Visayans or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. They are composed of numerous distinct ethnic groups, many unrelated to each other. When taken as a single group, they number around 33.5 million. The Visayans, like the Luzon Lowlanders were originally predominantly animist-polytheists and broadly share a maritime culture until the 16th
century when Catholicism was introduced by the Spanish empire. In more inland or otherwise secluded areas, ancient animistic-polytheistic beliefs and traditions either were reinterpreted within a Roman Catholic framework or syncretized with the new religion. Visayans are generally speakers of one or more of the distinct Bisayan languages, the most widely spoken being Cebuano, followed by Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) and Waray-Waray.
17th-century depiction of a Spanish-built joangan from Historia de las islas e indios de Bisayas (1668) by Francisco Ignacio Alcina
A painting in the Magellan Shrine depicting the death of Ferdinand Magellan at the hands of the warriors of Lapu-Lapu in the Battle of Mactan in 1521
Water carriers in Iloilo, c. 1899
Visayan women presumed to be part of the Philippine Reservation during the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
Ethnic groups in the Philippines
The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim peoples from the southernmost island group of Mindanao are usually categorized together as Moro peoples, whether they are classified as Indigenous peoples or not. About 142 are classified as non-Muslim Indigenous people groups, and about 19 ethnolinguistic groups are classified as neither Indigenous nor Moro. Various migrant groups have also had a significant presence throughout the country's history.
Inside the firth chamber of Callao Cave, where the remains of the Callao Man were discovered.
Moro woman (c. 1904)
Lanao sultans
A 19th Century illustration of an Iranun pirate