Manide Tribe

NEGRITO PEOPLE

There are several human populations scattered throughout SEA that are thought to be descendants of the “First Sundaland People.” They are collectively known as Negritos and are currently found in the Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula and several islands in the Philippines.

The Negritos of the Philippines are comprised of approximately 25 different ethnolinguistic groups, widely scattered throughout the archipelago, totaling an estimated 15,000 people. All are or were hunter-gatherer societies. Today they are found in various stages of deculturation, and most are involved in agriculture.

In June 1983, the Agta of Casiguran numbered 616 individuals. The area they occupy is about 700 km²; about half is covered by primary rainforest, although the bigger trees have been thinned by loggers during the last two decades.

The Agta are by no means only recently exposed to outsiders. Since at least the turn of this century they have had increasing contact with Filipino immigrant homesteaders, military forces, municipal politicians, multinational corporations, and government development agencies.

In spite of these acculturative forces, the Agta were still living primarily as seminomadic hunters when my wife and I began to work with them 22 years ago. Throughout the 1960s, the primary economic activity of the adult males was hunting deer and wild pig with bow and arrow. However, for at least the last century their economy has revolved around an exchange relationship between the Agta and lowland Filipino neighbors. Until recently, the main feature of this exchange was the trade of wild meat for starch foods. In 1983, however, 24 percent of Agta families cultivated small slash-and-burn gardens.