Misplaced Pages

#873126

99-535: Scholars, such as Kakubayashi Fumio, "although information is extremely limited" concluded that they were of Austronesian origin based on some linguistic and cultural evidence, theorising that the word kaya , present in personal names or titles, such as Torishi-Kaya, has the same root as Tagalog " kaya " , meaning "ability; capability; competence; resources; wealth" and Malay and Indonesian " kaya " , meaning "rich, wealthy, having wealth". The So present in Kumaso

198-412: A lugsail . The sail was suspended from the upper spar ("yard"), while the lower spar functioned like a boom. When set fore-and-aft, the spars extend forward of the mast by about a third of their lengths. When running before the wind, they are set perpendicular to the hull, similar to a square rig. The sail can be rotated around the mast (lessening the need for steering with the rudders) and tilted to move

297-585: A prehistoric seaborne migration , known as the Austronesian expansion, from Taiwan , circa 3000 to 1500 BCE. Austronesians reached the northernmost Philippines, specifically the Batanes Islands , by around 2200 BCE. They used sails some time before 2000 BCE. In conjunction with their use of other maritime technologies (notably catamarans , outrigger boats , lashed-lug boats , and the crab claw sail ), this enabled phases of rapid dispersal into

396-476: A "subrace" of the "Malay" race) were also now being treated as a separate "Ethiopian" race by authors like Georges Cuvier , Conrad Malte-Brun (who first coined the term " Oceania " as Océanique ), Julien-Joseph Virey , and René Lesson . The British naturalist James Cowles Prichard originally followed Blumenbach by treating Papuans and Indigenous Australians as being descendants of the same stock as Austronesians. But by his third edition of Researches into

495-643: A Voyage round the World (1778), he posited that the ultimate origins of the Polynesians might have been the lowland regions of the Philippines and proposed that they arrived to the islands via long-distance voyaging. The Spanish philologist Lorenzo Hervás later devoted a large part of his Idea dell'universo (1778–1787) to the establishment of a language family linking the Malay Peninsula ,

594-402: A fixed mast. In Polynesia , this gave the sail more height while also making it narrower, giving it a shape reminiscent of crab pincers (hence "crab claw" sail). This was also usually accompanied by the lower spar becoming more curved. The conversion of the prop to a fixed mast in the crab claw sail led to the much later invention of the tanja sail (also known variously and misleadingly as

693-773: A large group of peoples in Taiwan , Maritime Southeast Asia , parts of Mainland Southeast Asia , Micronesia , coastal New Guinea , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages . They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam , Cambodia , Myanmar , Thailand , Hainan , the Comoros , and the Torres Strait Islands . The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are sometimes known collectively as Austronesia. They originated from

792-725: A minority of authors. Notable proponents include William Meacham , Stephen Oppenheimer , and Wilhelm Solheim . For various reasons, they have proposed that the homelands of Austronesians were within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), particularly in the Sundaland landmass drowned during the end of the Last Glacial Period by rising sea levels. Proponents of these hypotheses point to the ancient origins of mtDNA in Southeast Asian populations, pre-dating

891-426: A single piece of hollowed-out log. At the sides were two planks, and two horseshoe-shaped wood pieces formed the prow and stern . These were fitted tightly together edge-to-edge by sewing or with dowels inserted into holes in between, and then lashed to each other with ropes (made from rattan or fibre) wrapped around protruding lugs on the planks. This characteristic and ancient Austronesian boatbuilding practice

990-650: Is also another explanation for the correspondences that do not require a genetic relationship. In relation to Sino-Austronesian models and the Longshan interaction sphere, Roger Blench (2014) suggests that the single migration model for the spread of the Neolithic into Taiwan is problematic, pointing out the genetic and linguistic inconsistencies between different Taiwanese Austronesian groups. The surviving Austronesian populations in Taiwan should rather be considered as

1089-571: Is also popularly used for the Indonesian islands. Austronesian regions are almost exclusively islands in the Pacific and Indian oceans, with predominantly tropical or subtropical climates with considerable seasonal rainfall. Inhabitants of these regions include Taiwanese indigenous peoples , most ethnic groups in Brunei , East Timor , Indonesia , Madagascar , Malaysia , Micronesia ,

SECTION 10

#1732765177874

1188-403: Is also problematic, particularly erroneous reconstructions among some Chinese archaeologists of non-Sinitic sites as Han . Some authors, favoring the "Out of Sundaland" model, like William Meacham , reject the southern Chinese mainland origin of pre-Austronesians entirely. Nevertheless, based on linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence, Austronesians are most strongly associated with

1287-494: Is based on sound correspondences in basic vocabulary and morphological parallels. Sagart places special significance in shared vocabulary on cereal crops, citing them as evidence of shared linguistic origin. However, this has largely been rejected by other linguists. The sound correspondences between Old Chinese and Proto-Austronesian can also be explained as a result of the Longshan interaction sphere , when pre-Austronesians from

