Negrito

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The Negritos include the Ati, the Aeta and at least 4 other tribes of the Philippines, the Semang of the Malay peninsula, and 12 Andamanese tribes of the Andaman Islands. The Malay term for them is orang asli, or original people. They are likely the indigenous people of south-east Asia, including New Guinea. Pygmy-sized, they are numerically and physically among the smallest as well as among the least-known of all living human races.

The word is Spanish for "little Negro" and was given by early explorers who thought that the Negritos were from Africa.

The Negritos of the Philippines could make fire, whereas the Andamanese could not. The Semang are recorded to have made clothing of pounded tree bark, and to have lived in both caves and leaf-covered shelters. The Negritos are believed to be the aborigines of the Philippines. They are distinct from the Formosan-Indo-Malay peoples who arrived in boats or balangay (see Barangay). The current mainstream Filipino at times commemorate the Negrito and the Spanish by dressing up as these peoples, during local celebrations. (See Antique, Philippines for the 1212 purchase of rights, by some Malay peoples, to settle on the island of Panay from the chief of the Negritos there).

(See List of Philippine-related topics#Tribes and ethnic groups for a systematic list of their tribes and peoples, and Andaman Islands for a description of the Andamanese tribes.)

Mitochondrial DNA study on the origins of modern humankind

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used for tracking many biological species back thousands of generations. For Homo sapiens the stability of markers found in the mtDNA of our species serves as a measure of the genetic drift of the mtDNA of our species, from generation to generation. Our mtDNA is typically passed on only from the mother's side, meaning that the mitochondria are clones. This means that there is little change in our mtDNA from generation to generation, unlike nuclear DNA which changes by 50% each generation. Since the mutation rate is easily measured, mtDNA is a powerful tool for tracking matrilineage (descent from a common mother). For this reason, the DNA data from the Negrito peoples have shed light on the origins of modern humankind. The Negrito peoples have one of the purest genetic pools of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) among anyone in humankind; their mtDNA serve as a baseline. The measure of the genetic drift from that baseline would then be a measure of the number of generations since our common matrilineage.

In the May 13, 2005 issue of Science, Dr. Vincent Macaulay of the University of Glasgow and a team of geneticists have reported that the genetic drift of the mitochondrial DNA from the Orang Asli shows that all modern-day human beings are descended from one ancestral band of hunter-gatherers who left Africa 65 000 years ago. The team calculates that the ancestral band contained no more than 550 women. Every modern-day human is descended from a Mitochondrial Eve who lived in Africa about 200 000 years ago.

The Macaulay team's results are countered by Dr. Richard Klein, an archaeologist at Stanford, who replies that archaeological evidence for the earliest modern humans is no older than 50 000 years ago. Macaulay agreed that it was possible that their 65 000 year calculation based on genetic drift is too old.

The team headed by Macaulay thus models the migration of this ancestral band as having left Africa 65 000 years ago, taken the coastlines eastward along the southern edge of the Asian continent, and having reached Australia by 50 000 years ago; modern man then re-immigrated westward to populate Asia and Europe.

--"DNA Study Yields Clues on Early Human's First Migration" New York Times, May 13, 2005 p. A7.

External links

• An Amazing Beginning, by Charles Kimball
• The Anadamanese Negrito
• "Negro and Negrito", by M. Stewart
• The Semang of Malaysia

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.