Philippines: The Indigenous Groups

With the population for about 99900177, there are approximately 10 to 15 percent are the indigenous groups in Philippines. They are retained their ways of living that reflect age old environment adaptation, emphasizing sustainability, coexistence, community consensus and collective effort.

I will be talking about one of the indigenous group which is named the Negrito group that their economies is depended on their agriculture, hunting and gathering, fishing wage labor and trade. In this Negrito, there is 25 major groups that have been identified and are mostly distinguished by their Australoid physical features. The Negritos comprised of estimated 15000 people. These people are located on several major islands in the country which is the Luzon, Palawan, Panay, Negros, Cebu and Mindanao. Their languages are all Austronesian. Their adults are mostly bilingual. And they are about to understand and interact with their non-Negrito neighbors with minimum difficulty.

These Negroid people are quite different in appearance from the Mongoloid people in Philippines. Negroid Appearance had caused all scholars to reject the theory that their ancestors came from Africa. They accepted the theory that the Philippine Negritos are the descendants of groups of homo aspiens who migrated into the Philippines.
All Negrito groups are or were hunter- gatherers. They are found in various stages of deculturation. Most of them practice some marginal cultivation themselves and all group carry on intense symbiotic relationships with the non-negoritos , trading forest products for cash or starch food (rice or corn), serving as forest guides and especially working as casual laborers at their nearby farms. (Philippine Negritos)