1386-667: Is derived from a composite protoform *Cau ma-qata, combining "Tau" and "Qata" and indicative of the mixing of the two ancestral population types in these regions. The broad consensus on the Urheimat (homeland) of Austronesian languages as well as the Neolithic early Austronesian peoples is accepted to be Taiwan , as well as the Penghu Islands . They are believed to have descended from ancestral populations in coastal mainland southern China, which are generally referred to as

1485-635: Is genetic evidence that at least in western Island Southeast Asia , there had been earlier Neolithic overland migrations (pre-4,000 BP) by Austroasiatic-speaking peoples into what is now the Greater Sunda Islands when the sea levels were lower, in the early Holocene . These peoples were assimilated linguistically and culturally by incoming Austronesian peoples in what is now modern-day Indonesia and Malaysia. Several authors have also proposed that Kra-Dai speakers may actually be an ancient daughter subgroup of Austronesians that migrated back to

1584-455: Is in fact no "apical" ancestor of Austronesian in the sense that there was no true single Proto-Austronesian language that gave rise to present-day Austronesian languages. Instead, multiple migrations of various pre-Austronesian peoples and languages from the Chinese mainland that were related but distinct came together to form what we now know as Austronesian in Taiwan. Hence, Blench considers

1683-595: Is known as the " lashed-lug " technique. They were commonly caulked with pastes made from various plants as well as tapa bark and fibres which would expand when wet, further tightening joints and making the hull watertight. They formed the shell of the boat, which was then reinforced by horizontal ribs. Shipwrecks of Austronesian ships can be identified from this construction, as well as the absence of metal nails. Austronesian ships traditionally had no central rudders but were instead steered using an oar on one side. They also independently developed various sail types during

1782-449: Is sometimes referred to as "Austronesia". Other geographic names for various subregions include Malay Peninsula , Greater Sunda Islands , Lesser Sunda Islands , Island Melanesia , Island Southeast Asia , Malay Archipelago , Maritime Southeast Asia , Melanesia , Micronesia , Near Oceania , Oceania , Pacific Islands , Remote Oceania , Polynesia , and Wallacea . In Indonesia, the nationalistic term Nusantara , from Old Javanese ,

1881-435: Is the "Out of Taiwan" model first proposed by Peter Bellwood . But there are multiple rival models that create a sort of "pseudo-competition" among their supporters due to narrow focus on data from limited geographic areas or disciplines. The most notable of which is the "Out of Sundaland" (or "Out of Island Southeast Asia") model. Austronesians were the first humans with seafaring vessels that could cross large distances on

1980-613: The Nihongi , says Kumaso refers to two separate tribes, Kuma (meaning "bear") and So (written with the character for "attack" or "layer on"). In his translation of the Kojiki , Basil Hall Chamberlain records that the region is also known simply as So district , and elaborates on the Yamato -centric description of a "bear-like" people, based on their violent interactions or physical distinctiveness. (The people called tsuchigumo by

2079-656: The Cham areas in Vietnam , Cambodia , and Hainan ; and the Mergui Archipelago of Myanmar. Additionally, modern-era migration has brought Austronesian-speaking people to the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK, mainland Europe , Cocos (Keeling) Islands , South Africa, Sri Lanka , Suriname , Hong Kong , Macau , and West Asian countries . Some authors also propose further settlements and contacts in

SECTION 20

#1732765177874

2178-469: The Comoros , and the Torres Strait Islands . They range from small dugout canoes to large lashed-lug plank-built vessels. Their hull configurations include monohulls as well as uniquely Austronesian catamarans and outrigger boats ( single-outrigger boats and trimarans ). Traditional sail types include a variety of distinctively Austronesian crab-claw and tanja configurations, though modern vessels are typically motorized. These vessels allowed

2277-563: The Hayato people , the Kumaso , and the Azumi were of Austronesian origin. Until today, local traditions and festivals show similarities to Malayo-Polynesian culture. The Sino-Austronesian hypothesis , on the other hand, is a relatively new hypothesis by Laurent Sagart , first proposed in 1990. It argues for a north–south linguistic genetic relationship between Chinese and Austronesian. This

2376-704: The Maldives , Madagascar, Indonesia ( Sunda Islands and Moluccas ), the Philippines , and the Pacific Islands eastward to Easter Island . Multiple other authors corroborated this classification (except for the erroneous inclusion of Maldivian ), and the language family came to be known as "Malayo-Polynesian", first coined by the German linguist Franz Bopp in 1841 ( German : malayisch-polynesisch ). The connections between Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and

2475-473: The Neolithic , beginning with the crab claw sail (also misleadingly called the "oceanic lateen " or the "oceanic sprit ") at around 1500 BCE. They are used throughout the range of the Austronesian Expansion , from Maritime Southeast Asia , to Micronesia , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar . Crab claw sails are rigged fore-and-aft and can be tilted and rotated relative to

