User:Obsidian Soul/sandbox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Austronesian peoples, or more accurately Austronesian-speaking peoples,[12] are a group of various peoples in Southeast Asia, Oceania and East Africa that speak Austronesian languages. The nations and territories predominantly populated by Austronesian-speaking peoples are known collectively as Austronesia.[13]
Total population | |
---|---|
c. 400 million | |
Regions with significant populations | |
| |
Languages | |
Austronesian languages | |
Religion | |
Animism, Buddhism, Christianity (Protestantism, Roman Catholicism), Folk religion, Hinduism (Balinese Hinduism), Indigenous religion, Islam, Shamanism |
They include Taiwanese aborigines, the majority of ethnic groups in the Philippines, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Polynesia, Micronesia and Madagascar, as well as the Malays of Singapore, the Polynesians of New Zealand and Hawaii, the non-Papuan peoples of Melanesia. All of these peoples can be connected through the Austronesian language family. They are also found in the regions of Southern Thailand, the Cham areas in Vietnam and Cambodia, and the Hainan island province of China, parts of Sri Lanka, southern Myanmar, the southern tip of South Africa, Suriname, and some of the Andaman Islands. On top of that, modern-era migration brought Austronesian-speaking people to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, Macau and Mauritius, as well as the West Asian countries. Ethnic Maldivians also possess a genetic connection to the Austronesian-speaking groups of maritime Southeast Asia via gene flow from the Malay Archipelago.[14][15]
Another term used by Wilhelm G. Solheim II to refer to Austronesian-speakers with a maritime-oriented culture is Nusantao ("south island people"), as part of his Nusantao Maritime Trading and Communication Network hypothesis.[16]