Aeta (Ayta /ˈaɪtə/ EYE-tə), Agta and Dumagat, are collective terms for several indigenous peoples who live in various parts of Luzon islands in the Philippines.

They are included in the wider Negrito grouping of the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia, with whom they share superficial common physical characteristics such as: dark skin tones; short statures; frizzy to curly hair; and a higher frequency of naturally lighter hair colour (blondism) relative to the general population.

[6][7][8][9] The endonyms of most of the various Aeta peoples are derived from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *ʔa(R)ta (also reconstructed as *qata or *ʔata) meaning "[dark skinned] person."

These include names like ugsin, ugdin, ogden, or uldin ("red"); putî or pute ("white"); unat ("straight-haired"); or agani ("[rice] harvester").

The Philippine Negritos display relatively closer genetic affinity towards different Eastern Asian populations, prehistoric Hoabinhian samples, as well as to the Indigenous people of New Guinea and Aboriginal Australians, from which they diverged around c. 40,000 years ago.

They also display an internal genetic substructure along a North to South cline, suggesting their ancestral population diverged into two subgroups after the initial peopling of the Philippines.

[14][15] The Aeta are the descendants of the same early "East-Eurasian" meta-population, which also gave rise to modern East Asians and Australasians, among other populations of the Asia-Pacific region.

[14][15][16] Philippine Negritos furthermore display craniometric and dental affinities (Sundadonty) with various southern East Asian and Japanese populations, suggesting deep ancestral ties.

Despite their martial prowess, however, the Aeta's small numbers, primitive economy and lack of organization often made them easy prey for better-organized groups.

They were often enslaved and sold to Borneo and China, and, unlike the serf feudal system (alipin) imposed on other Filipinos, there was little chance of manumission.

[22][23] The Aeta Abellen community of Sitio Maporac, Barangay New San Juan, Cabangan, Zambales, received the first Philippine's first Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) on March 8, 1996.

[30] The Aeta are nomadic and build only temporary shelters made of sticks driven to the ground and covered with the palm of banana leaves.

Mining, deforestation, illegal logging, and slash-and-burn farming have caused the indigenous population in the country to steadily decrease to the point where they number only in the thousands today.

The Philippine government affords them little or no protection, and the Aeta have become extremely nomadic due to social and economic strain on their culture and way of life that had previously remained unchanged for thousands of years.

This often includes gaining knowledge about the tropical forest that they live in, the typhoon cycles that travel through their area, and other seasonal weather changes that affect the behavior of the flora and fauna in their location.

During this period, they also do business transactions with non-Aeta communities living around the vicinity they temporarily settled in either to sell the food they gathered, or to work as temporary farmers or field laborers.

Aeta women play more active roles in business transactions with non-Aeta communities, mostly as traders and agricultural workers for lowland farmers.

There are four manifestations of the "great creator" who rules the world: Tigbalog is the source of life and action; Lueve takes care of production and growth; Amas moves people to pity, love, unity, and peace of heart; while Binangewan is responsible for change, sickness, and death.

They also produce raincoats made of palm leaves whose bases surround the neck of the wearer, and whose topmost part spreads like a fan all around the body.

For muscle pains, they drink herbal teas extracted from kalulong leaves and have the patient take it thrice a day.

In order to prevent relapse after giving birth, women also bathe themselves in cooled-down water boiled with sahagubit roots.

The drinking of sahagubit herbal tea is likewise recommended to deworm Aeta children, or generally to alleviate stomachache.

They are, however, not advised to drink herbal tea from makahiya extract even if it's also used to elevate stomachache problems due to the belief that it will cause abortion.

The Aeta in Isabela also recommend drinking herbal tea out of wormwood (herbaca) leaves or stem to address women's irregular menstrual cycle.

They take herbal teas from lemon grass (barbaraniw) extract thrice a day to normalize blood pressure.

They do so because the Aeta believe that their illnesses are caused by a spirit that they may have offended, in which case herbal medicines or medical doctors won't be able to address.

In this ritual, the herbolario places rice or raw eggs on the patient's forehead first to determine what causes the illness and repeats this several times to confirm.

While the father is normally the figurehead of the family, Aeta communities or bands traditionally had an anarchic political structure wherein they don't have appointed chiefs to exercise authority over them.

At times, Aeta communities do organize themselves in government-like system with a Capitan (Captain), Conseyal (Council) and Policia (Police).

In this particular case, women are also largely excluded from the deliberation process even when they are allowed to attend the hearing or even when sometimes they can make their opinion about the problem.