Negrito

Etymology

The word "Negrito" is the Spanish diminutive of negro, used to mean "little black person". This usage was coined by 16th-century Spanish missionaries operating in the Philippines, and was borrowed by other European travellers and colonialists across southeast Asia to label various peoples perceived as sharing relatively small physical stature and dark skin. Contemporary usage of an alternative Spanish epithet, Negrillos, also tended to bundle these peoples with the Pygmy peoples of Central Africa, based on perceived similarities in stature and complexion. (Historically, the label Negrito has occasionally been used also to refer to African Pygmies.)

Many on-line dictionaries give the plural in English as either "negritos" or "negritoes", without preference. The plural in Spanish is "negritos".

The appropriateness of using the label "Negrito" to bundle together peoples of different ethnicity based on similarities in stature and complexion has been challenged.

Genetics

The Y-chromosome Haplogroup C-M130, as seen, for example, in the Semang of Malaysia, and Haplogroup D-M174 among Andaman Islanders, are more prominent among Negritos than the general populations surrounding them. Haplogroup O-P31 is also common among Austroasiatic-speaking Negrito peoples, such as the Maniq and the Semang.

Aeta men are of great interest to genetic, anthropological and historical researchers because at least 83% of them belong to haplogroup K2b, in the form of its rare primary clades K2b1** and P* (a.k.a. K2b2* or P-P295*). Most Aeta males (60%) carry K-P397 (K2b1), which is otherwise uncommon in the Philippines and is strongly associated with the indigenous peoples of Melanesia and Micronesia. Basal P* is rare outside the Aeta and some other groups within Maritime South East Asia.

The use of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) shows the genomes of Andamanese people to be closest to those of South Asians. This suggests a relation between Andaman islanders and South Asians.

Bulbeck (2013) likewise noted that the Andamanese's nuclear DNA clusters with that of other Andamanese Islanders, as they carry Haplogroup D-M174 and maternal mitochondrial Haplogroup M unique to their own. However, this is a subclade of the D haplogroup which has not been seen outside of the Andamans, a fact that underscores the insularity of these tribes. Analysis of mtDNA, which is inherited exclusively by maternal descent, confirms the above results. All Onge belong to M32 mtDNA, a subgroup of M, which is unique to Onge people. Their parental Y-DNA is exclusively Haplogroup D, which is also only found in Asia.

A 2010 study by the Anthropological Survey of India and the Texas Biomedical Research Institute identified seven genomes from 26 isolated "relic tribes" from the Indian mainland, such as the Baiga tribe, which share "two synonymous polymorphisms with the M42 haplogroup, which is specific to Australian Aborigines". These were specific mtDNA mutations that are shared exclusively by Australian aborigines and these Indian tribes, and no other known human groupings.

A study of human blood group systems and proteins in the 1950s suggested that the Andamanese peoples were more closely related to Oceanic peoples than African Pygmy peoples. Genetic studies on Philippine Negritos, based on polymorphic blood enzymes and antigens, showed they were similar to surrounding Asian populations.

Negrito peoples may descend from Australoid-Melanesian settlers of Southeast Asia. Despite being isolated, the different peoples do share genetic similarities with their neighboring populations. They also show relevant phenotypic (anatomic) variations which require explanation.

In contrast, a recent genetic study found that unlike other early groups in Malesia, Andamanese Negritos lack the Denisovan hominin admixture in their DNA. Denisovan ancestry is found among indigenous Melanesian and Aboriginal Australian populations between 4–6%.

Some studies have suggested that each group should be considered separately, as the genetic evidence refutes the notion of a specific shared ancestry between the "Negrito" groups of the Andaman Islands, the Malay Peninsula, and the Philippines.

Anthropology

A number of features would seem to suggest a common origin for the Negritos and Negrillos (African Pygmies). No other living human population has experienced such long-lasting isolation from contact with other groups.

Features of the Negrito include short stature, dark skin, woolly hair, scant body hair, and occasional steatopygia. The claim that the Andamanese more closely resemble African Pygmies than other Asian populations in their cranial morphology in a study of 1973 added some weight to this theory, before genetic studies pointed to a closer relationship with their neighbors.

Multiple studies also show that Negritos from Southeast Asia to New Guinea share a closer cranial affinity with Australo-Melanesians.

Andamese Negrito people

According to both Wells and Mason, the Australoid Negritos, similar to the Andamanese adivasis of today, were the first identifiable human population to colonize India, likely 30–65 thousand years before present (kybp). This first colonization of the Indian mainland and the Andaman Islands by humans is theorized to be part of a great coastal migration of humans from Africa along the coastal regions of the Indian mainland and towards Southeast Asia and Oceania.

The Negrito peoples may be descended from ancient Australoid-Melanesian settlers of Southeast Asia, or represent an early split-off from the earliest Africans who dispersed out of Africa through the southern coastal road.

Other populations

Negritos may have also lived in Taiwan. The Negrito population shrank to the point that, up to 100 years ago, only one small group lived near the Saisiyat tribe. Evidence of their former habitation is a Saisiyat festival celebrating the black people in a festival called Pas-ta'ai.

Vietnamese people have many racial and ethnic sources, including Austro-Asian, Thai people, Chinese and Negrito. Semang Negritos are believed to be descended from Hoabinhian people. Ancient Mongoloid, Negrito, Indonesian, Melanesian, and Australoid remains have been found in Vietnam.