs: Indigenous peoples in Japan (English)
  2. ↑ Information about the Great Andamanese at www.survivalinternational.de ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2010 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.survivalinternational.de
  3. ↑ Information about the Onge at www.survivalinternational.de ( Memento of the original from June 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.survivalinternational.de
  4. ↑ Information about the Jarawa at www.survivalinternational.de
  5. ↑ The most isolated people in the world at www.survivalinternational.de
  6. ↑ Information about the Sentinelese at www.survivalinternational.de ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2011 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.survivalinternational.de
  7. ↑ Information about the Dongria Kondh at www.survivalinternational.de
  8. ↑ Information about the Penan at www.survivalinternational.de
  9. ↑ Information on the indigenous peoples of West Papua
  10. ↑ Information about the Batak at www.survivalinternational.de
  11. ↑ Information about the chants at www.survivalinternational.de