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The term Negrito refers to several dwindling ethnic groups in isolated parts of Southeast Asia.^[1] No other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups ^[2]. Their current populations include the Aeta, Ati and at least 25 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, the Mani of Thailand and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands.

Negritos share common physical features with African pygmy populations, including short stature and dark skin, however, their origin and the route of their migration to Asia is still a matter of great speculation. They are geneticaly distant from Africans and Asians, suggesting that they are either surviving descendents of settlers from an early migration out of Africa, or that they are descendents of one of the founder populations of modern humans.^[3]

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Origins 3 Culture 4 See also 5 Notes 6 Further reading 7 External links

The term "Negrito" is the Spanish diminutive of Negro, i.e. "little black person", referring to their small stature, and was coined by early European invaders and explorers who assumed that the Negritos were from Africa. Occasionally, some Negrito are referred to as pygmies, bundling them with peoples of similar physical stature in Central Africa, and likewise, the term Negrito was previously occasionally used to refer to African Pygmies.^[4]

According to James J.Y. Liu, a professor of comparative literature, the Chinese term Kun-lun (traditional Chinese: 崑崙) means Negrito.^[5]

Being among the least-known of all living human groups, the origins of the Negrito people is a much debated topic. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people. They are likely descendants of the indigenous populations of the Sunda landmass and New Guinea, predating the Mongoloid and Australoid peoples who later entered Southeast Asia.^[6] Alternatively, some scientists claim they are merely a group of Australo-Melanesians who have undergone island dwarfing over thousands of years, reducing their food intake in order to cope with limited resources and adapt to a tropical rainforest environment.

A number of features would seem to suggest a common origin for the Negritos and African pygmies, especially in the Andamanese Islanders who have been isolated from incoming waves of Asiatic peoples. These features include short stature, very dark skin, woolly hair, scant body hair and occasional steatopygia. The fact that Andamanese pygmoids more closely resemble Africans than Asians in their cranial morphology adds significant weight to this theory. ^[7] Opponents of the theory, however, would argue that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians. ^[8]

Genetics occasionally allies Negritos with African Negroids ^[9] but more commonly with Asians and Polynesians.^{[citation needed]} A study on blood groups and proteins in the 1950s suggested that the Andamanese were more closely related to Oceanic peoples than Africans. Genetic studies on Phillipine Negritos, based on polymorphic blood enzymes and antigens, showed they were similar to surrounding Asian populations. ^[10] Further evidence for Asian ancestry is in craniometric markers such as sundadonty, shared by Asian and Negrito populations. Alternatively these findings could merely indicate a level of interbreeding between Negritos and later waves of people arriving from the Asian mainland.

Genetic testing places all the Onge and all but two of the Great Andamanese in the mtDNA Haplogroup M, found in East and South Asia, suggesting that the Negritos are at least partly descended from a migration of Proto-Australoids originating in eastern Africa as much as 60,000 years ago. This migration followed a coastal route through India and into Southeast Asia, eventually giving rise to the Australian Aborigines. Analysis of mtDNA coding sites indicated that these Andamanese fall into a subgroup of M not previously identified in human populations in Africa and Asia; these findings suggest an early split from these populations. ^[11]

The Negrito peoples have one of the purest genetic pools of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) among anyone in humankind so their mtDNA serves as a baseline in studying Genetic Drift.^[12]

Because of varying histories and levels of contact with the outside world, there is a lack cultural homogeneity between different groups of Negritos. The Andamanese for example lacked the ability to start fires until 1911.^[13] and maintained their semi-nomadic hunting lifestyles up until recent times, due to their geographic isolation and violent resistance to foreign intrusions.

The Semang are recorded to have made clothing of pounded tree bark, and to have lived in both caves and leaf-covered shelters.

• Kunlun Nu
• Proto-Australoid
• Pygmy

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Evans, Ivor Hugh Norman. The Negritos of Malaya. Cambridge [Eng.]: University Press, 1937.
• Garvan, John M., and Hermann Hochegger. The Negritos of the Philippines. Wiener Beitrage zur Kulturgeschichte und Linguistik, Bd. 14. Horn: F. Berger, 1964.
• Hurst Gallery. Art of the Negritos. Cambridge, Mass: Hurst Gallery, 1987.
• Khadizan bin Abdullah, and Abdul Razak Yaacob. Pasir Lenggi, a Bateq Negrito Resettlement Area in Ulu Kelantan. Pulau Pinang: Social Anthropology Section, School of Comparative Social Sciences, Universití Sains Malaysia, 1974.
• Schebesta, P., & Schütze, F. (1970). The Negritos of Asia. Human relations area files, 1-2. New Haven, Conn: Human Relations Area Files.

• The Negrito of Thailand
• Negritos in the Philippines A detailed book written by an American at the turn of the previous century holistically describing the Negrito culture. Online document processed by Filipiniana.net
• Africans and Asians: Historiography and the Long View of Global Interaction

v • d • e Negritos
Andaman Islands	Andamanese: Great Andamanese (Aka-Bea, Akar-Bale, A-Pucikwar, Aka-Kol, Oko-Juwoi, Aka-Kede, Aka-Jeru, Aka-Bo,Aka-Kora, Aka-Cari) · Jangil · Jarawa · Onge · Sentinelese
Malaysia	Semang
Philippines	Aeta · Ati · Batak · Mamanwa
Thailand	Mani