Map of Melanesia, surrounded by a pink line

Melanesia (from Greek: ????? black, ????? island) means "islands of the black-skinned people". It is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western side of the West Pacific to the Arafura Sea, north and northeast 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 regarded to be inaccurate because it ignores the broad cultural, linguistic, social and genetic diversity in the area. Some argue that there is no one 'Melanesian culture' or way of life, but Papua New Guinean philosopher Bernard Narokobi disagreed, emphasising a fundamental Melanesian cultural unity and way of life, in his work The Melanesian Way.^[1]

However, there is a widely used geopolitical conception of the term 'Melanesia'. 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. Melanesia is also current as a geographic term, used as a reference to the area when national, ethnic, and linguistic distinctions are not relevant.^[2]

People

The original inhabitants of the islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day Papuan-speaking people. These people are thought to have occupied New Guinea tens of millennia ago and reached the islands 35,000 years ago (according to radiocarbon dating). They appear to have occupied these islands as far east as the main islands in the Solomon Islands (i.e., including San Cristobal) and perhaps even to the smaller islands farther to the east.^[3]

It was 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 preexisting populations of Papuan-speaking peoples, probably around 4,000 years ago. There was probably a long period of interaction that resulted in many complex changes in genetics, languages, and culture.^[4] It is likely that from this area a very small group of people (speaking an Austronesian language) departed to the east to become the forebears of the Polynesian people.^[5] This finding is, however, contradicted by a study published by Temple University finding that Polynesians and Micronesians have little genetic relation to Melanesians; instead they found significant differences between groups living within the Melanesian islands. ^[6] Genome scan shows Polynesians have little genetic relationship to Melanesians. ^[7]

Government

In Melanesia, leaders were chosen, not through inheritance, but based on their personality. Key qualities were the candidates' power of persuasion, choosing high-placed women as sexual partners, and other physical qualities such as combat skills. ^[8]

Today however, most of Melanesia's countries have common, western-type governments, and leadership is thus taken up by their presidents. Some people in small islands and some larger islands in troubled regions (such Bougainville, Papua-New Guinea and the Solomon Islands ^[9]) still have considerable social power on the islands themselves.

Location

The following islands and groups of islands since the 19th century have been considered part of Melanesia:

• Bismarck Archipelago
• Fiji
• Maluku Islands
• New Caledonia
• New Guinea (Papua and West Papua in Indonesia, and the 15 provinces of the Papua New Guinea mainland)
• Norfolk Island
• Solomon Islands
• Torres Strait Islands
• Vanuatu

Islands whose long-established inhabitants are of mixed ancestry who do not necessarily self-identify as Melanesian:

• Flores
• Nauru
• Sumba
• Timor (West Timor in Indonesia and the nation of Timor-Leste)

Some 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.

References

See also

• Papuan
• Negrito
• Bishop of Melanesia
• Melanesian Brotherhood
• Polynesians
• Micronesians

External links

• 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
• Bird checklists for Melanesian islands
• New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History - a general history of New Guinea
• Anglican historical texts related to Melanesia

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