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Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The Aetas (Black And Brown Skinned People Of The Philippines), Part I: Information & Introductory Video



ohAFRO, Apr 30, 2022 Meet the Aeta Tribe of the PhilipPines. These indigenous people of the Philippines, known as the "Aeta", are a group related to the Negrito ethnic group who occupy Ifugao province of the Philippines They are characterized by their hight, kinky hair, and dark skin. The Negritos are thought to be one of the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines about 30,000 years ago.
Most people think the Are a stolen tribe from Africa but According to historians, the Aetas are Australo Malesians, the same group of blacks found in Australia and Melanesians of Solomon Islands. While they do share a close resemblance with Africans, it is not clear as to how they arrived in the Philippines. There are several theories one of which is the 'The Land Bridge theory' **** Edited by Azizi Powell This is Part I of a three part pancocojams series* on the Aeta [pronounced EYE tah] people of the Philippines. This post showcases an introductory 2022 YouTube video about the Aeta and presents excerpts from a 2013 Journal of Anthropology article entitled "Indigenous Aeta Magbukún Self-Identity, Sociopolitical Structures, and Self-Determination at the Local Level in the Philippines."

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/06/should-aeta-black-brown-skinned-people.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post showcases two YouTube videos that are entitled "African Tribes of the Philippines (part 1)" and "African Tribes of the Philippines (part 2). These videos (vlogs) were published in 2019 by African American vlogger Travel and Truth

Part II also showcases a 2020 YouTube video from Papua New Guinean man entitled "Aetas from Philippines are Not Africans, they are Australo-Melanesians". That video (vlog) was published as a rebuttal to those two above mentioned videos.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/06/should-aetas-black-brown-skinned-people.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. That post presents selected comments that present clarification for, or are critical of or supportive of the use of  "African" as a referent for Aetas (black or brown skinned people of the Philippines).   
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes. All copyrights remain with their owners. Thanks to all Aeta and thanks to all those who are featured in and are associated with this showcased video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post. -snip- *Additional pancocojams posts on this subject can be found using the tag "Aeta" in this blog's internal seach engine or by using Google's search engine for the words "pancocojams Aeta". **** WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE EXCERPT From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeta_people "The Aeta (Ayta /ˈaɪtə/ EYE-tə), Agta, or Dumagat, are collective terms for several Filipino indigenous peoples who live in various parts of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. They are considered to be part of the Negrito ethnic groups and share common physical characteristics of dark skin tones, short statures, curly to Afro-textured hair, and a higher frequency of naturally lighter hair colour (blondism) relative to the general population. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations.[2][3] Regardless, modern Aeta populations have significant Austronesian admixture and speak Austronesian languages.[4]

Aeta communities were historically nomadic hunter-gatherers, typically consisting of approximately 1 to 5 families per mobile group.[5] Groups under the "Aeta" umbrella term are normally referred to after their geographic locations or their common languages.[6][7][8][9]

[...]

Definition

Aeta (also Ayta, Áitâ, Ita, Alta, Arta, Atta, or Agta) is a collective term. Although commonly thought of as a single group, it is in reality composed of several ethnic groups that share similar hunter-gatherer lifestyles and physical features. They are usually divided into three main groups: the Aeta from Central Luzon; the Agta of Southeastern Luzon; and the Dumagat (also spelled Dumaget) of Eastern Luzon. These divisions, however, are arbitrary, and the three names can be used interchangeably. They are also commonly confused with the Ati people of the Visayas Islands.[6][4][12]

[...]

The Aeta people in the Philippines are often grouped with other Negritos, such as the Semang on the Malay Peninsula, and sometimes grouped with Australo-Melanesians, which includes groups such as the natives of Australia and Papuans; as well as partially, the Melanesians of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, and the French overseas special collectivity of New Caledonia. Australo-Melanesians are genetically diverse due to the thousands of years they have been isolated from each other, but they all display high percentages of Denisovan gene flow.[13]

The Aeta, like other Negritos, are the descendants of the earliest modern human migrations into the Philippine islands during the Paleolithic, around 40,000 years ago. In contrast with the later seaborne Austronesian migrations (c. 5,000 years ago), the Negritos arrived through the Sundaland land bridges that linked the islands with the Asian mainland.[13]

