An indigenous language or autochthonous language is a language that is native to a region and spoken by indigenous peoples but has been

reduced to the status of a minority language. This language would be from a linguistically distinct community that has been settled in the area for many generations. Indigenous languages may not be national languages, or may have fallen out of use, because of language deaths or linguicide caused by colonization, where the original language is replaced by that of the colonists.

Indigenous peoples, or Natives, are ethnic groups who are native to a land or region, especially before the arrival and intrusion of a foreign and possibly dominating culture. They are a group of people whose members share a cultural identity that has been shaped by their geographical region. A variety of names are used in various countries to identify such groups of people, but they generally are regarded as the "original inhabitants" of a territory or region. Their right to self-determination may be materially affected by the later-arriving ethnic groups.

The adjective indigenous has the common meaning of "from" or "of the original origin". Therefore, in a purely adjectival sense any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as being indigenous in reference to some particular region or location.[7] Key to a contemporary understanding of "indigenousness" is the political role a cultural group plays, for all other criteria usually taken to denote indigenous groups (territory, race, history, subsistence lifestyle, etc.) can, to a greater or lesser extent, also be applied to majority cultures.[8] Therefore, the distinction applied to indigenous groups can be formulated as "a politically underprivileged group, who share a similar... identity different to the nation in power",[7] and who share territorial rights to a particular area governed by a colonial power. However, the specific term indigenous peoples has a more restrictive interpretation when it used in the more formalized, legalistic, and academic sense, associated with the collective rights of human populations.[7] In these contexts, the term is used to denote particular peoples and groups around the world who, as well as being native to or associated with some given territory, [8] meet certain other criteria (such as having reached a social and technological plateau thousands of years ago).

[] Criteria
Drawing on these, a contemporary working definition of "indigenous people" for certain purposes has criteria which would seek to include cultural groups (and their continuity or association with a given region, or parts of a region, and who formerly or currently inhabit the region) either:[8]

before or its subsequent colonisation or annexation; or alongside other cultural groups during the formation and/or reign of a colony or nation-state; or
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independently or largely isolated from the influence of the claimed governance by a nation-state,and who furthermore:[7] have maintained at least in part their distinct cultural, social/organisational, and/or linguistic characteristics, and in doing so remain differentiated in some degree from the surrounding populations and dominant culture of the nation-state.

To the above, a criterion is usually added to also include:[7]

peoples who are self-identified as indigenous, and/or those recognized as such by other groups.

Note that even if all the above criteria are fulfilled, some people may either not consider themselves as indigenous or may not be considered as indigenous by governments, organizations or scholars. The discourse of indigenous / non-indigenous may also be viewed within the context of postcolonialism and the evolution of post-colonial societies.

[] Characteristics
[] Population and distribution
Indigenous societies range from those who have been significantly exposed to the colonizing or expansionary activities of other societies (such as the Maya peoples of Mexico and Central America) through to those who as yet remain in comparative isolation from any external influence (such as the Sentinelese and Jarawa of the Andaman Islands). Precise estimates for the total population of the world's Indigenous peoples are very difficult to compile, given the difficulties in identification and the variances and inadequacies of available census data. Recent source estimates range from 300 million [9] to 350 million[10] as of the start of the 21st century. This would equate to just fewer than 6% of the total world population. This includes at least 5000 distinct peoples[10] in over 72 countries. Contemporary distinct indigenous groups survive in populations ranging from only a few dozen to hundreds of thousands and more. Many indigenous populations have undergone a dramatic decline and even extinction, and remain threatened in many parts of the world. Some have also been assimilated by other populations or have undergone many other changes. In other cases, indigenous populations are undergoing a recovery or expansion in numbers. Certain indigenous societies survive even though they may no longer inhabit their "traditional" lands, owing to migration, relocation, forced resettlement or having been
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supplanted by other cultural groups. In many other respects, the transformation of culture of indigenous groups is ongoing, and includes permanent loss of language, loss of lands, encroachment on traditional territories, and disruption in traditional lifeways due to contamination and pollution of waters and lands.

