QUOTE (Nam Quoc Son Ha @ Mar 28 2004, 02:58 AM)
Who were the Austronesians? Where did they come from and who are they now?
QUOTE (Nam Quoc Son Ha @ Mar 28 2004, 02:58 AM)
Who were the Austronesians? Where did they come from and who are they now?
Who were the Austronesians? Austronesian is a word that defines the Native Culture and Native Language of the Malay Ethnicity.
The Malay Ethnicity presently make up the nations Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Madagascar etc.
We are on these islands because our Ancestors practiced the Native Austronesian culture which was based on Sea-faring and they sailed to these islands.
we the descendants, however gradually forgot our native Austronesian culture as we gradually adopted foreign cultures such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and eventually those cultures were replaced themselves by the adoption of colonial and western cultures & relgions such as Islam (for the Malaysians & Indonesians) and Christianity (for the Filipinos.)
And please keep in mind, that these Countries "indonesia" "malaysia" and the "philippines" were created by white colonizers around the 20th century. Unlike Southeast Asia Mainland, we Malay had not formed any Country. And we more or less considered ourselves one people who freely sailed from island to island trading, inter-marrying, etc. But we did have seperate island kingdoms such as Sri-vijaya of Sumatra island. Sailendra and Sanjaya of Java island. etc. And these kingdoms would sometimes claim controll of neghbooring islands. And also these kingdoms would flee to each other whenever there was trouble at home. So when Buddhist sri-vijaya kingdom was collasping some people fled to the philippines and settled in the central islands and today the central islands and the people are called "Visayans." But before this the Buddhist sailendra people fled to sri-vijaya because some other rival Hindu kingdom on the same island called Sanjaya was taking over.. And when Islam was taking over the whole islands, the Sailendra and Sanjaya fleed to Bali island. And today bali island is the only present hindu culture of the malay ethnicity.
But even though our native Austronesian culture became dominated by foreign culture, it still survives merely mixed. For example, our native austronesian culture were Matrilineal, and so today in the Philippines there have been many women presidents in our modern government. And in Indonesia, although they adopted Islam, woman still hold a strong postion which contrasts from Islam in the middleeast where women are more oppressed and restricted.
But there are pockets in our islands where the Malay successfully fought the Colonizer and were never influenced by their culture or religion. And in the Philippines those people are the Igorot Mountain tribes of Luzon island.
In indonesia, those people are the Dayaks of Borneo island.
I don't know about Malaysia...
But even through all this, We malay still retained our Native Austronesian languages and there are merely foreign influences in our languages. like "Comptuer" is in Filipino language. obviously it's an English word and we Filipinos don't have a native way to say "comptuer" besides maybe saying box. but it's more convient to say "computer" And this applies to Hindu, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, etc words.
Where did they come from?The Malay is thought to have originated on the island of Taiwan. or at least the Austronesian language originated in Taiwan. And today there still survives Malays on Taiwan. But they are out numbered by the Ethnic Chinese who recently migrated to the island during the 1600's and gradually claimed the island their own.
Anyways..... Those Malays on taiwan ventured south some 6,000 years ago into Southeast Asian islands and Southeast Asian mainland at an ANCIENt time. Or At least earlier than the present populations: Khmers, Viets, Lao, Thai, etc. And evidently you guys displaced the original inhabitants. And today the main ones left are the Chams who were on Southeast Asia in the very beginning and their hindu kingdom of Champa was present alongside Funan. Also there are a few Austronesian adherants who live in the mountains, we know they are because they speak Austronesian languages and practice Austronesian cultures such as being matrlienal. In Vietnam & Cambodia those people are the Jarai, Rade, Mnong, Ede. etc, there are more i cant name them all. One other tribe i should mention are the Naga of Nagaland which is sandwiched between (India and Myanmar.) They are culturally native austronesian. and were the first to settle the area. They're culture stands out in this region which is mostly Hindu or Buddhist. And the closest culture which resembles it is the Igorot of the Philippines. And it is remarkable similarities. But the differences is that the Naga do not speak an Austronesian language, they speak the languages of their neighboors, the Sinotibetians. And i must admit that many of them have sino-tibetian, indian, myanmar features. One can only guess that the Malay mixed with the people and lost their native language and original features but still managed to retain their native culture as they migrated to the mountains. Which made it possible as it gave the nagas isolation. This is how the Igorots of the Philippines were able to retain their native culture because the spaniards couldn't penetrate the mountains.
One example of an original people losing their language but also their culture to new commers would be the Negrito of the Philippines.
The negrito pre-dated the Malays in the Philippines. But eventually the malays displaced the negritos. and the negritos who are neolithic became malay slaves and stuff. And eventually the Negirto lost his own native language and own native culture and adopted the the Malay's AUstronesian language and culture.
And then they retreated to the mountains and kept isolated as many are today. But it's too late because they already adopted Austronesian language and culture. but they are still the most primitive people in the world. And they are the smallest people in the world.
who are they now?But Again, today we Malay whose native culture and native language is called "Austronesian" live mostly in the islands of both the indian and pacific oceans. Because our Malay ancestors were great seafarers and settled the island of Madgascar in the Indian ocean, all the way to Easter Island in the pacific ocean.
One thing i should say though is that the Native Austronesian culture survives in it's purest form only in the South Pacific which is Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa etc. The reason it is in its purest form is that they were isolated in these little islands in the vast pacific, and no colonizers or foreign people were able to influence them. And the People are Malays who mixed with Papuans (papuans are Melanesians = blacks who pre-dated the Malays).
But the South Pacific islanders speak an Austronesian language. And not a Papuan language.
. this flip guy flips flops and changes the history of his so called "malay ethnicity people". this quote he says malay originated in southern china and on another quote he said malays all originated in taiwan but i can't find that quote for some reason. he keeps acknowledging that all the malay people are the same when IN FACT THEY ARE NOT. DO YOU SEE KHMER PEOPLE CLAIMING THAT THEIR ANCESTORS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MON KINGDOM? MON AND KHMER PEOPLE ARE CLOSELY RELATED ETHNICALLY AND LINGUISTICALLY. but i agree with that guy who says this MALAY_AKO GUY IS LIKE ONE OF THOSE AFROCENTRISTS WHO TRIES TO CLAIM THAT HIS PEOPLE WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXISTANCE OF OTHER CIVILIZATIONS AHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA. MY MALAY ANCESTORS WERE SEAFARING PEOPLE AND THEY WERE ALREADY CIVILIZED BEFORE THE INDIANS,EUROPEANS,CHINESE,ETC. AHAHAHAHAH. KEEP IT UP AND YOU'LL BECOME A "FLIPCENTRIST" AHAHAHHAAH. 
