| Group: | Filipino people  |
| Pop: | about 90 million people[1] |
| Regions: | Philippines |
| Languages: | Filipino, English, Philippine languages and among others. |
| Religions: | Christianity (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism), Islam, Philippine mythology, and other religions. |
| Related: | Austronesian people, Asian people, Eurasian and Mestizo. |
Filipino people refers to an ethnic group in the Philippines, a country in Southeast Asia. The name Filipino was derived from Las Islas Filipinas (The Philippine Islands), the Spanish name given to the Philippines in the 16th century, by Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos.[2] There are about 11 million Filipinos living worldwide.
Colloquially, Filipinos refer to themselves as "Pinoy" (feminine: "Pinay"), which is formed by taking the last four letters of "Pilipino" and adding the diminutive suffix "-y". Many Philippine languages lack /f/ as a phoneme and is substituted by /p/ turning "Filipino" into "Pilipino".
See also: History of the Philippines (Before 1521). The earliest human remains found in the Philippines are the fossilized fragments of a skull and jawbone, discovered on May 28, 1962 by Dr. Robert B. Fox, an American anthropologist of the National Museum.
Anthropologists who have examined these human remains agreed that it belonged to modern human beings. These include the homo sapiens, as distinguished from the mid-Pleistocene homo erectus species. This indicates that human remains were Mongoloid (Mongoloid being the term anthropologists applied to the ethnic group which migrated to Southeast Asia during the Holocene period and evolved into the Austronesian people.
About 30,000 years ago, the Negritos, who became the ancestors of the Aeta, Agta, Ayta, Ati, Dumagat and other tribes of the Philippines forms about .003% of the total Philippine population.
About 2000 to 6000 years ago, the Austronesian ethnic group originated from the Yunnan Plateau in Taiwan and settled in what is now the Philippines by sailing, using boats or by traveling in land bridges. Their descendance would migrated to the Malay Archipelago, the Pacific Islands and Madagascar.
The indigenous people of the Philippines were also in contact with other Asian people. Various ethnic groups established several communities formed by the assimilation of various indigenous Philippine kingdoms.
See also: Spanish settlement in the Philippines. The Spanish conquest between 1521 to 1565 initiated a period of Spanish colonization of the Philippine Islands that lasted for about 333 years. The islands were governed by Mexico City on behalf of the Spanish Empire. Early Spanish settlers were mostly explorers, soldiers, government official and religious missionares who were born in Spain and Mexico. The Peninsulares (Spaniards born in Spain) settled in the islands to governed the territory. A majority of the Peninsulares were Castillan Spanish but along with them are Andalusians, Catalonians and Basques. Intermarriage between Spaniards and the native people was encouraged, as it had been in the Americas. A minority of intermarriage and inter-breed took place between the two ethnic groups in the Philippines. Some settlers married the daughters of Rajahs and Datus (Chieftains) to reinforce the colonization of the islands while some married only Spaniards of pure Spanish descent. The succeeding generation, called Insulares (Spaniards from the islands) became town mayors and hacienderos (land owners) who were granted large plantations by the Spanish government. In some provinces in the Philippines the Spanish government encouraged foreign merchants to trade with the indigenous tribes. However, they were not given such privileges as the right to own land. From the close contact between other Asian people and Spanish people, a new society class were formed, known as the Principalía (Nobility).
Mexicans of European and Mestizo heritage also arrived in the Philippines. Between 1565 and 1815, Hispanos (Hispanics) from Mexico and Spain sailed to and from the Philippines, assisting Spain in its trade between Latin America and the Philippines.[3]
By the opening of the Suez Canal in 1867, the Philippines were opened for International trade, and there were some Europeans such as the British, German and French, who have settled in the islands. By the end of the Spanish period, the native ethnic groups of the Philippines began calling themselves Filipinos.
See also: American settlement in the Philippines. After the defeat of Spain during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Philippine Islands and other remaining Spanish colonies were ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris, for about 20 million dollars.[4] United States government were established in 1901 during the Philippine-American War. William Howard Taft became the first American Governor-General of the Philippines.[5]
World War II was a period of American migration to the Philippines. The Philippines gained independence from the United States in 1946. A minority of Americans settled in the Philippines. Some of these individuals married Filipinos.
Some genetic studies, based upon a minority samples of the indigenous population, have begun to provide clues to the origins of Filipino people. Much remains to be learned by larger studies of valid statistical significance about the ancestry of the various Austronesian Philippine ethnic groups.
A Stanford University study conducted during 2001 revealed that Y-chromosome Haplogroup O3-M122 (labeled as "Haplogroup L" in this study) predominates among Filipino people. This particular haplogroup is also predominant among Asian people. That finding is consistent with the theory that Austronesian people migrated from Taiwan and into the Philippines. Another haplogroup, Haplogroup O1a-M119 (labeled as "Haplogroup H" in this study), is also found among Filipinos. The rates of Haplogroup O1a are highest among the Taiwanese Aborigines. Overall, the genetic frequencies found among Filipinos point to the Ami tribe of Taiwan as their nearest genetic relative.[6]
A 2002 China Medical University study indicated that Filipinos shared genetic chromosome that is found among Taiwanese aborigines and other Asian people, and concluded that Taiwanenes aborigines are of Austronesian derivation.[7]
According to a research study by the University of the Philippines, genetic chromosome were found in Filipinos which are shared by people from different parts of Asia. [8]
See main article: Languages of the Philippines. According to Ethnologue, there are about 180 languages spoken in the Philippine Islands.
Filipino and English are the official languages. Other major languages of the Philippines include Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Bikol, Pangasinan, Tausug, Maguindanao, Maranao, Kinaray-a, Chavacano and Spanish.
See main article: Overseas Filipino. Filipinos form a minority ethnic group in the United States, Mexico, North America, Europe, Oceania and the Middle East.
The arrival of Filipinos in the Americas began during the Spanish period. Some of these individuals settled in Mexico and the United States.
There is also a minority of Filipinos in Northern Marianas Islands, Palau, Guam and Australia.[9] [10]