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Orang Asli (Malaysian people)


  • Here are entered works on the Indigenous peoples of Malaya treated collectively. Works about individual ethnic groups in Malaya are entered under the name of the ethnic group, e.g., [Semang (Malaysian people).]
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    • Asli (Malaysian people)
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  • Sources

    • found: Nicholas, C. The Orang Asli and the contest for resources : indigenous politics, development, and identity in Peninsular Malaysia, 2000:p. 3 (The Orang Asli are the indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia; the original or first peoples of the Peninsula; collective term for the 18 ethnic subgroups officially classified for administrative purposes under Negrito, Senoi and Aboriginal Malay) pp. 6-7 (Before 1960, the Orang Asli, as an ethnic category, did not exist. The various indigenous minority peoples in the Peninsula did not see themselves as a homogenous group, nor did they consciously adopt common ethnic markers to differentiate themselves from the dominant population; in the colonial period, the generic terms 'sakai' and 'aborigines' were commonly used to refer to this group of people--terms that carried varying derogatory connotations; realising that communist insurgents were able to get the sympathy and support of the indigenous inhabitants in the forest, partly by referring to them as 'Orang Asal' (original people), the colonial government in turn adopted the next closest term 'Orang Asli' (literally 'natural people', but now taken to mean 'original people' as well). It also became official policy that the Malay term be used even in the English language.)
    • found: Gomes, A.G. Modernity and Malaysia, 2007:p. 17 (the ethnic label 'Orang Asli' refers to all the indigenous non-Malay peoples of Peninsular Malaysia; 'Orang Asal' is now used as an inclusive autonym by indigenous communities to refer to the non-dominant indigenes in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak)
    • found: Center for Orang Asli Concerns website, May 10, 2016:About the Orang Asli (The Orang Asli are the indigenous minority peoples of Peninsular Malaysia. The name is a Malay term which transliterates as 'original peoples' or 'first peoples'. It is a collective term introduced by anthropologists and administrators for the (officially) 18 ethnic subgroups generally classified for official purposes under Negrito, Senoi and Proto-Malay. The Orang Asli, nevertheless, are not a homogeneous group. Each has its own language and culture, and perceives itself as different from the others. Linguistically, some of the northern Orang Asli groups (especially the Senoi and Negrito groups) speak languages - now termed Aslian languages - that suggest a historical link with the indigenous peoples in Burma, Thailand and Indo-China. The members of the Proto-Malay (or Aboriginal Malay) subgroups, whose ancestors were believed to have migrated from the Indonesian islands to the south of the peninsula, speak dialects which belong to the same Austronesian family of languages as Malay, with the exceptions of the Semelai and Temoq dialects (which are Austroasiatic).)
    • found: Malaysia and the "original people", c1997:p. 9 (Orang Asli make up less than 1 percent of Peninsular Malaysia's 16 million people (in 1994); the Orang Asli, totaling about 90,000 people in 1995, are not a single ethnic group. They comprise at least nineteen distinct groups, varying in size from about 100 to 20,000 and differing in language, social organization, economy, religion, and physical characteristics. What these groups have in common is that they are non-Malay indigenous peoples, descendants of peoples who occupied the Malay Peninsula before the establishment of Malay kingdoms during the second millennium A.D. (The only exception are the Orang Kuala, Muslim immigrants from Sumatra who specialize in sea fishing and strand foraging.)) p. 10 (Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that Orang Asli are direct descendants of the Hoabinhians, the earliest well-documented inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula)
    • found: Masron, T. Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia, in Journal of Ritsumeikan, social sciences and humanities, v. 6 (2013), viewed online May 10, 2016:abstr. (In Peninsular Malaysia, Orang Asli is separated into three main tribal groups includes Semang (Negrito), Senoi and Proto Malay (Aboriginal Malay) and consists of 19 ethnic) p. 77 (The indigenous peoples of Malaysia, or Orang Asal, are not a homogenous group. There are at least 95 subgroups, each with their own distinct language and culture. However, they are all marginalised socioeconomically and culturally in Malaysia. Politically, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are in a relatively better position compared to the Orang Asli (the Malay term for the indigenous peoples in Peninsular Malaysia) as they are part of the ruling government)
    • found: Jean Pala. Profil orang asli di Semenanjung Malaysia = Profile of the Orang Asli in Peninsular Malaysia, 1997:English section, p. 1 (the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia; an indigenous population group constituting the Senoi, Proto Malay and Negrito) p. 9 (While the Orang Asli population is generally categorised under three major ethnic groups, namely the Senoi, Proto Malay and Negrito, they constitute smaller dialectic groups)
    • found: Linville Jumper, R.D. Power and politics : the story of Malaysia's Orang Asli, c1997:p. 1 (The Orang Asli are a heterogeneous tribal people, occasionally referred to as aborigines, of uncertain origin confronting tenuous circumstances in polygenous West Malaysia. There are three broad categories of Malaysian aborigine subsumed under the Orang Asli label: the Semang, Seno, and Jakun--each of which possesses its own sub-components. By official estimates the Orang Asli constitute less than one percent of West Malaysia's population)
    • found: Carey, I. Orang Asli : the aboriginal tribes of Peninsular Malaysia, 1976:p. 1 (the Orang Asli or 'aborigines' of Malaysia) p. 3 (In the early days of British administration, they were usually called 'Sakai'; 'Sakai' is a Malay word meaning 'slaves' or 'dependants' and it is not surprising that the Orang Asli object to it; also, sometimes 'Sakai' has been used to refer to various tribes that we call 'Senoi' today) p. 4 ('Peninsular Malaysia' refers to the country formerly known as West Malaysia, and prior to that as Malaya. For convenience, the term 'Malaya' is frequently used throughout this book)
  • General Notes

    • Here are entered works on the Indigenous peoples of Malaya treated collectively. Works about individual ethnic groups in Malaya are entered under the name of the ethnic group, e.g., [Semang (Malaysian people).]
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  • Change Notes

    • 2016-05-10: new
    • 2023-07-21: revised
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