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negritos

Posted on June 3, 2006 @ 11:50 am by massimo | Filed under: another green world, blog, people, philippines, travel, wordpress

negritos aetas pygmies philippines aynaku illustration adobe

Aetas are the black pygmies of the Philippines. They have long inhabited the archipelago and are believed to be the aborigines of the Philippines; Aetas were largely displaced by the invading Austronesian-speaking migrants. Generally called Negritos, after 1565 Spanish expedition, in 1911 they were described as follows: “The men are about 1,45 mt. in average height, the women are shorter. Their colour is black, their skull decidedly round, their hair frizzy, their legs thin, their toes prehensile. They tatoo themselves and wear only a g-string. They have no fixed abodes but roam about in groups of a few families. They are skilful with the bow and in throwing stones, and they can easily kindle a fire, even in the wet season, by rubbing together two pieces of dry bamboo. Their food consisted principally of game, roots, and wild fruits. The women, who do all the work, collect wax and wild honey, which are their principal staples in trade. Few Negritos live to be fifty years of age…”
Actually Negritos are less than 30.000 people. In the early nineties their little community in Boracay was forced -somehow- to live in a isolated area called Lagoon far from the tourist business. But times are changing and now days it turns out that it’s useful to have them joining Boracy’s “Dragon Boat International Challenge” as a sponsored rowing team! And it seems they are really though. No wonder.
I’m glad to dedicate my illustration to this bright-eyed and shy folk…

Illustration Friday’s topic is portait

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 3rd, 2006 and is filed under another green world, blog, people, philippines, travel, wordpress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

12 people have left comments

nice illo to go with a great story. sad but true there seems to have been a lot of aborigines the world over who suffered the same fate all in the name of progress.

michael dailey wrote on June 3, 2006 - 2:23 pm CEST

Beautiful portrait! You seem to like fish :) I think you post is also a tribute to cultural diversity!

cristosova wrote on June 3, 2006 - 3:43 pm CEST

Anaku, this is absolutely beautiful… and thank you for the lovely dedication to this remarkable people.

Gingerpixels wrote on June 3, 2006 - 6:48 pm CEST

I guess they are somehow related to other “Negritos” in Thailand (Chaokhao), Malaysia (Orang Asli) or Indonesia. In Thailand I visited one of the villages where some of them have been compelled to settle down. Few elements still remain of their culture, but they still sell natural medicine from the forest to lowland Thai people

Giancarlo wrote on June 3, 2006 - 7:58 pm CEST

really beautiful and i like the fish most especially. makes me want to visit my homeland. thank you for sharing them to rest of the world.

i hope i can come back regularly to blogland soon.

isay wrote on June 4, 2006 - 4:49 pm CEST

Fabulous picture - that fish represents great bounty

What a great tribute to a people that are on the verge of being lost…

Don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but I’ve recently been reading “Guns, Germs and Steel”, which has been a great way to help me understand some of the reasons why things are as they are… doesn’t make them good but does make them more understandable.

There is a wikipedia entry on it if you haven’t read it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs_and_Steel

Caroline wrote on June 4, 2006 - 7:15 pm CEST

WOW!!! once again you blow my mind! I LOooove this post! I am always fascinated by small tribes that somehow still maintain there lifestyles and customs. I wonder why they don’t live past 50? You would think they would live to be very old! Beautiful illustration to accompany a fascinating tribute!

valgalart wrote on June 4, 2006 - 7:28 pm CEST

Thanks for your message, I haven’t jumped in to the cold Finnish waters yet, have to wait to July. Your illo is so like your great,special style again, your inner colours and great drawing.

Katili wrote on June 6, 2006 - 4:51 am CEST

thanks for the enlightenment… your illo and story are brilliant… well done…

michaeloconnell wrote on June 7, 2006 - 4:11 am CEST

gracias pela visita!!!
great this illustration!

Regiana Queiroz Zanichelli wrote on June 7, 2006 - 1:51 pm CEST

Amazing illustration and such compelling background information. Your work stands alone and is always intriguing!

Amy Zaleski wrote on June 7, 2006 - 2:09 pm CEST

I love your art the most but your posts are always so wonderful as well! So interesting. . .I love the colors of your illio. The graduation of color in the fish. And have I mentioned how much I am amazed at your lighting. . of course I have because I have to every time I come here. It is just perfect how you shade and highlight. Also - you always do the greatest hair in all of your illustrations.

Tiffini Elektra X wrote on June 9, 2006 - 1:38 am CEST

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