The term Proto-Malay, primeval Malays, proto-Hesperonesians, first-wave Hesperonesiansorprimeval Hesperonesians, which translates to Melayu Asli (aboriginal Malay) or Melayu Purba (ancient Malay) or Melayu Tua (old Malay),[5] refers to Austronesian speakers who moved from mainland Asia, to the Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago in a long series of migrations between 2500 and 1500 BCE, before that of the Deutero-Malays about a thousand years later.[6] The Proto-Malays are descendants of the first humans living in Southeast Asia, and are "ancestral" for humans in east Asia and the Americas.[7]
The Proto-Malays are believed to have been seafarers knowledgeable in oceanography who possessed advanced fishing as well as basic agricultural skills. Over the years, they settled in various places and adopted various customs and religions as a result of acculturation and inter-marriage with most of the people they come in contact with such as Orang Asli tribes such as the Semang and Senoi peoples.
The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Early History has pointed out three theories of the origin of the Proto-Malay:[8]
The Yunnan theory, Mekong river migration (first published in 1889). The theory of Proto-Malay originating from Yunnan is supported by R.H Geldern, J.H.C Kern, J.R Foster, J.R Logen, Slametmuljana and Asmah Haji Omar. Other evidence that supports this theory includes: stone tools found at Malay Archipelago which are analogous to Central Asian tools; similarity between Malay and Assam customs; and the fact that the Malay and Cambodian languages are kindred languages because the ancestral home of Cambodians originated at the source of Mekong River.
Some historical linguists have concluded that there is scant linguistic basis for a Proto-/Deutero-Malay split.[9] The findings suggests that the Proto-Malay and the Deutero-Malay peoples possibly come from the same origin. Previous theories suggested that the Deutero-Malays came in a second wave of migration, around 300 BCE, compared to the arrival of the Proto-Malays who came much earlier.[10]
Both Koentjaraningrat and Alfred Russel Wallace's (1869) research also concluded that most of the Moluccans came under the Proto-Malay classification with a admixture with Melanesian.[13] However, António Mendes Correia's findings re-classified the Timorese[14] in Alfred Russel Wallace's ethnological chart as predominantly Proto-Malay.[15] This is evidenced by the striking similarity in the architectural designs of traditional houses in Lospalos, East Timor with the Batak and Toraja people.[16]InSulawesi, not only are the Toraja people are regarded as part of the ancient Proto-Malay, but their neighboring Minahasan people as well who have migrated to the island in the megalithic period.[17]InSumatra, a little known pygmy tribe called the Mante peopleofAceh are regarded as Proto-Malay and are thought to be extinct.[18]
Other ethnic groups that are closely related to the Proto-Malay are such as the Nage people from Flores, which are considered a mixture of Proto-Malay and Melanesian[19][20] and the Sakai people from Riau, which were originally pure Proto-Malay until later they were forced into the interior by the Deutero-Malays which led to their mixing with the Negritos.[21] Off the west coast of Bengkulu, Sumatra Island, the indigenous people of Enggano Island known as the Enggano people are considered largely Proto-Malays.[22]
A comparison of height with an American (left), a mixed blood of Native Indonesians and Proto-Malay (middle) and a pure Negrito (right) from Northern Luzon, 1869.
In the Philippines, there are several people groups that have been identified as part of the Proto-Malay group:[26]
^Ernest Théodore Hamy (1896). Les races Malaiques et Americaines. L'Anthropologie.
^Fenneke Sysling (2016). Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia. NUS Press. p. 143. ISBN978-98-147-2207-0.
^Koentjaraningrat (2007). Villages in Indonesia. Equinox Publishing. p. 129. ISBN978-97-937-8051-1.
^Fenneke Sysling (2016). Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia. NUS Press. p. 118. ISBN978-98-147-2207-0.
^Ricardo Roque (2010). Headhunting and Colonialism: Anthropology and the Circulation of Human Skulls in the Portuguese Empire, 1870-1930. Springer. p. 175. ISBN978-02-302-5133-5.
^George Junus Aditjondro (1994). East Timor: an Indonesian intellectual speaks out. Australian Council for Overseas Aid. p. 29. ISBN09-098-3161-0.
^Fenneke Sysling (2016). Racial Science and Human Diversity in Colonial Indonesia. NUS Press. p. 119. ISBN978-98-147-2207-0.
^Reginald Ruggles Gates (1948). Human ancestry from a genetical point of view. Harvard Univ. Press. p. 354.
^Parsudi Suparlan (1995). Orang Sakai di Riau: masyarakat terasing dalam masyarakat Indonesia: kajian mengenai perubahan dan kelestarian kebudayaan Sakai dalam proses transformasi mereka ke dalam masyarakat Indonesia melalui Proyek Pemulihan Pembinaan Kesejahteraan Masyarakat Terasing, Departemen Sosial, Republik Indonesia. Yayasan Obor Indonesia. p. 40. ISBN97-946-1215-4.
^Charles Alfred Fisher (1964). South-east Asia: a social, economic, and political geography. Methuen. p. 240. OCLC489670953.
^Jean Michaud, Margaret Byrne Swain & Meenaxi Barkataki-Ruscheweyh (2016). Historical Dictionary of the Peoples of the Southeast Asian Massif. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 304. ISBN978-14-422-7279-8.
^Geoffrey Benjamin & Cynthia Chou, ed. (2002). Tribal Communities in the Malay World: Historical, Cultural and Social Perspectives. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 22. ISBN98-123-0167-4.
^Bulletin - Institute for Medical Research, Issues 19-20. Institute for Medical Research. 1983. p. 29.
^ abIgnacio Villamor & Felipe Buencamino (1921). "Philippines. Census Office". Census of the Philippine Islands Taken Under the Direction of the Philippine Legislature in the Year 1918, Volume 2. Bureau of printing.
^Michael Grosberg; Greg Bloom; Trent Holden; Anna Kaminski; Paul Stiles (2015). Lonely Planet Philippines. Lonely Planet. ISBN978-17-436-0537-0.
^ abWilliam Cameron Forbes (1985). The Philippine Islands. Harvard University Press. p. 258. ISBN97-117-0712-8.
^ ab"Ligaya Tiamson- Rubin". Kasaysayan at pag-unlad ng Wikang Pambansa ng Pilipinas. Rex Bookstore, Inc. 2008. p. 3. ISBN978-97-123-3321-7.
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