Filipinos
| File:Ifugaoman.jpgPresident AquinoJosé Rizal, the Philippine national hero Mangyan girlGary ValencianoTboli Woman From left to right: Ifugao man, former President Corazon Aquino, National Hero José Rizal, a Mangyan girl, singer Gary Valenciano, Tboli woman. | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Philippines: 87,857,473 (2005) United States: an estimated 5 million | |
| Languages | |
| Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Tausug, Waray-Waray, and over 100 others | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholic, various smaller Christian denominations, significant Muslim minority, others. | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Taiwanese aborigines, Chinese, Spanish |
The Filipinos or the Filipino people are the native inhabitants and citizens of the Republic of the Philippines located in Southeast Asia. The term Filipino (feminine: Filipina) may also refer to people of Philippine descent.
Throughout the colonial era, the term "Filipino" originally referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines, also known as insulares, criollos or español filipino. This distinguished them from Spaniards born in Europe who were known as peninsulares. By the late 19th century, the term Filipino began to widely refer to the indigenous population of the Philippines. According to journalist Ambeth Ocampo, José Rizal was the first to do this.
Today, Filipino is also used to signify the nationality and citizenship of one who is from the Philippines. This means that not only indigenous Filipinos are included but also others foreign ethnic groups such as the Chinese. For a more detailed discussion, see the Demographics of the Philippines and Ethnic groups of the Philippines articles.
Colloquially, Filipinos may refer to themselves as Pinoy (feminine: Pinay), which is formed by taking the last four letters of Pilipino and adding the diminutive suffix -y. The word was coined by expatriate Filipino Americans during the 1920's and was later adopted by Filipinos in the Philippines. Another term for Filipinos is Flip. This term also has its origins in the 1920's and may be considered offensive by some Filipinos due to its derogatory connotations and murky origins. Some Filipinos also call themselves Noypi. It is by interchanging the letters in Pinoy.
History
American anthropologist H. Otley Beyer was the first to propose that Malays who came from Malaysia populated the Philippines in a handful of waves of migration. However, according to contemporary research by anthropologists, linguists (Blust, Reid, Ross, Pawley) and archaeologists (Bellwood)propose the opposite to be true. The vast majority of Filipinos are said to be descended from Austronesian-speaking migrants which arrived in what is now the Philippines from Southern China and Taiwan during the Iron age.
Some anthropologists contend that the term Malay, often used in reference to Filipinos, is of little taxonomic validity. The term was coined in 1795 by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach to refer to the brown-skinned inhabitants of the Indian (Malay) archipelago, Oceania, Melanesia, and Australia. It was one of five other categories which Blumenbach created for classifying humans, including what he called the Negro or black race and the Mongoloid or yellow race. Since then, anthropologists have debunked this concept, citing the complexities of human races being unable to fit into a handful of oversimplified categories.
The term is also considered misleading because it gives the impression that the route for the populating of the Philippines was not via Malaysia, for actually, the current Malays of the rest of the Malay Archipelago and of mainland Malaysia are the descendants of Austronesian-speaking immigrants who first went to the Philippines before further venturing south into what is now Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, as well as to the other Pacific islands.
There were also pre-existing aboriginal inhabitants of the Philippines; the Negrito groups. Their ancestors go back thousands of years prior to the Austronesian-speaking migrants arrival. However, the term 'aborigines of the Philippines' is actually a misnomer, since the ancestors of the Negritos actually came from Andaman Islands, and are actually not indigenous to the Philippines. Their descendants, the Aetas, constitute a very small minority of the population.
The Philippines, prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in 1521, was not ruled or united as a single nation. Instead, the inhabitants were divided into separate tribes, or nations, usually based on their respective ethnolinguistic groups.
By the mid-to-late 16th century, the archipelago was referred to as Filipinas (Philippines) by the Spaniards in honor of King Philip II of Spain. During the 333 years of Spanish rule, the term Filipino referred to the Spaniards who were born in the archipelago. Indigenous Filipinos were usually referred to as "indios." The same misnomer was earlier applied by the Spaniards to the natives of the Americas believing they had reached India, though by this time "indio" had become synonymous with "indigenous", and was used on other native inhabitants outside of the Americas encountered by the Spanish.
