Austronesians
The Austronesians as Viewed by Peter Bellwood, Wilhelm Solheim II, and Zeus Salazar
Prepared by Jezza Mae S. Dajac
The term Austronesian contextually refers to a population group present in Southeast Asia or Oceania who speaks, or had ancestors who spoke, one of the Austronesian languages. Apart from the Polynesian people of Oceania, the Austronesian people include: Taiwanese Aborigines, the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia and Malaysia.
There had been several theories that posit the Austronesians as the origin of the Philippine population. Among the leading proponents of these ideas are Australian National University professor Peter Bellwood, American anthropologist and the most senior practitioner of archaeology in Southeast Asia Wilhelm Solheim II, and Filipino anthropologist Zeus Salazar. Their viewpoints are to be separately presented here.
Bellwood's Austronesian Diffusion Theory/ Out-of-Taiwan (OOT) Hypothesis/ Mainland Origin Hypothesis
Rather than believing that Austroloids were the ancestors of the Filipino race, Professor Bellwood argued that Austronesians were the roots of the population inhabiting most of the Asian territories today. His Out-of-Taiwan Hypothesis is based largely on linguistics and is mainly derived from American linguistic Robert Blust’ model of Austronesian diffusion, lately known as the Blust model. Bellwood incorporated archaeological data to Blust’s idea to arrive at his own theory.
He posited that between 4500 BCE and 4000 BCE, developments in agricultural technology in the Yunnan Plateau in China created pressures which drove certain people to migrate to Taiwan. This is what explains the term “Out-of-Taiwan Hypothesis”. Bellwood also believed that these people either already had or began to develop a unique language of their own, which he referred to as “Proto-Austronesian”.
By around 3000-3500 BCE, these groups started differentiating into three or four distinct subcultures, and by 2500 to 1500 BC,
Prepared by Jezza Mae S. Dajac
The term Austronesian contextually refers to a population group present in Southeast Asia or Oceania who speaks, or had ancestors who spoke, one of the Austronesian languages. Apart from the Polynesian people of Oceania, the Austronesian people include: Taiwanese Aborigines, the majority ethnic groups of East Timor, Indonesia and Malaysia.
There had been several theories that posit the Austronesians as the origin of the Philippine population. Among the leading proponents of these ideas are Australian National University professor Peter Bellwood, American anthropologist and the most senior practitioner of archaeology in Southeast Asia Wilhelm Solheim II, and Filipino anthropologist Zeus Salazar. Their viewpoints are to be separately presented here.
Bellwood's Austronesian Diffusion Theory/ Out-of-Taiwan (OOT) Hypothesis/ Mainland Origin Hypothesis
Rather than believing that Austroloids were the ancestors of the Filipino race, Professor Bellwood argued that Austronesians were the roots of the population inhabiting most of the Asian territories today. His Out-of-Taiwan Hypothesis is based largely on linguistics and is mainly derived from American linguistic Robert Blust’ model of Austronesian diffusion, lately known as the Blust model. Bellwood incorporated archaeological data to Blust’s idea to arrive at his own theory.
He posited that between 4500 BCE and 4000 BCE, developments in agricultural technology in the Yunnan Plateau in China created pressures which drove certain people to migrate to Taiwan. This is what explains the term “Out-of-Taiwan Hypothesis”. Bellwood also believed that these people either already had or began to develop a unique language of their own, which he referred to as “Proto-Austronesian”.
By around 3000-3500 BCE, these groups started differentiating into three or four distinct subcultures, and by 2500 to 1500 BC,