Despite this, the Aeta, like other modern Philippine Negrito groups, have significant Austronesian admixture (~10% to 30%) due to population mixing after Austronesian contact. The Aeta speak Austronesian languages and follow Austronesian cultural practices to a limited extent. Conversely, other Filipino ethnic groups not traditionally considered Negritos, also have Negrito admixture (~10 to 20%). Aetas are most closely related to the Batak people of Palawan.[14][13]"...
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2013 ANTHROPOLOGY JOURNAL EXCERPT From https://www.hindawi.com/journals/janthro/2013/391878/

Journal of Anthropology / 2013 / Article

Indigenous Aeta Magbukún Self-Identity, Sociopolitical Structures, and Self-Determination at the Local Level in the Philippines

Vincent S. Balilla,1 Julia Anwar McHenry,2 Mark P. McHenry,3 Riva Marris Parkinson,1 and Danilo T. Banal4

"Abstract

[…]

1. Introduction

[…]

Indigenous identities are contested in the Philippines as a result of successive ways of migration of many different peoples throughout the Asian region, long before the arrival and colonisation by Europeans [8]. The Philippines contains a great diversity of peoples with over 169 living ethnolinguistic groups, about 140 of which are acknowledged as Indigenous [9]. Of the 78 provinces that make up the Philippines, Indigenous peoples are present in more than 50 and, depending on the definition of Indigenous populations used, represent from 10 to 20 percent of the total Philippine population [9, 10]. Such a high density of cultural, language, and ethnicity differentiation among Indigenous peoples in the Philippines arose as a result of geographical segregation, and many of these populations retreated into isolated regions during successive events related to immigrations, displacement, discrimination, and more recently economic development [2].

One of the most well-known Indigenous groups in the Philippines is the Aeta, found in central (Aeta, Ita), eastern (Dumagat), and southeastern Luzon (Agta), as well as several islands in the Visayas (Ati). In the Bataan Peninsula of central Luzon, a single Indigenous group, known as the Aeta Magbukún can be found living near the fringe of the Manila Bay/South China Sea and the forest cover of Mount Mariveles in the Philippines. The Aeta Magbukún are one of the least studied Indigenous groups in the Philippines, and despite the encroaching population of non-Indigenous peoples, they have maintained a primarily traditional hunter-gatherer existence [11]. Mariveles is a municipality with a population of 102, 844 (in 2007), located at the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula, about 173 km from the capital Manila with a cove bounded on its eastern, western, and southern sides by the Manila Bay and South China Sea (Figure 1). Mariveles is composed of eighteen barangays (settlements) lying along the coastal and flat lands, with larger and predominantly undeveloped mountainous areas where the Aeta Magbukún live. The Aeta Magbukún’s bayan-bayanan (village/hamlet), recently constructed by an NGO, is a separate site within barangay Biaan, the smallest barangay in terms of population, yet one of the largest in terms of land area. Only two years ago, an overgrown and unmaintained earthen road led to the Aeta Magbukún’s bayan-bayanan from the local town centre. Recently the road has been upgraded and renamed to become the Mariveles-Bagac Highway. This and other related developments have resulted in a cultural upheaval for Aeta Magbukún and a growing fear of losing their unique language and culture.

[…]

2. Basic Demography and Population Structure

At the end of 2008 the total population of the Aeta Magbukún’s bayan-bayanan was 107, with a total of 21 nuclear families. (The authors would like to note that most of the tribe remains nomadic and travels extensively within the Mariveles forests. The bayan-bayanan with permanent buildings is primarily a development derived from the establishment of an Aeta school at the site provided by another NGO. As such, many children stay in the bayan-bayanan due to practicalities of proximity, as the Aeta Magbukún place a high value on their children’s education.) Population sex ratios included 63 (59 percent) males and 44 (41 percent) females, with 72 (67 percent) of the total population aged between zero and thirty (Figure 2). The average size of an Aeta Magbukún nuclear family is five family members, including the mother and father. In the period from 1990 to 2008, there was an average of three live births per annum. Only ten (nine percent) of the community are non-Aetas, and all of them are spouses of Aetas. Thus, ten out of twenty-one (47 percent) married couples in the bayan-bayanan are of mixed marriage, which is a recent phenomenon, as genetic studies indicate a distinct homogenous genetic history, quite apart from the rest of the Philippine population and Asia-Pacific generally [13–18].

