Orang Asli (" men of the origines" in Malayan) is the name under which, in Malaysia, one indicates the populations Aborigène S, distinct from the Malais and present before the arrival of the latter in the peninsula. In Indonesia, this expression indicates simply any population originating in a given area.

Orang Asli Malaysian live mainly in the forests of the mountainous interior of the Malayan Péninsule. According to their Phenotype, one arranges some of these groups in a unit vaster than " is named; Négritos ", others in a unit which one calls " veddoïde ".

The independent groups are:

• Jakun
• Semang
• Senoi or Sakai
• Temiar.

The geographical position of the Malayan Péninsule located it on the road of the migrations which, there is to 40.000 to 60.000 years, carried out men of the continent of Asia towards the Australia, at one time when the sea level was much lower than today and allowed the passage.

It is supposed that the ancestor of Orang Asli were established along this road. The results of analyzes of DNA carried out up to now on a certain number of populations aboriginals of Southeast Asia reveal an extremely complicated anthropological table of the area, which is explained by the fact why it was a migratory way of passage.

The site of Bukit Jawa in the State of Kelantan date of more than 50.000 years. One tried to connect it to Négritos. The difficulty, in Southeast Asia, to establish a bond between tools of paleolithic and current populations comes from what, in the hot and wet climate of this area, the human bones seldom last as much as stone tools. One found well, in famous the Grande Cave of Niah in the State of Sarawak in Borneo, 40.000 years an old cranium, but in fact, one did not succeed in yet showing a bond with Négritos.

See also: International Survival

Jakun

Of Language austronésienne, they are approximately 20.000.

Semang

They are, physically and culturally, closer to the Andamanais autochtones than their neighbors véddoïde. However, they speak a language my-Khmer brought by later waves about migration perhaps 7.000 years ago. Approximately 4.000 years ago, of the people of Langue austronésienne pushed back these populations towards the interior.

It is thought that a certain number of words semang reflect a Substrat older than my-Khmer. The linguist Timothy Usher noted in 2003 an interesting correspondence between 2 words of the language semang and 2 words of Andaman:

• Semang : jebeg = " mauvais" , andamanais southernmost: jabag which has the same direction

• Semang: jekob = " serpent" , large andamanais: jagba = " tortue" .

In addition to the similarity of the words, one will notice that the passage, in semang, of jebeg to jekob is done by Métathèse, i.e. inversion of the consonants, just like andamanais of it the passage of jabag to jagba .

Senoi

Classified like veddoïde, they are 18.000. They speak a language my-Khmer. They are also called Semai or Sakai. << makes the Senoi people of it is an ethnos group shared in two clans, them Semai and Temiar.

Temiar

14.000 to 20.000, they still live for the majority in forest. Their economy rests on the culture on denshering, fishing, hunting and the trade with their neighbors. Their language is of the my-Khmer family.

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