[] Common characteristics
Characteristics common across many Indigenous groups include present or historical reliance upon subsistence-based production (based on pastoral, horticultural and/or hunting and gathering techniques), and a predominantly non-urbanized society. Not all indigenous groups share these characteristics. Indigenous societies may be either settled in a given locale/region or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they are dependent. Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world.[2][11]

[] Common concerns
Indigenous peoples confront a diverse range of concerns associated with their status and interaction with other cultural groups, as well as changes in their inhabited environment. Some challenges are specific to particular groups; however, other challenges are commonly experienced. Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi (2003) explore why and how the circumstances of indigenous peoples are improving in some places of the world, while their human rights continue to be abused in others.[12] These issues include cultural and linguistic preservation, land rights, ownership and exploitation of natural resources, political determination and autonomy, environmental degradation and incursion, poverty, health, and discrimination. The interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous societies throughout history has been complex, ranging from outright conflict and subjugation to some degree of mutual benefit and cultural transfer. A particular aspect of anthropological study involves investigation into the ramifications of what is termed first contact, the study of what occurs when two cultures first encounter one another. The situation can be further confused when there is a complicated or contested history of migration and population of a given region, which can give rise to disputes about primacy and ownership of the land and resources. In further evidence of how vulnerable some of the Indigenous Peoples are, the Bangladesh Government has stated that there are "no Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh". [13] This has angered the Indigenous Peoples of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh, collectively known as the Jumma (whichs include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tenchungya, Chak, Pankho, Mru, Murung, Bawm, Lushai, Khyang, Gurkha, Assamese, Santal and Khumi).[14] Experts have protested against this move of the Bangladesh
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Government and have questioned the Government's definition of the term "Indigenous Peoples".[15][16] This move by the Bangladesh Government is seen by the Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh as another step by the Government to further erode their already limited rights.[17]

[] Historical cultures
The migration, expansion and settlement of societies throughout different territories is a universal, almost defining thread which runs through the entire course of human history. Many of the cross-cultural interactions which arose as a result of these historical encounters involved societies which might properly be considered as indigenous, either from their own viewpoint or that of external societies. Most often, these past encounters between indigenous and "non-indigenous" groups lack contemporary account or description. Any assessment or understanding of impact, result and relation can at best only be surmised, using archaeological, linguistic or other reconstructive means. Where accounts do exist, they frequently originate from the viewpoint of the colonizing, expansionary or nascent state or from rather scarce and fragmented ethnographic sources compiled by those more congenial with indigenous communities and/or representatives thereof.

[] Classical antiquity
Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the prior existence of indigenous people(s), whom they referred to as "Pelasgians". These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors. The disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent Hellenic cultures (and distinct from non-Greek speaking "foreigners", termed "barbarians" by the historical Greeks). GrecoRoman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. But because already existent populations within other parts of Europe at the time of classical antiquity had more in common culturally speaking with the Greco-Roman world, the intricacies involved in expansion across the European frontier were not so contentious relative to indigenous issues. But when it came to expansion in other parts of the world, namely Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, then totally new cultural dynamics had entered into the equation, so to speak, and one sees here of what was to take the Americas, South East Asia, and the Pacific by storm a few hundred years later. The idea that peoples who possessed cultural customs and racial appearances strikingly different to that of the colonizing power is no new idea borne out of the Medieval period or the Age of Reason. In fact, this idea had its
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roots in the political and intellectual ideologies of classical antiquity which tended towards dualizing the interdependent composites of nature and culture to the extent that all 'civilized' peoples were seen to be exemplary of a culture that was unequivocally refined and quintessentially separate from nature in its sociorelational characteristics and resultant political ability to embrace unashamedly a conquering mindset informed by what was believed to be the elemental urge and rational inclination towards accumulation of status and wealth.[citation needed] Therefore, this prevailing social belief in the efficacy of a hierarchical order of supreme rationality governed all political decisions both major and minor, in the Greco-Roman world.[18] This is what the culture and politics of expansionism hinged itself upon coupled with a marked disdain for any culture that dared to prop itself up in resistance against this self-interested power. Indigenous cultures that did such actions to counter the acculturative influences of Greco-Roman rule in this period were often met with brute suppression and a magnitude of cultural disintegration equaled in scope during the subsequent latter European colonial period which stretched from the 15th century into the 20th. Two of the most well known of these earlier movements of indigenous resistance include the popular "Zealot" uprisings in ancient Israel which brazenly refuted the self-appointed efficacy and cultural ostentation of Greco-Roman imperial presence and the audacious counter-culture of dissent thrown at imperial Rome by Christian exiles from their traditional territory in Israel,[19] which was thrown into political turbulence in 70 AD.[20]