2574-1052: The Pacific coast of the Americas, Japan, the Yaeyama Islands , the Australian coast, Sri Lanka and coastal South Asia , the Persian Gulf , some Indian Ocean islands, East Africa , South Africa, and West Africa . Austronesian peoples include the following groupings by name and geographic location (incomplete): The broad consensus on Austronesian origins is the "two-layer model", where an original Paleolithic indigenous population in Island Southeast Asia were assimilated to varying degrees by incoming migrations of Neolithic Austronesian-speaking peoples from Taiwan and Fujian , in southern China, from around 4,000  BP . Austronesians also mixed with other preexisting populations as well as later migrant populations among

2673-527: The Pearl River Delta from Taiwan and/or Luzon , shortly after the Austronesian expansion, later migrating further westwards to Hainan, Mainland Southeast Asia , and Northeast India . They propose that the distinctiveness of Kra-Dai (it is tonal and monosyllabic ) was the result of linguistic restructuring due to contact with Hmong-Mien and Sinitic cultures. Aside from linguistic evidence, Roger Blench has also noted cultural similarities between

2772-712: The Philippines , and Polynesia . Also included are the Malays of Singapore ; the Polynesians of New Zealand , Hawaii , and Chile ; the Torres Strait Islanders of Australia; the non- Papuan peoples of Melanesia and coastal New Guinea ; the Shibushi speakers of the Comoros , and the Malagasy and Shibushi speakers of Réunion . Austronesians are also found in the regions of Southern Thailand ;

2871-1198: The Pitcairns , the Kermadec Islands , and the Norfolk Islands were also formerly settled by Austronesians but later abandoned. There is also putative evidence, based in the spread of the sweet potato , that Austronesians may have reached South America from Polynesia, where they might have traded with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas . In the Indian Ocean, Austronesians in Maritime Southeast Asia established trade links with South Asia . They also established early long-distance contacts with Africa, possibly as early as before 500 BCE, based on archaeological evidence like banana phytoliths in Cameroon and Uganda and remains of Neolithic chicken bones in Zanzibar . By

2970-604: The Pleistocene made some of the modern-day islands of Sundaland accessible via land bridges. However, the spread of humans across the Wallace line and into Sahul necessitated crossing bodies of water. Remains of stone tools and marine shells in Liang Sarru, Salibabu Island , North Sulawesi, dated to 32,000–35,000 years ago, is possible evidence for the longest sea voyage by Paleolithic humans ever recorded. The island

3069-644: The Wallacea obsidian network ( Timor , Atauro , Kisar , Alor , ca.22,000 BP). However, the method of crossing remains unknown and could have ranged from simple rafts to dugout canoes by the terminal Pleistocene. These early settlers are generally historically referred to as " Australo-Melanesians ", though the terminology is problematic, as they are genetically diverse, and most groups within Austronesia have significant Austronesian admixture and culture. The unmixed descendants of these groups today include

Kumaso - Misplaced Pages Continue

3168-577: The foxtail millet -cultivating Longshan culture of Shandong (with Longshan-type cultures found in southern Taiwan), the fishing-based Dapenkeng culture of coastal Fujian, and the Yuanshan culture of northernmost Taiwan, which Blench suggests may have originated from the coast of Guangdong . Based on geography and cultural vocabulary, Blench believes that the Yuanshan people may have spoken Northeast Formosan languages . Thus, Blench believes that there

3267-414: The halyards . The lower part of two of the bamboo poles of the mast assembly have holes that are fitted unto the ends of a cross-wise length of timber on the deck, functioning like a hinge. The forward part of the mast assembly had a forelock. By unlocking it, the mast can be lowered across the ship. Despite the similarity of its appearance to western square rigs, the tanja is a fore-and-aft rig similar to

3366-533: The spice trade and later, the maritime silk road . Austronesians used distinctive sailing technologies, namely the catamaran , the outrigger ship , tanja sail and the crab claw sail . This allowed them to colonize a large part of the Indo-Pacific region during the Austronesian expansion starting at around 3000 to 1500 BC, and ending with the colonization of Easter Island and New Zealand in

3465-406: The "people from the southern world". In the third edition, published in 1795, he named Austronesians the " Malay race ", or the " brown race ", after correspondence with Joseph Banks , who was part of the first voyage of James Cook . Blumenbach used the term "Malay" due to his belief that most Austronesians spoke the "Malay idiom" (i.e., the Austronesian languages ), though he inadvertently caused

3564-547: The "pre‑Austronesians". Through these pre-Austronesians, Austronesians may also share a common ancestry with neighboring groups in Neolithic southern China. These Neolithic pre-Austronesians from the coast of southeastern China are believed to have migrated to Taiwan between approximately 10,000 and 6000 BCE. Other research has suggested that, according to radiocarbon dates, Austronesians may have migrated from mainland China to Taiwan as late as 4000 BCE ( Dapenkeng culture ). They continued to maintain regular contact with

