The linguistic connections between
Madagascar,
Polynesia, and
Southeast Asia, particularly the similarities between
Malagasy,
Malay, and
Polynesian numerals, were recognized early in the
colonial era by European authors.
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach added Austronesians as the fifth category to his
"varieties" of humans in the second edition of
De Generis Humani Varietate Nativa (1781). He initially grouped them by geography and thus called Austronesians the "people from the southern world". In the third edition, published in 1795, he named Austronesians the "
Malay race", or the "
brown race", after correspondence with
Joseph Banks, who was part of the
first voyage of James Cook. The other varieties Blumenbach identified were the "Caucasians" (white), "Mongolians" (yellow), "Ethiopians" (black), and "Americans" (red). Blumenbach's definition of the "Malay" race is largely identical to the modern distribution of the Austronesian peoples, including not only Islander Southeast Asians but also the people of Madagascar and the Pacific Islands. Although Blumenbach's work was later used in
scientific racism, Blumenbach was a
monogenist and did not believe the human "varieties" were inherently inferior to each other. Rather, he believed that the Malay race was a combination of the "Ethiopian" and "Caucasian" varieties. , depicting
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's five human races. The region inhabited by the "
Malay race" is shown enclosed in dotted lines. Like in most 19th-century sources, Islander
Melanesians are excluded.
Taiwan, which was
annexed by the Qing dynasty in the 17th century, is also excluded. By the 19th century, however, a classification of Austronesians as being a subset of the "Mongolian" race was favored, as was
polygenism. The
Australo-Melanesian populations of Southeast Asia and Melanesia (whom Blumenbach initially classified as a "subrace" of the "Malay" race) were also now being treated as a separate "Ethiopian" race by authors like
Georges Cuvier,
Conrad Malte-Brun (who first coined the term "
Oceania" as
Océanique),
Julien-Joseph Virey, and
René Lesson.
Dental modification on a
Mentawai man in the
Mentawai Islands,
Dutch East Indies, c. 1938 '' (lit. 'Cutting teeth') in
Bali Teeth blackening was the custom of dyeing one's teeth black with various
tannin-rich plant dyes. It was practiced throughout almost the entire range of Austronesia, including Island Southeast Asia, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Island Melanesia, reaching as far east as
Malaita. However, it was absent in Polynesia. It also existed in non-Austronesian populations in Mainland Southeast Asia and Japan. The practice was primarily preventative, as it reduced the chances of developing
tooth decay, similar to modern
dental sealants. It also had cultural significance and was seen as beautiful. A common sentiment was that blackened teeth separated humans from animals. For example in
Bali,
Indonesia,
Potong gigi, also known as
mesangih or
mepandes, is a form of ritual
body modification of adolescents, typically
teenagers, in parts of Bali that involves the filing of the
canine teeth. Traditional Balinese belief states that "protruding canines represent the animal-like nature of human beings";
Religion The religious traditions of the Austronesian people focus mostly on ancestral spirits, nature spirits, and gods, making it a complex
animistic religion. Mythologies vary by culture and geographical location but share common basic aspects, such as
ancestor worship, animism,
shamanism, and the belief in a
spirit world and powerful deities. There is also a great amount of shared mythology and a common belief in
Mana. Many of these beliefs have gradually been replaced. Examples of native religions include:
Indigenous Philippine folk religions (including beliefs in
Anito),
Sunda Wiwitan,
Kejawen,
Kaharingan, and
Māori religion. Many Austronesian religious beliefs have been incorporated into foreign religions, such as
Hinduism,
Buddhism,
Christianity, and
Islam, which Austronesian peoples were introduced to later. Poteau funéraire, aloalo, détail, Musée du quai Branly.jpg|
Aloalo funerary pole of the
Sakalava people of Madagascar Nias Ahnenfiguren Museum Rietberg RIN 403.jpg|
Adu zatua ancestor carvings of the
Nias people of western Indonesia Anitos of Northern tribes (c. 1900, Philippines).jpg|
Taotao carvings of
anito ancestor spirits from the
Ifugao people, Philippines Tikimarquesas.jpg|Stone
tiki from
Hiva Oa, Marquesas Kii at Puuhonua O Honaunau 01.jpg|''
Ki'i'' carving at
Puuhonua o Hōnaunau, Hawaii Maori wooden carvings in the Rotorua Museum-2.jpg|Māori
poupou from the Ruato tomb of
Rotorua AhuTongariki.JPG|
Moai in
Ahu Tongariki, Rapa Nui Tari Sigale-gale Pulau Samosir.jpg|
Bataks Sigalegale (wooden puppet funeral dance performance) near
Samosir Island, Indonesia. Tana Toraja, Tampangallo, coffins and tau taus (6823243058).jpg|
Toraja tau tau (wooden statue of the deceased) in
