Orang Asli

The Orang Asli are a heterogeneous indigenous population forming a national minority in Malaysia. They are the oldest inhabitants of Peninsular Malaysia.
As of 2017, the Orang Asli accounted for 0.7% of the population of Peninsular Malaysia. Although seldom mentioned in the country's demographics, the Orang Asli are a distinct group, alongside the Malays, Chinese, Indians, and the indigenous East Malaysians of Sabah and Sarawak. Their special status is enshrined in law. Orang Asli settlements are scattered among the mostly Malay population of the country, often in mountainous areas or the jungles of the rainforest.
While outsiders often perceive them as a single group, there are many distinctive groups and tribes, each with its own language, culture and customary land. Each group considers itself independent and different from the other communities. What mainly unites the Orang Asli is their distinctiveness from the three major ethnic groups of Peninsular Malaysia and their historical sidelining in social, economic, and cultural matters. Like other indigenous peoples, Orang Asli strive to preserve their own distinctive culture and identity, which is linked by physical, economic, social, cultural, territorial, and spiritual ties to their immediate natural environment.

Terminology

Prior to the official use of the term "Orang Asli" beginning in the early 1960s, the common terms for the indigenous population of Peninsular Malaysia varied. Thomas John Newbold recorded that "Malays" of Rembau in present-day Negeri Sembilan had given their local forest-dwelling hunter-gathering population the contemporary name of orang benua meaning "people of the soil or country". Towards the end of British colonial rule on the Malay Peninsula, there were attempts to classify these disparate groups. Residents of the southern regions often called them Jakun, and those in the northern regions called them Sakai. Later on, all indigenous groups became known as Sakai, meaning Aborigines. The term "aborigines", as an official name, appeared in the English version of the Constitution of British Malaya and the laws of the country. Past colonial rule by European and Islamic powers gave both the Malay word Sakai and the English term Aborigines pejorative connotations, hinting at the supposed backwardness and primitivism of these people. During the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s Communist rebels, seeking the support of the indigenous tribes, began referring to them as Orang Asal, meaning "native people": the adjective asal itself from "origin". The Communists won their support, and the government, seeking to do the same, began adopting the same terminology. Thus, the new, slightly modified term "Orang Asli", carrying the same sense of "original people", was born. The term was officially used in English, where it is identical in both the singular and the plural. Despite its origin as an exonym, the term was adopted by indigenous peoples themselves.

Ethnogenesis

The Orang Asli makes up one of 95 subgroups of indigenous people of Malaysia, the Orang Asal, each with their own distinct language and culture. The British colonial government classified the indigenous population of the Malay Peninsula on physiological and cultural-economic grounds upon which the Aboriginal Department developed their own classification of indigenous tribes based on their physical characteristics, linguistic kinship, cultural practices and geographical settlement. This divides Orang Asli into three main categories, with six ethnic subgroups each.

Negrito, generally located in the northern portion of the peninsula, were short dark-skinned nomadic hunter-gatherers with Asiatic facial features and tightly curly hair.
Senoi, residing in the central region, were wavy-haired people taller than the Negrito, engaged in slash-and-burn agriculture, and periodically changed their place of residence.
Proto-Malay, living in the southern region, were settled farmers, lighter-skinned, of normal height, with straight hair.

This division does not claim to be scientific and has many shortcomings. The boundaries between the groups are not fixed, and merge into each other, and the Orang Asli themselves use names associated with their specific area or by a local term meaning 'human being'.
Semang are part of the earliest modern human migration that arrived Peninsular Malaysia 50 to 60 thousand years ago, while Senoi are part of Austroasiatic population that arrived Peninsular Malaysia 10 to 30 thousand years ago. Some earlier hypotheses pointed out the Semang and Senoi as descendants of the Hoabinhian people, Further research showed Semang shared genetic drift with ancient genomes from Hoabinhian ancestry, suggesting that they are genetically closer to the ancestors of Hoabinhian hunter-gatherers who occupied northern parts of Peninsular Malaysia during the late Pleistocene. Both groups speak Austroasiatic languages.
The Proto-Malays, who speak Austronesian languages, migrated to the area between 2000 and 1500 BCE during the Austronesian expansion. Along with the ethnic Malays, they originated from the seaborne migration of the Austronesian peoples, ultimately from Taiwan. It is believed that Proto-Malays were the first wave of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian speakers that settled Borneo and the western Sunda Islands initially, but didn't penetrate Peninsula Malaysia due to preexisting populations of Austroasiatic speakers. Later Austronesian migrations from either western Borneo or Sumatra, settled the coastal areas of Peninsular Malaysia became the modern Malayic-speaking populations. However, other authors have also concluded that there is no real distinction between Proto-Malays and Deutero-Malays, and both are descendants of a single migration event into Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and southern Vietnam from western Borneo, This migration diverged into the modern speakers of the Malayic and Chamic branches of the Austronesian language family.
The Proto-Malays were originally considered ethnic Malay, but reclassified arbitrarily as part of Orang Asli by the British colonial authorities due to the similarity of their socio-economic and lifestyles with the Senoi and Semang. There are various degrees of admixture within all three groups. Only over time did indigenous peoples begin to identify themselves under the common name "Orang Asli" as a marker of collective identity as natives, distinct from the predominant ethnic groups more recently arrived to the peninsula. Orang Asli seldom associate themselves with the categories of "Negrito", "Senoi" and "Aboriginal Malays".
The Orang Asli Negrito share a common genetic origin with East Asian people, but each can be differentiated on a finer scale.

