Melanesia
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Map showing Melanesia. The traditional, core Melanesia is in dark green, and the mixed, greater region is in lighter green with an even lighter shade to make small islands visible. |
Melanesia (from
Greek: μέλας
black, νῆσος
island) is a region extending from the western side of
East Pacific to the
Arafura Sea, north and north-east of
Australia. The term was first used by
Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from
Polynesia and
Micronesia.
Today d'Urville's
racial classification is known to be inaccurate because it obscures Melanesia's very great cultural, linguistic, and genetic diversity and combines two quite distinct groups, the
Austronesians (who have a much wider distribution than just Melanesia) and the
Papuans (who themselves comprise a number of separate groups). A further complication is that the term
Melanesian is sometimes used to refer solely to the Austronesian peoples of that region, especially when contrasting them with the Polynesians and Micronesians (both of which groups are also Austronesian).
In contrast, the
geopolitical conception of Melanesia is widely used. For example, the
Melanesian Spearhead Group Preferential Trade Agreement is a regional trade treaty governing the states of
Vanuatu,
Solomon Islands,
Papua New Guinea and
Fiji. People of Melanesian countries often talk about the
Melanesian way, which people of the region see as a distinctively Melanesian set of cultural values and behaviour. 'Melanesia' is also current as a
geographic term, to refer to the area when national, ethnic and linguistic distinctions are not relevant.
[for example: Diamond, Jared and Ernst Mayr. 2001. The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography. Oxford University Press]The original inhabitants of Melanesia are likely to have been the ancestors of the present-day Papuan language speaking people. These people are thought to have occupied New Guinea tens of millennia ago, and reached island Melanesia at least 35,000 years ago (according to radiocarbon dating). They appear to have occupied Melanesia as far east as the main islands in the Solomon Islands (i.e. including San Cristobal) and perhaps even to the smaller islands further to the east.
[Dunn, Michael, Angela Terrill, Ger Reesink, Robert A. Foley, Stephen C. Levinson. 2005. 'Structural Phylogenetics and the Reconstruction of Ancient Language History'. Science 309: 2072-2975.]It is in Melanesia (particularly along the north coast of
New Guinea and in the islands north and east of New Guinea) that the
Austronesian people came into contact with these pre-existing populations of Papuan speaking peoples, probably around four thousand years ago. It seems there was a long period of interaction which resulted in many complex changes in genetics, languages and culture. It is likely that it is from this area that a very small group of people (who spoke an Austronesian language) departed to the east to become the founders of the Polynesian people.
The nations of
Fiji,
Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, and
New Caledonia (under
French sovereignty) use this term to describe themselves because it reflects their shared colonial history and common regional situation. These areas form the core of the modern Melanesian
region. However, adjacent islands in other countries are sometimes seen as peripherally Melanesian (see below).
The following islands and groups of islands are traditionally considered part of Melanesia:
*
Bismarck Archipelago*
Fiji*
New Caledonia*
New Guinea (
Papua New Guinea mainland and the Indonesian province of
Papua)
*
Maluku Islands*
Solomon Islands*
Torres Strait Islands*
VanuatuIslands whose long-established inhabitants are of mixed ancestry which do not necessarily self-identify as Melanesian:
*
Flores*
Nauru*
Sumba*
TimorSome of the islands to the west of New Guinea such as
Halmahera,
Alor and
Pantar can also be considered to be part of Melanesia, although people in this area do not make use of the term.
*
Papuan*
Negrito*
New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History - a general history of New Guinea
*
Map South Pacific*
South Pacific Organizer*
Polynesian origins: Insights from the Y chromosome*
Independent Histories of Human Y Chromosomes from Melanesia and Australia*
A site about West Melanesia