3663-571: The 10th to 13th centuries AD. Prior to the 16th century Colonial Era , Austronesians were the most widespread ethnolinguistic group, spanning half the planet from Easter Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean to Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean . They also established vast maritime trading networks, among which is the Neolithic precursor to what would become the Maritime Silk Road . The simplest form of all ancestral Austronesian boats had five parts. The bottom part consists of

3762-552: The 5th to 7th centuries CE. It is likely that the Austronesians that settled Madagascar followed a coastal route through South Asia and East Africa, rather than directly across the Indian Ocean. Genetic evidence suggests that some individuals of Austronesian descent reached Africa and the Arabian Peninsula . A competing hypothesis to the "Out of Taiwan" model is the "Out of Sundaland " hypothesis, favored by

3861-553: The Austronesian expansion (estimated to have started at around 500 BCE) also resulted in gradual population turnover. These secondary migrations were incremental and happened gradually enough that the culture and language of these groups remained Austronesian, even though in modern times, they are genetically more Papuan. In the vast majority of cases, the language and material culture of Austronesian-speaking groups descend directly through generational continuity, especially in islands that were previously uninhabited. Serious research into

3960-546: The Austronesian expansion was largely peaceful. Rather than violent displacement, the settlers and the indigenous groups absorbed each other. It is believed that in some cases, like in the Toalean culture of Sulawesi (c. 8,000–1,500 BP), it is even more accurate to say that the densely populated indigenous hunter-gatherer groups absorbed the incoming Austronesian farmers, rather than the other way around. Mahdi (2016) further asserts that Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tau-mata ("person")

4059-534: The Austronesian expansion, as proof that Austronesians originated from within Island Southeast Asia. Austronesian vessels Austronesian vessels are the traditional seafaring vessels of the Austronesian peoples of Taiwan , Maritime Southeast Asia , Micronesia , coastal New Guinea , Island Melanesia , Polynesia , and Madagascar . They also include indigenous ethnic minorities in Vietnam , Cambodia , Myanmar , Thailand , Hainan ,

Kumaso - Misplaced Pages Continue

4158-550: The Austronesian languages and its speakers has been ongoing since the 19th century. Modern scholarship on Austronesian dispersion models is generally credited to two influential papers in the late 20th century: The Colonisation of the Pacific: A Genetic Trail ( Hill & Serjeantson , eds., 1989) and The Austronesian Dispersal and the Origin of Languages ( Bellwood , 1991). The topic is particularly interesting to scientists for

4257-483: The Kumaso, Torishi-Kaya, aka Brave of Kahakami, was assassinated in the winter of 397 by Prince Yamato Takeru of Yamato, who was disguised for this as a woman at a banquet. The word Kuma ('Bear') survives today as Kumamoto Prefecture ('source of the bear'), and Kuma District, Kumamoto . Kuma District is known for a distinct dialect, Kuma Dialect. Austronesian peoples The Austronesian peoples , sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples , are

4356-781: The Malacca peninsula, as well as the Sandwich, the Society, and the Friendly Islanders, and also the Malambi of Madagascar down to the inhabitants of Easter Island, use the Malay idiom. By the 19th century, however, a classification of Austronesians as being a subset of the "Mongolian" race was favoured, as was polygenism . The Australo-Melanesian populations of Southeast Asia and Melanesia (whom Blumenbach initially classified as

4455-637: The Native Australians), and the "Pelagian or Oceanic Negroes" (the Melanesians and western Polynesians). Despite this, he acknowledges that "Malayo-Polynesians" and "Pelagian Negroes" had "remarkable characters in common", particularly in terms of language and craniometry . In linguistics, the Malayo-Polynesian language family also initially excluded Melanesia and Micronesia , due to the perceived physical differences between

4554-653: The Pacific Islands to successfully retain rice cultivation. Palau and Yap were settled by separate voyages by 1000 BCE. Another important migration branch was by the Lapita culture , which rapidly spread into the islands off the coast of northern New Guinea and into the Solomon Islands and other parts of coastal New Guinea and Island Melanesia by 1200 BCE. They reached the islands of Fiji , Samoa , and Tonga by around 900 to 800 BCE. This remained

4653-480: The Pacific Islands were also noted by other European explorers, including the Orientalist William Marsden and the naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster . Johann Friedrich Blumenbach added Austronesians as the fifth category to his "varieties" of humans in the second edition of De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa (1781). He initially grouped them by geography and thus called Austronesians

4752-548: The Pacific Islands. Although Blumenbach's work was later used in scientific racism , Blumenbach was a monogenist and did not believe the human "varieties" were inherently inferior to each other. Rather, he believed that the Malay race was a combination of the "Ethiopian" and "Caucasian" varieties. Malay variety. Tawny-coloured; hair black, soft, curly, thick and plentiful; head moderately narrowed; forehead slightly swelling; nose full, rather wide, as it were diffuse, end thick; mouth large, upper jaw somewhat prominent with parts of

