Melanesia
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| Geographic definition of Melanesia, surrounded by a pink line. |
Melanesia (from Greek, meaning "black islands") is a region
extending from the western side of the eastern Pacific to the Arafura
Sea, north and northeast of
Australia.
It consists of 2,000 islands with a total land area of about 386,000
square miles (one million square kilometers), and is home to about 12
million people. These islands have been inhabited for tens of thousands
of years.
The term "Melanesia" 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 considered inaccurate
because it obscures Melanesia's cultural, linguistic, and genetic
diversity. Most importantly, this term combines two quite distinct
groups, the Austronesians and the Papuans (who themselves can be
considered as comprising a number of distinct groups). The Papuans
arrived in
New Guinea’s around 40,000 years ago; they developed
agriculture. The later wave of Austronesian people, from Taiwan, brought ocean-voyaging skills.
Ethno-cultural definition of Melanesia.
Melanesia is one of three major cultural areas in the
Pacific Ocean.
Definition
The term
Melanesia can be used in either an
anthropological or a geographical context. In the former, the term refers to one of the three regions of
Oceania whose pre-colonial population generally belongs to one ethno-cultural family as a result of centuries of maritime
migrations.
The geographic conception of Melanesia is used as a reference to the
area where political, ethnic, and linguistic distinctions are not
relevant.
This general article only covers the broad characteristics of
Melanesia. For more information, see the links to the individual
articles.
Geography
Melanesia's 2,000 islands and total land area of about 386,000 square
miles (one million square kilometers) is home to about 12 million
people. The climate of Melanesia is tropically humid. The vegetation
comprises forest and jungle, providing resources, shelter, and seclusion
for inland tribes.
The following islands and groups of islands are traditionally considered part of Melanesia:
Islands of mixed ancestry which do not necessarily self-identify as Melanesian:
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.
The Bismarck Archipelago comprises 200 islands off the northeastern coast of
New Guinea and belongs to
Papua New Guinea.
The archipelago includes mostly volcanic islands, the most important of
which are: the Admiralty Islands, Duke of York Islands, Mussau Islands,
New Britain, New Hanover Island, New Ireland, and the Vitu Islands.
Fiji
consists of 322 islands, of which 110 are inhabited, and 522 smaller
islets. The two most important islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu.
New Caledonia is made up of a main island,
Grande Terre,
and several smaller islands, the Belep archipelago to the north, the
Loyalty Islands to the east, Île des Pins to the south, the Chesterfield
Islands and Bellona Reefs further west.
New Guinea, located just north of
Australia, is the world's second largest island. The name
Papua has been long associated with the island. The western half of the island contains the
Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Irian Jaya, while the eastern half forms the mainland of the independent nation of
Papua New Guinea.
The
Solomon Islands are located east of
Papua New Guinea, consist of nearly 1,000 islands, and cover a land mass of about 11,000 square miles (28,400 square kilometers).
The
Maluku Islands (also known as the “Moluccas,”) are an archipelago in
Indonesia, and part of the larger Malay Archipelago. They are located east of Sulawesi (Celebes), west of
New Guinea, and north of Timor.
The
Torres Strait Islands
are a group of at least 274 small islands in Torres Strait, the
waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York
Peninsula and the island of
New Guinea. They are part of Queensland, a state of
Australia.
Vanuatu is located some 1,100 miles (1,750 km) east of
Australia, 30 miles (50 km) northeast of
New Caledonia, west of
Fiji and south of the
Solomon Islands.
Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands, of which two — Matthew and
Hunter Islands — are also claimed by the French overseas department of
New Caledonia.
History
Melanesia has been the site of human habitation for tens of thousands of years. The first pre-European inhabitants of the
Torres Strait Islands are believed to have migrated from the Indonesian archipelago 70,000 years ago when
New Guinea
was still attached to the Australian continent. New Guinea’s first
inhabitants arrived around 40,000 years ago, having traveled through the
southeast Asian peninsula; they developed one of the earliest known
agricultures. A later wave of Austronesian people, from Taiwan, brought
ocean-voyaging skills. The
Maluku Islands have been occupied for 32,000 years, as have the Bismarck Archipelago and the
Solomon Islands, where
Polynesian settlers began to arrive around 4000 B.C.E.. The Lapita people arrived in
New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands around 1500
B.C.E.; Polynesians also arrived, beginning around the eleventh century.
Vanuatu was settled around 1300
B.C.E., and
Fiji around 1000 B.C.E..
Portuguese and
Spanish explorers made contact with the Maluku Islands, then known as the “Spice Islands,”
New Guinea,
and the Solomon Islands in the sixteenth century. Dalmatian sailors
were the first Europeans to reach the Bismarck Archipelago also in the
sixteenth century. The Portuguese maritime explorer Luis Vaez de Torres
sailed through the Torres Strait in 1606, and in that year a Spanish
expedition became the first Europeans to reach
Vanuatu.
Dutch explorer
Abel Tasman visited
Fiji in 1643, and the British explorer James Cook named "New Caledonia" in 1774.
European colonization of Melanesia gathered pace from the late
eighteenth century. Vanuatu suffered from "blackbirding," wherein half
of the adult male population of some of the islands became indentured
workers in Australia. The
Netherlands claimed the western half of
New Guinea in 1828.
Britain took over southeastern New Guinea, and
Germany
claimed northeastern New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago) in
1884. The Dutch and the British tried to suppress warfare and
headhunting throughout Melanesia.
New Caledonia was made a French possession in 1853. Blackbirding prompted the
United Kingdom to declare a protectorate over the southern Solomons in 1893. Queensland annexed the Torres Strait Islands in 1879. The
Fiji
islands came under British control as a colony in 1874. In 1906, the
British government transferred responsibility for their territory in New
Guinea to Australia.