South Sulawesi, Indonesia (also note the boat-shaped coffins) Balinese Traditional House Shrines 1452.jpg|
Balinese small familial house shrines to
honor the households' ancestors in Indonesia File:Banaue Rice Terraces and its statue friend.JPG|
Ifugao hogang guardian spirits overlooking the
Banaue Rice Terraces in the highlands of Luzon-->
Writing Rongorongo B-v Aruku-Kurenga (color) edit1.jpg|Tablet B of
rongorongo, an undeciphered system of glyphs from
Rapa Nui Petroglifos en Orongo I.jpg|An example of the abundant
petroglyphs in
Orongo, Rapa Nui, associated with the
tangata manu cult of
Makemake. Rongorongo does not appear in any of these petroglyphs. Talang Tuo Inscription.jpg|The
Talang Tuo inscription, a 7th-century
Srivijaya stele featuring
Old Malay written in a derivative of the
Pallava script DoctrinaChristianaEspanolaYTagala8-9.jpg|Page from
Doctrina Cristiana Española Y Tagala (1593) featuring the
Baybayin script alongside the Latin alphabet With the possible exception of
rongorongo on
Rapa Nui, Austronesians did not have an indigenous writing system but rather adopted or developed writing systems after contact with various non-Austronesian cultures. There existed various forms of symbolic communication using
pictograms and petroglyphs, but these did not encode language. Rongorongo, said to have originally been called
kohau motu mo rongorongo ("lines of inscriptions for chanting out"), is the only pre-contact indigenous Austronesian system of glyphs that appear to be true writing or at least
proto-writing. They consist of around 120 glyphs, ranging from representations of plants to animals, celestial objects, and geometric shapes. They were inscribed into wooden tablets about long using shark teeth and obsidian flakes. The wood allegedly came from
toromiro and
makoi trees, which is notable given that Rapa Nui was completely deforested at the
time of European contact. Of the surviving two dozen tablets, a few were made from trees introduced after European contact, as well as wood originating from European ships and
driftwood. Rapa Nui also has a rich assemblage of
petroglyphs largely associated with the
tangata manu ("birdman") cult of
Makemake. Although some rongorongo glyphs may have been derived from these petroglyphs, rongorongo does not appear in any of the abundant rock carvings in Rapa Nui and seems to be restricted to the wooden tablets. The tablets were first described by an outsider in 1864 by the Catholic missionary
Eugène Eyraud, who said they were found "in all the houses". However, he paid them little attention, and they remained unnoticed by the outside world. It wasn't until 1869 that one of the tablets came into the possession of
Florentin-Étienne Jaussen, the
Bishop of Tahiti. He brought the tablets to the world's attention and instructed the Rapa Nui mission to gather more information about them. But by then, most of the tablets were allegedly already destroyed, presumed to have been used as fuel by the natives on the deforested island. In Southeast Asia, the first true writing systems of pre-modern Austronesian cultures were all derived from the
Grantha and
Pallava Brahmic scripts, all of which are
abugidas from South India. Various forms of abugidas spread throughout Austronesian cultures in Southeast Asia as kingdoms became
Indianized through early maritime trading. The oldest use of abugida scripts in Austronesian cultures are 4th-century stone inscriptions written in
Cham, from Vietnam. There are numerous other Brahmic-derived writing systems among Southeast Asian Austronesians, usually specific to a certain ethnic group. Notable examples include
Balinese,
Batak,
Baybayin,
Buhid,
Hanunó'o,
Javanese,
Kulitan,
Lontara,
Old Kawi,
Rejang,
Rencong,
Sundanese, and
Tagbanwa. They vary from having letters with rounded shapes to characters with sharp
cuneiform-like angles, as a result of the difference in writing mediums, with the former being ideal for writing on soft leaves and the latter on bamboo panels. The use of the scripts ranged from mundane records to encoding esoteric knowledge on
magico-religious rituals and
folk medicine. In regions that converted to Islam,
abjads derived from the
Arabic script started replacing the earlier abugidas at around the 13th century in Southeast Asia.
Madagascar adopted the Arabic script in the 14th century. Abjads, however, have an even greater inherent problem with encoding Austronesian languages than abugidas, because Austronesian languages have more varied and salient vowels that the Arabic script usually cannot encode. As a result, the Austronesian adaptations such as the
Jawi and the
Pegon scripts have been modified with a system of
diacritics that encode sounds, both vowels and consonants, native to Austronesian languages but absent in
Semitic ones. In the 1990s, elements of the drawings were adapted into a modern
constructed script called
Avoiuli by the
Turaga indigenous movement on
Pentecost Island. ==Genetic studies==