Semang

Semang
Sakai / Pangan / Ngò' Pa
A Batek family in Kuala Tahan, Pahang, Malaysia
Total population
Approximately 4,800
Regions with significant populations
Malay Peninsula:
 MalaysiaApproximately 2,000–3,000[1]
 Thailand300[2]
Languages
Jedek,[3] Batek, Lanoh, Jahai, Mendriq, Mintil, Kensiu, Kintaq, Ten'edn, Thai, Malay, English
Religion
Animism and significant adherents of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Other Orang Asli, Maniq, Andamanese[4]

The Semang are an ethnic-minority group of the Malay Peninsula.[5][6] They live in mountainous and isolated forest regions of Perak, Pahang, Kelantan[7] and Kedah of Malaysia[8] and the southern provinces of Thailand.[9] The Semang are among the different ethnic groups of Southeast Asia who, based on their dark skin and other perceived physical similarities, are sometimes referred to by the superficial term Negrito.

They have been recorded since before the 3rd century. They are ethnologically described as nomadic hunter-gatherers.[10]

The Semang are grouped together with other Orang Asli groups, a diverse grouping of several distinct hunter-gatherer populations. Historically they preferred to trade with the local population. For more than one thousand years, some of the Semang people remained in isolation while others were either subjected to slave raids or forced to pay tribute to Southeast Asian rulers.[11]

  1. ^ Geoffrey Benjamin & Cynthia Chou (2002). Tribal Communities in the Malay World. p. 36.
  2. ^ "Kensiu in Thailand". Joshua Project. Retrieved 10 November 2016.
  3. ^ Joanne Yager & Niclas Burenhult (6 February 2018). "LISTEN: Unknown language discovered in Southeast Asia". Lund University. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  4. ^ John M. Cooper (April 1940). "Andamanese-Semang-Eta Cultural Relations". Primitive Man. 13 (2): 29–47. doi:10.2307/3316490. JSTOR 3316490. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  5. ^ "35 Map". The Andaman Association. 18 August 2002. Archived from the original on 20 November 2003. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  6. ^ "35. The Negrito of Malaysia: Semang". The Andaman Association. 18 August 2002. Archived from the original on 25 December 2002. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  7. ^ "Association of British Malaya". British Malaya, Volume 1. Newton. 1927. p. 259. OCLC 499453712.
  8. ^ Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman (1998). The Encyclopedia of Malaysia: Early History, Volume 4. Archipelago Press. ISBN 981-3018-42-9.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Fix, Alan G. (June 1995). "Malayan Paleosociology: Implications for Patterns of Genetic Variation among the Orang Asli". American Anthropologist. New Series. 97 (2): 313–323. doi:10.1525/aa.1995.97.2.02a00090. JSTOR 681964.
  11. ^ Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America