4851-545: The Physical History of Man (1836–1847), his work had become more racialized due to the influence of polygenism. He classified the peoples of Austronesia into two groups: the "Malayo-Polynesians" (roughly equivalent to the Austronesian peoples) and the "Kelænonesians" (roughly equivalent to the Australo-Melanesians ). He further subdivided the latter into the "Alfourous" (also "Haraforas" or "Alfoërs",

4950-544: The Yamato people provide a better-known example of the transformation of other tribes into legendary monsters. Tsuchigumo —the monstrous "ground spider" of legend—is speculated to refer originally to the native pit dwellings of that people.) Geographically, Aston records that the Kumaso domain encompassed the historical provinces of Hyūga , Ōsumi , and Satsuma (contemporaneous with Aston's translation), or present-day Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures. The last leader of

5049-605: The Yangtze region came into regular contact with Proto-Sinitic speakers in the Shandong Peninsula , around the 4th to 3rd millennia BCE. This corresponded with the widespread introduction of rice cultivation to Proto-Sinitic speakers and conversely, millet cultivation to Pre-Austronesians. An Austronesian substratum in formerly Austronesian territories that have been Sinicized after the Iron Age Han expansion

SECTION 50

#1732765177874

5148-614: The admixture is around 20 to 30% Papuan and 70 to 80% Austronesian. The Melanesians in Near Oceania are roughly around 20% Austronesian and 80% Papuan, while in the natives of the Lesser Sunda Islands , the admixture is around 50% Austronesian and 50% Papuan. Similarly, in the Philippines, the groups traditionally considered to be "Negrito" vary between 30 and 50% Austronesian. The high degree of assimilation among Austronesian, Negrito, and Papuan groups indicates that

5247-490: The archipelago of the Philippines, intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands since about 23,000 years earlier. Over the next thousand years, Austronesian peoples migrated southeast to the rest of the Philippines, and into the islands of the Celebes Sea and Borneo. From southwestern Borneo, Austronesians spread further west in a single migration event to both Sumatra and

5346-454: The base of the hull. The simplest form of the crab claw sail (also with the widest distribution) is composed of a triangular sail supported by two light spars (sometimes erroneously called " sprits ") on each side. They were originally mastless, and the entire assembly was taken down when the sails were lowered. The need to propel larger and more heavily laden boats led to the increase in vertical sail. However this introduced more instability to

5445-502: The boats more stable. The prop was later converted into fixed or removable canted masts where the spars of the sails were actually suspended by a halyard from the masthead. This type of sail is most refined in Micronesian proas which could reach very high speeds. These configurations are sometimes known as the "crane sprit" or the "crane spritsail". Micronesian, Island Melanesian, and Polynesian single-outrigger vessels also used

5544-416: The bow as the boat sets off back the way it came. The mast usually hinges, adjusting the rake or angle of the mast. The crab claw configuration used on these vessels is a low-stress rig, which can be built with simple tools and low-tech materials, but it is extremely fast. On a beam reach, it may be the fastest simple rig. Another evolution of the basic crab claw sail is the conversion of the upper spar into

5643-408: The canted mast configuration to uniquely develop shunting . In shunting vessels, both ends are alike, and the boat is sailed in either direction, but it has a fixed leeward side and a windward side. The boat is shunted from beam reach to beam reach to change direction, with the wind over the side, a low-force procedure. The bottom corner of the crab claw sail is moved to the other end, which becomes

5742-462: The canted square sail, canted rectangular sail, boomed lugsail, or balance lugsail). Tanja sails were rigged similarly to crab claw sails and also had spars on both the head and the foot of the sails; but they were square or rectangular with the spars not converging into a point. They are generally mounted on one or two (rarely three or more) bipod or tripod masts, usually made from thick bamboo . The masts have curved heads with grooves for attaching

5841-498: The center of pull forward or aft. The sail can even be tilted completely horizontally, becoming wing-like, to lift the bow above incoming waves. The sail is reefed by rolling it around the lower spar. In addition to the tanja sails, ships with the tanja rigs also have bowsprits set with a quadrilateral headsail , sometimes also canted as depicted in the Borobudur ships . In the colonial era, these were replaced by triangular western-style jibs (often several in later periods), and

5940-583: The coastal regions between the Yangtze River delta and the Min River delta. Based on linguistic evidence, there have been proposals linking Austronesians with other linguistic families into linguistic macrofamilies that are relevant to the identity of the pre-Austronesian populations. The most notable are the connections of Austronesians to the neighboring Austroasiatic , Kra-Dai , and Sinitic peoples (as Austric , Austro-Tai , and Sino-Austronesian , respectively). These are still not widely accepted, as evidence of these relationships are still tenuous, and

6039-423: The coastal regions of southern Vietnam, becoming the ancestors of the speakers of the Malayic and Chamic branches of the Austronesian language family. Soon after reaching the Philippines, Austronesians colonized the Northern Mariana Islands by 1500 BCE or even earlier, becoming the first humans to reach Remote Oceania . The Chamorro migration was also unique in that it was the only Austronesian migration to

