The Malays: Origins, beliefs and value systems
The Malays have occupied the Malay Archipelago—and the coastal region of continental Southeast Asia—since the prehistoric era. They are speakers of the Austronesian group of languages which is distributed all over insular Southeast Asia, part of the Pacific, the Americas and a small part of east Africa. In Malaysia, the Malays comprise the largest group of indigenous people, whose traditional belief system was animistic prior to the arrival of Islam in the 14th century.
- Information in the full article includes
- Origin theories
- Linguistic classification
- Original belief systems
- External influences