3. Aeta Magbukún Group Psychology: The “Aeta” Self-Representation

Common names that identify Aetas from non-Aetas in the Philippines include kulot (curly haired Aetas) as opposed to unat (straight-haired non-Aetas) and Aeta as opposed to Tagalog. (Tagalog is the most common ethnolinguistic group in Luzon, Philippines.) The Aeta Magbukún often refer to non-Aetas in the third person as tao, which, in Tagalog, literally means “a person.” When asked in the Aeta Magbukún language, “Kung tao ako, eh ano ka?” (translated into English as “If I am a person, then what are you?”), an Aeta Magbukún would simply answer “Aeta.” The use of these terms does not suggest that the Aeta Magbukún have a different existential philosophy; it is simply how they recognise themselves as distinct from non-Aetas. Conversely, within the several groups of Indigenous peoples of the Philippines and other closely related Aeta groups, such sharp distinctions are common.

The Chieftain of the Aeta Magbukún explained the term Magbukún originated from the word bukud/magbukud, which literally means “to separate from” in the Aeta Magbukún language. Aeta Magbukún, and women in particular, are known for their reclusive shyness in social situations, particularly outside of their own bayan-bayanan. Despite this shyness, in some situations Aetas are known to passionately defend their distinctiveness as Aeta Magbukún as opposed to other Aeta groups and non-Aeta alike. For example, a shy Aeta Magbukún mother of two was mistaken for a “Pinatubo Aeta” (“Pinatubo Aeta” is the common name given by Aeta Magbukún to describe displaced Aetas from the Mount Pinatubo locale of Zambales, Tarlac, or Pampanga to the north of Bataan who are stereotypically viewed as beggars. This is relatively common in some places as a result of the devastating 1990 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption, evacuation, resettlement, and associated social upheaval) by a vendor at the local marketplace, who had subsequently driven her away. Despite her shyness, the mother was so irritated that she confronted the vendor saying “’Di ako namamalimos! Hindi ako Pinatubo! Heto ang pera ko!” (“I am not a beggar! I am not from Pinatubo! Here’s my money!”). The Chieftain’s wife described how she felt ashamed when she sees “Pinatubo Aetas” begging around Mariveles and the marketplace. As a result she also tends to be very reclusive outside of her own bayan-bayanan, as she fears she will be mistaken as a “Pinatubo Aeta” and treated as such. On one occasion, while selling honey (an important Aeta Magbukún traditional food gathered seasonally from the forest) a man approached the Chieftain’s wife and gave her a five Peso coin. She immediately answered “’Di ho ako namamalimos…nagbabanat ho ako ng buto…” (“Please, I am not a beggar…I work to the bone…”). She then gave the five Peso coin back to the man. These examples show both the pride and sensitivity of the Aeta Magbukún’s sense of self-identity. The specific annoyance towards being recognised as “Pinatubo Aetas” stems from their belief that it is particularly shameful for an able-bodied Aeta to resort to begging. This is compounded by the relatively short travelling distance between main centres in the Bataan and Zambales regions and shared physical features between Aeta groups. The differentiated Aeta identity enables the Aeta Magbukún to present themselves as a distinguished Aeta group that has lived relatively independently since pre-European colonisation.

[…]

7. Conclusion

The Aeta Magbukún way of life has remained independent from mainstream Philippine society over several thousands of years. However, due increased economic activity and encroachment of non-Aeta on traditional lands, the Aetas traditional livelihoods and way of life are threatened. To ensure their basic human rights and quality of life, the Aetas are increasingly required to participate in the formal and informal non-Aeta economy with whom they increasingly share their traditional lands [2]. The Aeta Magbukún acknowledge that they are, as with most Indigenous peoples around the world, both socially and economically marginalised. Yet they have a strong sense of self-identity and are committed to self-determination for the betterment of their people, culture, and unique way of life.

Drawing attention to the plight of various Indigenous peoples generally is commonly illustrated through historical discrimination and oppression [22]. Increasing awareness of the livelihood, sociopolitical structure, and general predicament of specific Indigenous peoples can contribute to improved political representation, further claims for special protection, and potentially secure future self-determination [12]. However, progress with Indigenous rights will be particularly challenging without support from national governments, non-government organisations, and the broader non-Aeta community."

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