SECTION 60

#1732765177874

6138-492: The early farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin that domesticated rice from around 13,500 to 8,200 BP . They display typical Austronesian technological hallmarks, including tooth removal , teeth blackening , jade carving, tattooing, stilt houses , advanced boatbuilding, aquaculture , wetland agriculture , and the domestication of dogs, pigs, and chickens. These include the Kuahuqiao , Hemudu , Majiabang , Songze , Liangzhu , and Dapenkeng cultures that occupied

6237-510: The end of the first millennium BCE, Austronesians were already sailing maritime trade routes linking the Han dynasty of China with the western Indian Ocean trade in India, the Roman Empire , and Africa. An Austronesian group, originally from the Makassar Strait region around Kalimantan and Sulawesi , eventually settled Madagascar , either directly from Southeast Asia or from preexisting mixed Austronesian- Bantu populations from East Africa . Estimates for when this occurred vary, from

6336-433: The exclusion of Melanesian and Micronesian languages. This was adopted by Ray, who defined the "Oceanic" language family as encompassing the languages of Southeast Asia and Madagascar, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. In 1899, the Austrian linguist and ethnologist Wilhelm Schmidt coined the term "Austronesian" (German: austronesisch , from Latin auster , "south wind"; and Greek νῆσος , "island") to refer to

6435-409: The face when seen in profile, sufficiently prominent and distinct from each other. This last variety includes the islanders of the Pacific Ocean, together with the inhabitants of the Marianas, the Philippine, the Molucca and the Sunda Islands, and of the Malayan peninsula. I wish to call it the Malay, because the majority of the men of this variety, especially those who inhabit the Indian islands close to

6534-512: The furthest extent of the Austronesian expansion into Polynesia until around 700 CE, when there was another surge of island colonization. It reached the Cook Islands , Tahiti , and the Marquesas by 700 CE; Hawaii by 900 CE; Rapa Nui by 1000 CE; and New Zealand by 1200 CE. For a few centuries, the Polynesian islands were connected by bidirectional long-distance sailing, with the exception of Rapa Nui, which had limited further contact due to its isolated geographical location. Island groups like

6633-443: The general consensus is that the archeological, cultural, genetic, and especially linguistic evidence all separately indicate varying degrees of shared ancestry among Austronesian-speaking peoples that justifies their treatment as a " phylogenetic unit". This has led to the use of the term "Austronesian" in academic literature to refer not only to the Austronesian languages but also the Austronesian-speaking peoples, their societies, and

6732-431: The geographic area of Austronesia . Some Austronesian-speaking groups are not direct descendants of Austronesians and acquired their languages through language shift , but this is believed to have happened only in a few instances, since the Austronesian expansion was too rapid for language shifts to have occurred fast enough. In parts of Island Melanesia , migrations and paternal admixture from Papuan groups after

6831-439: The global population), making it the fifth-largest language family by number of speakers. Major Austronesian languages include Malay (around 250–270 million in Indonesia alone in its own literary standard, named Indonesian ), Javanese , and Filipino ( Tagalog ). The family contains 1,257 languages, the second-largest number of any language family. The geographic region that encompasses native Austronesian-speaking populations

6930-421: The indigenous Aslians still speak Austroasiatic languages. However, some of the languages in the region show signs of underlying Austroasiatic substrates. According to Juha Janhunen and Ann Kumar, Austronesians may have also settled parts of southern Japan, especially on the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku , and influenced or created the Japanese hierarchical society. It is suggested that Japanese tribes like

7029-418: The inhabitants of these regions from Malayo-Polynesian speakers. However, there was growing evidence of their linguistic relationship to Malayo-Polynesian languages, notably from studies on the Melanesian languages by Georg von der Gabelentz , Robert Henry Codrington , and Sidney Herbert Ray . Codrington coined and used the term "Ocean" language family rather than "Malayo-Polynesian" in 1891, in opposition to

7128-646: The interior Papuans and Indigenous Australians . In modern literature, descendants of these groups, located in Island Southeast Asia west of Halmahera , are usually collectively referred to as " Negritos ", while descendants of these groups east of Halmahera (excluding Indigenous Australians ) are referred to as " Papuans ". They can also be divided into two broad groups based on Denisovan admixture . Philippine Negritos , Papuans, Melanesians , and Indigenous Australians display Denisovan admixture, while Malaysian and western Indonesian Negritos ( Orang Asli ) and Andamanese islanders do not. Mahdi (2017) also uses

7227-467: The islands of the Indo-Pacific , culminating in the settlement of New Zealand c.  1250 CE . During the initial part of the migrations, they encountered and assimilated (or were assimilated by) the Paleolithic populations that had migrated earlier into Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea . They reached as far as Easter Island to the east, Madagascar to the west, and New Zealand to

