Hacker News Reader

> If an indigenous people is the first to settle

Not what it means.

Japan consists of islands, everybody there came from somewhere else.

This is true in Australia and the US as well, the Aboriginals and Native Americans just came several thousand years before the next waves of settlement.

I'm not sure what your point is but I'm just pointing out he's extrapolating from an incorrect definition.

I'm certainly not claiming that 'indigenous' means their ancestors literally sprouted from that ground.

Go on then, enlighten us with the definition, and failing that, the most precise definition you can give.

That basically is what it means, or at least, it's a primary defining characteristic.

There are some other relevant characteristics, which make the definition a bit fuzzy.

The biggest one is that they need to have retained some identifiable aspects of their culture in the face of subsequent settlement.

But to a first approximation, first to settle - or at least being among the first to settle - is the primary basis for determining indigenousness.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com