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SAMA 655
derive from a migration into the central Philippines that took place about 1,100
years ago, and in the intervening centuries they have been heavily influenced
by their Bisayan neighbors.
The Yakan are descended from another early offshoot of the parent stock,
although one that has remained within the ancestral homeland. They number in
the vicinity of 116,000, with the majority concentrated on Basilan Island south
of Zamboanga City. Unlike the majority of Sama, they are an agricultural population
with no close ties to the sea (see Yakan).
The Sibuguey Bay Sama are small Sama groups indigenous to the Zamboanga
peninsula and the coasts of Sibuguey Bay in western Mindanao. Relatively
isolated and few in number, they probably represent the only surviving remnant
of the Sama penetration into the northern part of the bay about 1,000 years ago.
The Jama Mapun are a predominantly agricultural people concentrated on the
island of Cagayan Sulu, about 60 miles off the coast of northeastern Sabah. In
the past, they engaged in fairly extensive maritime trade under the loose jurisdiction
of the Brunei and Sulu sultanates. In recent times, their economy has
become increasingly centered on subsistence agriculture and copra production.
Recent estimates place the Jama Mapun population at about 21,000.
One offshoot of the southwestward expansion of the Sama is currently represented
by the Land Bajau of western Sabah. They are an agricultural people,
though cattle raising also enjoys some prominence. Settlements take the form
of compact communities located in the low foothills bordering the coastal plain.
The Land Bajau, comprising only a small portion of Sabah's population, have
nevertheless played an important role in the recent political history of that state.
No reliable estimate of their population is currently available.
Scattered across a wide area of central and eastern Indonesia is a series of
closely related Sama groups, termed Indonesian Bajau, that together comprise
another major offshoot of the original southwestward expansion. Their subsequent
movement outward from southern Sulawesi leading to the remarkably wide
dispersion that exists today, appears to have taken place only within the last 300
years or so and was probably connected with the expanding economic and
political influence of the Macassarese and Buginese with whom many Indonesian
Sama still maintain close ties. Today the majority follow a more or less settled
existence in compact shore-line communities, with an economy based on fishing
and other maritime pursuits. Their settlements are often found closely associated
with those of indigenous ethnic groups with whom they maintain a close economic
relationship.
Although fleets of nomadic Sama have been reported throughout this region
for the last century or two, their precise ethnic affiliation is not understood at
this time. Some appear to be far-flung outliers of Sulu nomads, while others
may belong to the Indonesian branch.
The Suluan Sama (386,000) are the largest concentration of Sama found in
the Sulu Archipelago and along the adjacent coasts of southwestern Mindanao
and eastern Sabah. They are the most widely studied and best documented of