Kangeanese people
Kangeanese or Kangeans (kUH-ngEE-yuhN) are one of the Javan ethnic groups native to the Sunda island of Kangean in northern Bali Sea, who speak the Kangeanic and share common history and culture. Nomenclature Terminology The ‘’ (also spelt as ‘’ in Central Kangean) is an endonym term designated by the locals as ethnonym to identified themselves as a unified ethnic society bound by a common history; the term itself literally means "scion" (the descendant of notable family) in Kangean. It is likely that the ‘’ term might etymologically derived from the Makasar word ‘’, which means "empire" or "kingdom". Meanwhile, on the other hand, the term of ’‘ commonly linked to the Old Javanese word ’‘ (also spelt as Kahyaṅan diacritically) which literally means "visited or overpowered by (divinity of Bali–Java peoples)" or "hermitage" colloquially. In Kangeanese literature, the word ‘’ itself was used throughout the Middle Ages to describe the Kangean island in general, it is still continued to be used to describe the ancentral homeland region of Kangean people in the central to eastern hemisphere of Kangean island, which known as the Kangayan district. During the era of Dutch colonization over Indonesia, the Kangean Island identified either as ‘’, ‘’, or ‘’; meanwhile its inhabitants and their spoken language are called (absorbed in English as ‘Kangeanese’, but ‘Kangean’ also used interchangeably; with ‘Kangeanese’ being the plural form, and ‘Kangean’ as the singular form). Due to the terminology appearance in Dutch historical records, some also believed that the ethnonym of Kangeanese might have relation with the history of the Chinese-descendants people in western Kangean. History Genealogy Toa — Prehistory According to the Kangeanese oral tradition, their ancestor are referred as either or , which in modern Kangean language can be roughly translated as "elders". Dates back to the 4,000 to 9,000 BC, archaeological researches shows that the Kangean people are one of the earliest inhabitants of the Kangean Archipelago, it can be observes through the ancient archaeological discoveries found within the Arca Cave complex which located in the northwestern region of Kangean Island. Excavation discoveries also indicates that it is likely the Kangean people were once cavemens who practiced the hunter-gatherer culture, and most probably has strong cognate relationship to the natives of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Royals of Java and Sulawesi Although the pure native Kangeanese people are attested (through archaelogical studies) related to the natives of Lesser Sunda Islands, however, it is worth to note that the present-day population are the admixture of native and non-native people. According to the oral history and inscriptions, the modern Kangeanese are descendants of royals who came from the islands of Java and Sulawesi, the noblemans were intermarried to the native Kangeanese and resulted a new aristocracy called Kangean itself. It is believed that the ancestor of the modern Kangeanese (who came from the Java via Madura) shared similar genealogy with the modern Balinese people (as opposed to Bali Aga people), whose also descended from the same Javanese dynasty, most probably