as a Filipino,do you consider yourself as an Asian or a Pacific Islander like Polys,Melanesian,Micros,PNGs,etc.
here are some facts:
Austronesian people are a population group present in Oceania and Southeast Asia who speak, or had ancestors who spoke, one of the Austronesian languages. Austronesian peoples include: Taiwanese aborigines; the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Madagascar; New Zealand; Micronesia; Melanesia; and Polynesia. The territories settled by Austronesian peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.
Austronesian peoples themselves have a variety of different traditions, and history of their origins. Some Indonesian scholars believe that the Austronesian peoples originated in Maritime Southeast Asia (modern day Indonesia, and the Philippines). However according to most Western scholars, Austronesian peoples originated in the island of Taiwan, and are spread as far away to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, Easter Island, the Maritime Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and to the rest of the Pacific Islands. The controversial Java Man theory claims that the oldest Human remains were found in Java, Indonesia. Some Austronesian informants claimed that the migration was to Taiwan, and not away from it.
According to mainstream Western studies, a large scale Austronesian expansion began around 5000-2500 B.C. Population growth primarily fueled this migration. These first settlers may have landed in northern Luzon in the island of the Philippines intermingling with the earlier Australo-Melanesian population who had inhabited the islands about 23,000 years earlier. Over the next thousand years; Austronesian peoples migrated south-east to the rest of the Philippine Islands, and into the islands of the Celebes Sea, Borneo, and Indonesia. The Austronesian peoples of Maritime Southeast Asia sailed eastward, and spread to the islands of Melanesia, and Micronesia between 1200 B.C., and 500 A.D. respectively. The Austronesian inhabitants that spread westward through Maritime Southeast Asia, had reached some parts of mainland Southeast Asia; and later on to Madagascar.
Sailing from Melanesia, and Micronesia, the Austronesian peoples discovered Polynesia by 1000 B.C. These people settled most of the Pacific Islands. They had settled Easter Island by 300 A.D., Hawaii by 400 A.D., and into New Zealand by 800 A.D. In the Indian Ocean sailing west from Maritime Southeast Asia; the Austronesian peoples reached Madagascar by 200 A.D.
By the beginning of the first millennium A.D., most of the Austronesian inhabitants in Maritime Southeast Asia began trading with India, and China, which allowed the creation of Indianized kingdoms such as Srivijaya, Melayu, Majapahit, and the establishment of Hinduism, and Buddism. Muslim traders from the Arabian peninsula were thought to have brought Islam by the 10th century. Islam was established as the dominant religion in the Indonesian archipelago by the 16th century. The Austronesian inhabitants of Polynesia were un-affected by this cultural trade, and retained their indigenous culture in the Pacific region.
Europeans in search of spices later colonized most of the Austronesian speaking countries of the Asia-Pacific region, beginning from the 16th century, with the Portuguese, and Spanish colonization of some parts of Indonesia (present day East Timor), the Philippines Islands, Palau, Guam, and the Mariana Islands; the Dutch colonization of the Indonesian archipelago; the British colonization of Malaysia, and Oceania; the French colonization of French Polynesia; and later, the American governance of the Pacific. Also remarkable is the colonization of the Austronesian homeland by the Chinese from the 17th century onwards.
Meanwhile, the British, Germans, French, Americans, and Japanese began establishing spheres of influence within the Pacific Islands during the 19th, and early 20th centuries. The Japanese later invaded most of Southeast Asia, and some parts of the Pacific during World War II. The latter half of the 20th century initiated independence of modern day Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippine Islands, and many of the Pacific Island nations.
source wikipedia.org
Are you an Asian or a Pacific Islander?
Originally Posted by Nutley
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