Semang

According to the Encyclopedia of Malaysia, the Semang or Pangan are regarded as the earliest inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula. They live mainly in the northern regions of the country, and are mostly descended from the people of the Hoabinhian cultural period, with many of their burials found dating back 10,000 years ago.
They speak the Aslian languages branch of the Mon-Khmer languages, which are part of the Austroasiatic language family, as do their Senoi agriculturalist neighbours. Most of them belong to the North Aslian language group, and only the Lanoh language belongs to the Central Aslian languages group.
Negrito tribes:

Tribal name	Traditional occupation	Settlement areas	Branch of Aslian languages
Kensiu people	hunter-gatherer, trade	Kedah	North Aslian language
Kintaq people	hunter-gatherer, trade	Perak	North Aslian language
Lanoh people	harvesting, hunting, trade, slash-and-burn agriculture	Perak	Central Aslian languages
Jahai people	hunter-gatherer, trade	Perak, Kelantan	North Aslian language
Mendriq people	slash-and-burn agriculture, hunter-gatherer	Kelantan	North Aslian language
Batek people	hunter-gatherer, trade	Kelantan, Pahang	North Aslian language
Mintil people	hunter-gatherer, trade	Pahang	North Aslian language

As of 2010, the Semang number approximately 4,800. They mostly live in Perak, Kelantan and Pahang. The remaining 5.7% of Semang are distributed throughout Malaysia.

Senoi

is the largest subdivision of the Orang Asli, accounting for about 54% of their population. This ethnic group includes six tribes: Temiar, Semai, Semaq Beri, Jah Hut, Mah Meri and Cheq Wong. They live mainly in the central and northern parts of the Malay Peninsula. Their villages are scattered in the states of Perak, Kelantan and Pahang, including on the slopes of the Titiwangsa Mountains.
Physically, the Senois in general differ from the indigenous tribals in terms of being taller in height, and having much lighter skin colour, and wavy hair. They were thought to have similar physical characteristics to the Mongoloid and even the Dravidians. Like the Semang, they also speak Aslian languages. Many Senoi are believed to be descendants of unions of Negritos with migrants from Indochina, probably Proto-Malays.
The term "Senoi" comes from the words sen-oi and seng-oi, which means "people" in Semai language and Temiar language, respectively.
The traditional economy of the Senoi people was based on jungle resources, where they would engage in hunting, fishing, foraging and logging. In contact with the Malay and Siamese states, the Senoi people were involved in trading and were the main suppliers of jungle produce in the region. Now most of them work in the agricultural sector and have their own farms to grow rubber, oil palm, or cocoa.
In the daily life of the Senoi people, the norms of customary laws are observed. Since the days of the colonial era, missionaries of world religions have been active among these jungle dwellers. Now some people among the tribes are adherents of Islam, Christianity, or Baháʼí Faith.
Senoi tribes:

Tribal name	Traditional occupation	Settlement areas	Branch of Aslian languages
Temiar people	slash-and-burn agriculture, trade	Perak, Kelantan	Central Aslian languages
Semai people	slash-and-burn agriculture, trade	Perak, Pahang, Selangor	Central Aslian languages
Semaq Beri people	slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting-gathering	Terengganu, Pahang	Southern Aslian languages
Jah Hut people	slash-and-burn agriculture, trade	Pahang	Jah Hut language
Mah Meri people	slash-and-burn agriculture, fishing, hunting-gathering	Selangor	Southern Aslian languages
Cheq Wong people	slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting-gathering	Pahang	Southern Aslian languages