7326-583: The islands they settled, resulting in further genetic input. The most notable are the Austroasiatic -speaking peoples in western Island Southeast Asia ( peninsular Malaysia , Sumatra , Borneo , and Java ); the Bantu peoples in Madagascar and the Comoros ; as well as Japanese , Persian , Indian , Arab , and Han Chinese traders and migrants in more recent centuries. Island Southeast Asia

7425-499: The language family. Schmidt had the same motivations as Codrington: he proposed the term as a replacement to "Malayo-Polynesian", because he also opposed the implied exclusion of the languages of Melanesia and Micronesia in the latter name. It became the accepted name for the language family, with Oceanic and Malayo-Polynesian languages being retained as names for subgroups. The term "Austronesian", or more accurately "Austronesian-speaking peoples", came to refer to people who speak

7524-549: The languages of the Austronesian language family. Some authors, however, object to the use of the term to refer to people, as they question whether there really is any biological or cultural shared ancestry between all Austronesian-speaking groups. This is especially true for authors who reject the prevailing "Out of Taiwan" hypothesis and instead offer scenarios where the Austronesian languages spread among preexisting static populations through borrowing or convergence, with little or no population movements. Despite these objections,

7623-470: The later confusion of his racial category with the Malay ethnic group . The other varieties Blumenbach identified were the "Caucasians" (white), "Mongolians" (yellow), "Ethiopians" (black), and "Americans" (red). Blumenbach's definition of the "Malay" race is largely identical to the modern distribution of the Austronesian peoples, including not only Islander Southeast Asians but also the people of Madagascar and

7722-649: The mainland until 1500 BCE. The identity of the Neolithic pre-Austronesian cultures in China is contentious. Tracing Austronesian prehistory in Fujian and Taiwan has been difficult due to the southward expansion of the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE) and the recent Qing dynasty annexation of Taiwan (1683 CE). Today, the only Austronesian language in southern China is Tsat , spoken in Hainan . The politicization of archaeology

7821-623: The methods used are highly contentious. In support of both the Austric and Austro-Tai hypothesis, Robert Blust connects the lower Yangtze Neolithic Austro-Tai entity with the rice-cultivating Austroasiatic cultures, assuming the center of East Asian rice domestication, and putative Austric homeland, to be located in the Yunnan/Burma border area, instead of the Yangtze River basin, as is currently accepted. Under that view, there

7920-406: The migrations of the Austronesian peoples during the Austronesian expansion (starting at around 3000 to 1500 BC from Taiwan and Island Southeast Asia ) throughout the islands of the Indo-Pacific , reaching as far as Madagascar , New Zealand , and Easter Island . They were also used to establish trading routes, including the Austronesian maritime trade network which formed the maritime leg of

8019-434: The migrations, including rice , bananas, coconuts, breadfruit , Dioscorea yams , taro , paper mulberry , chickens, pigs, and dogs . The linguistic connections between Madagascar , Polynesia , and Southeast Asia , particularly the similarities between Malagasy , Malay , and Polynesian numerals , were recognized early in the colonial era by European authors. The first formal publication on these relationships

8118-451: The nearby tonal languages of Mainland Southeast Asia and Hainan. Although the populations of the Malay peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and neighboring islands are Austronesian-speaking, they have significantly high admixture from Mainland Southeast Asian populations. These areas were already populated (most probably by speakers of Austroasiatic languages) before they were reached by the Austronesian expansion, roughly 3,000 years ago. Currently, only

8217-434: The open ocean; this technology allowed them to colonize a large part of the Indo-Pacific region. Prior to the 16th-century colonial era , the Austronesian language family was the most widespread in the world, spanning half the planet from Easter Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean to Madagascar in the western Indian Ocean . Languages of the Austronesian family are today spoken by about 386 million people (4.9% of

8316-435: The past in areas that are not inhabited by Austronesian speakers today. These range from likely hypotheses to very controversial claims with minimal evidence. In 2009, Roger Blench compiled an expanded map of Austronesia that encompassed these claims based on a variety of evidence, such as historical accounts, loanwords, introduced plants and animals , genetics, archeological sites, and material culture. They include areas like

8415-405: The remarkably unique characteristics of the Austronesian speakers: their extent, diversity, and rapid dispersal. Regardless, certain disagreements still exist among researchers with regards to chronology, origin, dispersal, adaptations to the island environments, interactions with preexisting populations in areas they settled, and cultural developments over time. The mainstream accepted hypothesis

8514-501: The result of various Neolithic migration waves from the mainland and back-migration from the Philippines. These incoming migrants almost certainly spoke languages related to Austronesian or pre-Austronesian, although their phonology and grammar would have been quite diverse. Blench considers the Austronesians in Taiwan to have been a melting pot of immigrants from various parts of the coast of East China that had been migrating to Taiwan by 4000 BP. These immigrants included people from