References
1. ^ Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous

Peoples. London: Zed Books, 1999. ISBN 978-1-85649-624-7. p. 7 2. ^ a b Sanders, Douglas. 1999. Indigenous peoples: Issues of definition. International Journal of Cultural Property. No. 8 pp. 4 13. 3. ^ a b "Operational Policy 4.10 Indigenous Peoples". http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/PROJECTS/EXTPOLICIES/EXTOPM ANUAL/0,,contentMDK:20553653~menuPK:4564185~pagePK:64709096~piPK:64709 108~theSitePK:502184,00.html.

4. ^ "Terminlogy of Native Aboriginal". http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf. 5. ^ "World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples Philippines: Overview, 2007", UNHCR | Refworld. 6. ^ "Negritos, Australian Aborigines, and the proto-sundadont dental pattern: The basic populations in East Asia". Wiley InterScience. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgibin/abstract/110486797/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0. Retrieved 2009-1023.[dead link] 7. ^ a b c d e "United NationsDeclaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (A/RES/61/295)". United Nations. UNPFII. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 8. ^ a b c "Frequently Asked Questions: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples" (PDF). United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/FAQsindigenousdeclaration.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-23. 9. ^ WGIP (2001). Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations System. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Office at Geneva. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/racism/indileaflet1.doc.[dead link] 10. ^ a b "Indigenous issues". International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs. http://www.iwgia.org/sw155.asp. Retrieved September 5, 2005. 11. ^ Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu (2008): Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices, Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, JaipurIndia. ISBN 978-81-7910-252-7. pp 440 12. ^ Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi (eds.) At the Risk of Being Heard: Indigenous Rights, Identity and Postcolonial States University of Michigan Press (2003)[1] 13. ^ No 'indigenous', reiterates Shafique. bdnews24.com (2011-06-18). Retrieved on 201110-11. 14. ^ Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs 15. ^ INDIGENOUS PEOPLEChakma Raja decries non-recognition. bdnews24.com (201105-28). Retrieved on 2011-10-11. 16. ^ 'Define terms minorities, indigenous'. bdnews24.com (2011-05-27). Retrieved on 201110-11. 17. ^ Disregarding the Jumma. Himalmag.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-11. 18. ^ Minucius Felix, The Octavius 19. ^ Robert Louis Wilken (10 April 2003). The Christians as the Romans saw them. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09839-6. http://books.google.com/books? id=TbFfhy510NQC. Retrieved 11 October 2011. 20. ^ Gentry, Kenneth L. Jr, 1989, Before Jerusalem Fell, Institute for Christian Economics, Tyler, Texas

Indigenous Peoples: A politically underprivileged group who share a similar ethnic identity different to the nation in power, and who have been an ethnic entity in the locality before the present ruling nation took over power. May also be used to denote particular peoples and groups around the world who, as well as being native to or associated with some given territory, meet certain other criteria (such as having maintained at least in part their distinct linguistic, cultural, and social/organizational characteristics, and/or who are self-identified as indigenous and/or those recognized as such by other groups).
Bio Gloss-A glossary of terms relevant to the Convention on Biological Diversity Written by Ian Fry Edited by Mara Gutirrez April 2010