Source: TW
Thread by @Paracelsus1092 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App
A thread on the Pacific Dwarf mythology that accompanied the Austronesian expansion - the Primordial Little People Type-Tale
The dominant hypothesis as to why many Austronesian-Polynesian cultures have a foundational little-people story, is that when the proto-Austronesians arrived in Taiwan they found a short statured Palaeolithic people already living there.
This theory was recently strengthened by the discovery of ’negrito-like’ human remains in Taiwan, dating back around 6000 years. The skull shows many similarities to other Negrito and African San peoples.
The motifs of the little people stories describe a small group of people, sometimes with red or curly hair, who hide underground or in trees, with an impish sense of humour and who possess supernatural abilities.
Some examples:
- the Duwendes and related creatures of the Philippines. Pygmy like people who sometimes live in ant-hills, attempt to seduce tall women and offer some of their subterranean wealth to lucky people they befriend.
- The Otu Dogkek of Borneo - these supernatural small spirits are more ephemeral and generally avoid humans, but they can give help to hunters and sometimes ask human shamans to help them if food in the forest runs low.
- The Orang Pendek of Sumatra - hairy, ape-like little people who have secret knowledge of herbal medicines and other esoteric jungle lore. They have been known to sexually assault women and even have children with humans.
- The Lai Ho’a of Flores - a very interesting example since some believe the hobbit species Homo floresiensis could have survived on the island until recently. One striking parallel is that neither floresiensis nor the Lai Ho’a of folklore used fire to cook their food.
- The To Uta of Sulawesi - like other nearby little people, the story involves the peaceful sharing of the island which turned bad, and led to a war of extermination. The To Uta were said to have lived in houses on stone pillars, which can still be seen today
- Little people in Melanesia - other stories of ’little black dwarves’ exist wherever the Austronesians settled. In this case the dwarf people are more Promethean, offering knowledge of advanced sailing technology, protective magic and how to make pottery.
- The Kakamoras of Makira - again, a proto-people who lived there first. Described as short, sometimes hairy and smelly, and who behave outside civilised norms by not using fire to cook their foods. They retreated in the face of human expansion into the mountains.
- Fiji and Vanuatu - contrasting these show how the little people myths can be altered. On the Vanuatu the Sengalengale are aggressive, angry beings who left cave paintings, on Fiji the Veli are generally friendly males, who teach ritual and practical knowledge
- On Micronesia, the Sokele of Pohnpei and Taotaomo’na of the Marianas Islands - tales of little tattooed dwarves living underground may have some truth behind them, since ‘pygmoid’ skeletons have been discovered in Palau!
- Even at the ends of the earth for the Austronesians - Rapa Nui/Easter Island and Madagascar - the little people were there. The Vazimba are a believable story, that Madagascar was inhabited by pygmy-like people. The Rapa Nui story has been interpreted as a legend of civil war.
- Japan and Sri Lanka - Austronesian influence on the Ryukyu islands and in the Indian Ocean may have led to a little people myth transference. Equally there may have been previous inhabitants which were filtered through the Austronesian colonisation mythology
- Finally, the better known examples of Polynesia, from Hawaii, Samoa and New Zealand. Again, we see different hair, skin and eye colours, the lack of fire for cooking and offering to share knowledge. In Samoa and Hawaii they are also very industrious little beings.
Given that Negrito people exist, and archaeological evidence for short statured people dates back millennia, we have to disentangle what could be true about the Austronesian myths and what is likely to be a post-settlement story. Teasing apart encounters between real people, an historical cultural myth and the wider human myth of dwarf people is probably fully impossible, but it’s clear from the archaeology that the Austronesian little people story is rooted in real encounters with real people.