Following the revolution, Spanish-American War in 1898, and the Philippine-American War, the native indios were left searching for a national identity. The native revolutionaries then called themselves Filipinos, taking ownership of the term that had earlier been utilized by the Philippine-born Spaniards. General Emilio Aguinaldo was among the first to apply "Filipino" as the national designation for the indigenous inhabitants of the Philippines, as well as all other persons born in the country. This act was intended to help unite the population and establish nationalism in the 1900's against the U.S. presence and occupation of the islands. The term indio, however, was still being used well into the mid part of the 20th century, as evidenced by Roman Catholic baptismal records.
Culture and religion
Filipino culture is primarly based on the cultures of the various native groups, though heavily influenced by Spanish, Mexican, and American cultures. The customs and traditions of the Roman Catholic faith are Spain's lasting legacy.
Unlike its Muslim majority neighbors, Malaysia and Indonesia, the Philippines is an overwhelmingly Christian country. As a result of Spanish colonization and evangelization spanning just over three centuries, most contemporary Filipinos, regardless of native ethnic group, are Christians; over 83% is Roman Catholic with various smaller Christian denominations. However, a significant minority of Filipinos (the majority in Mindanao and most of the Sulu Archipelago) are to this day still adherents of Islam. Filipino Muslims constitute 5% of the population.
Many Filipinos celebrations derive from Hispanic Catholic customes fused into native traditions. Some annual celebrations include the Peñafrancia festival in the Bicol region, the Sinulog, Ati-Atihan and the Black Nazarene. Residents of the villages of Guadalupe Viejo and Guadalupe Nuevo in Makati City celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Languages
According to Ethnologue, there are more than 170 languages spoken in the country. Tagalog is taught in schools throughout the country under the name Filipino. Although Filipino and English are used as the national linguæ francæ, many of the other major regional languages also serve as working languages where English or Filipino is not as entrenched. Ilokano, for example, is widely spoken as a second language in Northern Luzon, as well as Cebuano which is considered the lingua franca of Visayas and Mindanao.
Others major languages include Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tausug, Chabacano, Kinaray-a, and many others.
Diaspora
Worldwide Filipinos form the largest ethnic group in the Northern Marianas Islands, the second largest in both Palau and Guam, and the second largest Asian group in the United States. They also form significant minorities in Canada, Australia, Japan, Israel, and Germany.
Filipinos in North America
As part of the Spanish empire, Filipinos manned ships sailing between the far-flung New World possessions of the Spanish Habsburgs and their Bourbon successors, including California, Florida, and Louisiana.
Filipinos have been immigrating to the United States since the early 1900s. In 1903, pensionados arrived in the US from the Philippines to study in colleges and universites. Starting in 1906, Filipinos came to Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Washington to work on sugarcane plantations, farms, lumberyards, and salmon canneries. In the post-WW II era, Filipino physicians, nurses and other health care workers came to the US for specialty training. Most of them stayed in the US after their training stint and married Americans and raised families.
Filipino immigration in the United States dramatically increased after the US Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965.
The US Military also played a significant role in bringing Filipinos to the United States. The US began recruiting Filipinos into either the United States Navy at Subic Bay Naval Base to crew US Navy vessels and the United States Air Force at Clark Air Base . After their service stints, they settled in the US mainland. Additionally, many American soldiers married Filipinos and brought them to the United States.
Filipinos in Oceania
Filipinos have settled in the islands of Oceania, particularly in Micronesia, as part of the Hispanization process of Spain. Filipinos have been enlisted during the Spanish colonial period as soldiers. Also, the vast majority of Filipino exiled patriots were sent to Oceania. As a result, they now form the largest ethnic group in Northern Marianas Islands, as well as the second largest, in both Palau and Guam.
Subsequent immigrations of Filipinos also ensued. To this day, about five in ten Northern Marianas islanders have a direct Filipino ancestor.
See also
- Chinese Filipino
- Demographics of the Philippines
- Ethnic Groups of the Philippines
- Japanese Filipino
- Filipino American
- Ibanag
- Filipino muslim
- Bangsamoro
- Little Brown Brother
References
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- Peter Fuller (July 28). "Asia Pacific Research". Reading the Full Picture. Canberra, Australia: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.
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