A minuscule fraction of the humanity still lives in the jungles and mountains cut off from the main land. It is true that the so-called educated men do indulge in primitive ways of thinking. They continue with the fairs of the yesteryear with lot of fun fare- the war fare. But their numbers are small. The majority lives and dies in peace. Education and development have refined many a men and calm life is there for billions.
But the most cruel part of the human race's success story is that it keeps a very small number of its peoples isolated and neglected. They say they are indigenous people and their cultures are to be left untouched. True their cultures are to be protected. But should not these tribes be protected for future.
The number of such indigenous peoples who are untouched by modern man is very small. We can't keep them as human specimen for anthropologists and hungry tourists. We have to reach them and teach them and make them join the main stream. The time has come for doing it.
Tribal
A tribe is a distinct people, dependent on their land for their livelihood, largely self-sufficient, and not integrated into the national society. It is perhaps the term most readily understood and used by the general public.
There are an estimated one hundred and fifty million tribal individuals worldwide, constituting around forty percent of indigenous individuals. However, although nearly all tribal peoples are also indigenous, there are some who are not indigenous to the areas where they live now.
It is important to make the distinction between tribal and indigenous because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law as well as problems in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples.
Aboriginal, Autochthonous, Native
All three of these terms are synonymous with indigenous.
‘Aboriginal’ is most commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples of Australia, where it is sometimes preferred (by some Aboriginal people) to the term ‘Aborigine’. Both are in common usage.
‘Autochthonous’ is rarely used outside India, where it is mainly applied to the peoples of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
‘Native’ is obsolete in many places due to its colonial connotations. It is, however, frequently used to refer to indigenous peoples in Canada and the USA, including by those peoples themselves.
Adivasi
The biggest concentration of tribal peoples in the world is found in India, where they constitute nearly 9% of the population. ‘Adivasi’ is a term used for many of India’s hundreds of tribal peoples.
Amerindian
Any member of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. This term has largely fallen out of use, though it is still the word most often used in Guyana to describe that country’s indigenous people.
Basarwa
This means ‘Bushmen’ in the Setswana language of Botswana. (The term ‘San’ is not used in Botswana.) ‘Basarwa’ is pejorative.
Black Asian
A collective term referring to the black-skinned tribes of Asia, who are sometimes referred to by anthropologists as ‘negritos’.
Bushmen
This is a collective term to describe the hundreds, probably thousands, of tribes which were the only inhabitants of southern Africa until the arrival of more numerous peoples from further north. There are many different groups of Bushmen, each with a distinct language, and therefore a different name for themselves. As a result, there has been no agreement on a generic term for these peoples. There is in fact no accepted term referring to all Bushman tribes which is not pejorative.
The term comes from the Dutch/Afrikaans ‘Bosjemans’ or ‘Bossiesmans’, meaning ‘bandit’ or ‘outlaw’, which has been used since the 1680s. Only much later was its meaning restricted to the people we call Bushmen today.
Survival uses the term Bushman for two reasons. Firstly, when Survival has asked Bushmen what they think themselves, they generally reply that, if speaking English, they prefer ‘Bushman’ to Basarwa or San. Secondly, it is the most readily understood by readers of English, an essential consideration in spreading information about their fight for survival.
Eskimo
A term formerly used to describe the Inuit. At the root of the original rejection of ‘Eskimo’ was the idea that the name was derogatory.
First Nations
A phrase used in Canada to describe that country’s indigenous peoples.
Gypsy
See ‘Roma, Romani’.
Indian
Applies in this context to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The term is a result of the mistaken belief that Columbus had sailed all the way around the world to East Asia, rather than arriving in the Americas. Although some believe it to be pejorative, in fact it is widely used by indigenous people themselves in parts of the Americas, especially the United States and Brazil.
Inuit
Inuit is the most usual term nowadays for the peoples formerly called ‘Eskimo’. Inuit is employed as their own name for themselves throughout most of the Arctic, though is not used as much in Alaska and Siberia, partly because a more technical definition of Inuit excludes some other indigenous Alaskans.
Negrito
See ‘black Asians’
Pygmies
Umbrella term commonly referring to the various hunter-gatherer peoples of the Congo Basin and Central Africa with below average height. They are generally considered to be the indigenous peoples of the area. Although the term is considered pejorative by some, as with the Bushmen, there is no single term to describe all the many different Pygmy peoples and some communities choose to use it to refer to themselves. ‘Pygmy’ has also been used to describe several Black Asian tribes, although in this context it can be pejorative.
Roma, Romani
The Romani trace their origin, at least in part, to people who left India for the Middle East a few centuries before their arrival in Western Europe around the 1400s. They are not indigenous to Europe, and cannot be called ‘tribal’, although they are often invoked in debates about indigenous affairs as some of the challenges they face are also faced by indigenous and tribal peoples.
Red Indian
Almost never used by the people themselves, it now has racist overtones and is best avoided.
San
A word used particularly by anthropologists since the 1970s to avoid the implied contempt and sexism of ‘Bushman’. Unfortunately, this is also thought to be pejorative.
Terminology Source: survival
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