8613-410: The single-migration model into Taiwan by pre-Austronesians to be inconsistent with both the archaeological and linguistic (lexical) evidence. The Austronesian expansion (also called the "Out of Taiwan" model) is a large-scale migration of Austronesians from Taiwan, occurring around 3000 to 1500 BCE. Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers settled in northern Luzon , in

8712-456: The south. At the furthest extent, they might have also reached the Americas . Aside from language, Austronesian peoples widely share cultural characteristics, including such traditions and traditional technologies as tattooing , stilt houses , jade carving, wetland agriculture , and various rock art motifs. They also share domesticated plants and animals that were carried along with

8811-672: The term "First Sundaland People" in place of "Negrito", as a more accurate name for the original population of Southeast Asia. These populations are genetically distinct from later Austronesians, but through fairly extensive population admixture, most modern Austronesians have varying levels of ancestry from these groups. The same is true for some populations historically considered "non-Austronesians", due to physical differences—like Philippine Negritos, Orang Asli, and Austronesian-speaking Melanesians, all of whom have Austronesian admixture. In Polynesians in Remote Oceania , for example,

8910-479: The term "Qata" (from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qata) to distinguish the indigenous populations of Southeast Asia, versus "Tau" (from Proto-Austronesian *Cau) for the later settlers from Taiwan and mainland China. Both are based on proto-forms for the word "person" in Malayo-Polynesian languages that referred to darker-skinned and lighter-skinned groups, respectively. Jinam et al. (2017) also proposed

9009-583: The two groups, like facial tattooing, tooth removal or ablation , teeth blackening, snake (or dragon) cults, and the multiple-tongued jaw harps shared by the indigenous Taiwanese and Kra-Dai-speakers. However, archaeological evidence for this is still sparse. This is believed to be similar to what happened to the Cham people , who were originally Austronesian settlers (likely from Borneo ) to southern Vietnam around 2100–1900 BP and had languages similar to Malay . Their languages underwent several restructuring events to syntax and phonology due to contact with

9108-423: The vessels. In addition to the unique invention of outriggers to solve this, the sails were also leaned backwards and the converging point moved further forward on the hull. This new configuration required a loose "prop" in the middle of the hull to hold the spars up, as well as rope supports on the windward side. This allowed more sail area (and thus more power) while keeping the center of effort low and thus making

9207-501: The wind. They evolved from V-shaped perpendicular square sails in which the two spars converge at the base of the hull. The simplest form of the crab claw sail (also with the widest distribution) is composed of a triangular sail supported by two light spars (sometimes erroneously called " sprits ") on each side. They were originally mastless, and the entire assembly was taken down when the sails were lowered. Austronesian rigs were used for double-canoe ( catamaran ), single-outrigger (on

9306-401: The windward side), or double-outrigger boat configurations, in addition to monohulls . There are several distinct types of crab claw rigs, but unlike western rigs, they do not have fixed conventional names. Crab claw sails are rigged fore-and-aft and can be tilted and rotated relative to the wind. They evolved from V-shaped perpendicular square sails in which the two spars converge at

9405-566: Was settled by modern humans in the Paleolithic following coastal migration routes , presumably starting before 70,000 BP from Africa , long before the development of Austronesian cultures. These populations are typified by having dark skin, curly hair, and short statures, leading Europeans to believe, in the 19th century, that they were related to African Pygmies . However, despite these physical similarities, genetic studies have shown that they are more closely related to other Eurasian populations than to Africans. The lowered sea levels of

9504-509: Was also theorised to have the same origins as tsuo, tsau, thau, sau, tau, tao supposedly meaning "people" in Austronesian languages . Alexander Vovin defended that the question of whether the Kumaso language was not Japonic is moot because not a single word of it is attested. Him and Mark Hudson also theorised there is a probability that the Kumaso and the Hayato represented the same ethnic group. William George Aston , in his translation of

9603-446: Was an east–west genetic alignment, resulting from a rice-based population expansion, in the southern part of East Asia: Austroasiatic-Kra-Dai-Austronesian, with unrelated Sino-Tibetan occupying a more northerly tier. Depending on the author, other hypotheses have also included other language families like Hmong-Mien and even Japanese-Ryukyuan into the larger Austric hypothesis. While the Austric hypothesis remains contentious, there

9702-573: Was in 1708 by Dutch Orientalist Adriaan Reland , who recognized a "common language" from Madagascar to western Polynesia, although Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman observed linguistic links between Madagascar and the Malay Archipelago a century earlier, in 1603. German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster , who traveled with James Cook on his second voyage , also recognized the similarities of Polynesian languages to those of Island Southeast Asia. In his book Observations Made during

9801-653: Was previously uninhabited by humans or hominins and can only be reached from either Mindanao or the Sangihe Islands by crossing an expanse of water at least 100 km (62 mi) wide, even during the low sea levels of the Pleistocene. Other evidence of early maritime transport are the appearance of obsidian tools with the same source on neighboring islands. These include the Philippine obsidian network ( Mindoro and Palawan , ca.33,000-28,000 BP), and

#873126