Aeta people

Aeta (Ayta 'aɪtə ), Agta and Dumagat, are collective terms for several indigenous Filipinos who live in various parts of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. They are also known as "Philippines Negrito", and included in the wider Negrito grouping of Southeast Asia, with whom they share superficial common physical characteristics such as dark skin tones, short statures, frizzy to curly-hair, and a higher frequency of naturally lighter hair colour (blondism) relative to the general population. They are thought to be among the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines, preceding the Austronesian migrations. Regardless, modern Aeta populations have significant Austronesian admixture and speak Austronesian languages. Aeta communities were historically nomadic hunter-gatherers, typically consisting of approximately 1 to 5 families per mobile group. Groups under the "Aeta" umbrella term are normally referred to after their geographic locations or their common languages. The endonyms of most of the various Aeta peoples are derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *ʔa(R)ta (also reconstructed as *qata or *ʔata) meaning "[dark skinned] person." This is in contrast to the other terms for "person" in other Philippine (and Oceanian) groups derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tau (e.g. Tagalog tao), which refers to lighter-skinned groups with majority Austronesian descent. Lawrence A. Reid wrote that *ʔa(R)ta may have originally been the Negrito word for "person" in Northern Luzon, but was adopted into Austronesian languages with the meaning of "dark-skinned person", after the arrival of Austronesian migrants to the Philippines from Taiwan. A common folk etymology is that the name "Aeta" is derived from itom or itim meaning, "black", but this is incorrect. The term "Dumagat" or "Dumaget" is an exonym meaning "[people] from Magat River." Although it is commonly confused with the etymology of the Visayan Dumagat ("sea people", from the root word dagat - "sea") of Mindanao. Other exonyms of the Aeta are more derogatory.