The world wars of the twentieth century brought both changes to the
balance of foreign domination in Melanesia, and intense fighting. During
World War I, Australian forces seized German New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago, both of which became
League of Nations-mandated
territories of Australia in 1920. The Japanese invaded Netherlands New
Guinea and the Australian territories in 1942. The highlands, northern,
and eastern parts of the island became key battlefields. Papuans fought
alongside
Australian and
U.S. troops. Some of the most intense fighting of
World War II occurred in the Solomons as well.
English map of New Guinea, circa 1940s.
During World War II, the islands of Éfaté and Espiritu Santo in
Vanuatu
were used as Allied military bases. During the Japanese occupation of
the Maluku Islands, the islanders fled to the mountains and began a
campaign of resistance known as the South Moluccan Brigade. Thursday
Island became the military headquarters for the Torres Strait and was a
base for Australian and United States forces. In 1942, the Japanese
bombed neighboring Horn Island, which had an airbase used by the Allies
to attack parts of New Guinea.
Independence became an issue throughout Melanesia after the war ended
in 1945. Political leaders of the Maluku Islands and Netherlands New
Guinea discussed independence with the Netherlands, but both regions
came under the control of Indonesia.
Fiji was granted independence in 1970.
Australia granted full independence to
Papua New Guinea
on September 16, 1975. On January 2, 1976, the Solomons became
self-governing, then two years later became independent. In the 1960s,
the ni-Vanuatu people started to press for self-governance, and later,
independence. Full sovereignty was granted to them on July 30, 1980. The
Torres Strait Islanders became citizens of Queensland in 1967 with full
access to Australian health and social services and the freedom to
travel and work in Australia.
Independence struggles continued in those Melanesian countries
remaining under foreign control, and poor governance dogged the newly
independent countries. The governments formed in the Solomon Islands
since independence have not improved the country. Democratic rule was
interrupted in
Fiji
by two coups in 1987, caused by concern over a government perceived as
dominated by the Indo-Fijian (Indian) community, and a further coup in
2000. Tension between the government and the army surfaced in 2006.
Agitation in
New Caledonia
by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste for independence
began in 1985, resulting in increased autonomy. There has been
intermittent ethnic and nationalist violence on the Maluku Islands, and
acts of
terrorism by members of the Republik Maluku Selatan government-in-exile in the
Netherlands since that time.
A most startling discovery in
Papua New Guinea
took place on August 4, 1938, when Richard Archbold discovered the
Grand Valley of the Balim River that had 50,000 yet-undiscovered Stone
Age farmers living in orderly villages. The people, known as the Dani,
were the last society of its size to make first contact with the Western
world.
Solomon Island Warriors with Spears in Ornamented War Canoe
Politics
The politics of Fiji take place in a framework of a parliamentary
representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of Fiji
is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.
New Caledonia has a political status that is in between that of an independent country and a normal overseas "département" of
France.
The western half of the island of
New Guinea consists of two provinces of
Indonesia, Papua and West Irian Jaya, and so is part of the Indonesian republic. The eastern half of the island,
Papua New Guinea, which includes the Bismarck Archipelago, is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations; Queen Elizabeth II of the
United Kingdom
is the head of state, represented by a governor general. Executive
power lies with the Prime Minister, who heads the cabinet. The
unicameral national parliament has 109 seats.
The Maluku Islands, as of 2006, were divided into two provinces of
Indonesia, Maluku and North Maluku. The
Torres Strait Islands are part of
Australia and are governed by the Torres Strait Regional Authority.
Vanuatu
has a republican political system headed by a President. The Prime
Minister, elected by Parliament, appoints a Council of Ministers to form
the executive. The Parliament of Vanuatu is unicameral, and has 52
members. The National Council of Chiefs advises on culture and language.
Economics
Did you know?
Melanesia consists of 2,000
islands and 12 million people who practice a variety of subsistence economies
Subsistence is the main characteristic of the economies of Melanesia.
Fiji,
endowed with forest, mineral, and fish resources, has one of the more
developed economies, though still has a large subsistence sector. Fiji
experienced a period of rapid growth in the 1960s and 1970s but
stagnated in the early 1980s.
New Caledonia has about 25 percent of the world's known
nickel resources, mostly
mined
from open-pit mines. Only a small amount of the land is suitable for
cultivation, and food accounts for about 20 percent of imports.
Substantial financial support from France, and tourism, are key to the
health of the economy.
Papua New Guinea
is richly endowed with natural resources, but exploitation has been
hampered by rugged terrain, the high cost of developing infrastructure,
serious law and order problems, and difficulties with land title.
Agriculture provides a subsistence livelihood for 85 percent of the
population. Mineral deposits, including petroleum
oil,
copper, and
gold, account for 72 percent of export earnings.
The economy of
Western New Guinea is undeveloped. The people subsist by hunting, fishing, and cultivating bananas, corn, manioc, sago, yams, and other crops.
Pearl farming is a major source of income for the Maluku island of Aru.
The
Solomon Islands
is a lesser-developed nation, and more than 75 percent of its labor
force is engaged in subsistence farming and fishing. Fishing is the main
economic activity in the
Torres Strait Islands, particularly fishing for prawns, rock
lobsters, and Spanish
mackerel, along with subsistence horticulture.
The
Vanuatuan
economy is based on small-scale agriculture, which provides a living
for 65 percent of the population. Fishing, offshore financial services,
and tourism are other mainstays. Mineral deposits are negligible. The
country has no known petroleum deposits.
Demographics
The original inhabitants of Melanesia are likely to have been the
ancestors of the present-day Papuan language-speaking people. These are
Negroid people, a tall, dark-skinned people with broad features, and
with black, kinky hair. These people are thought to have occupied
New Guinea
tens of thousands of years ago, and to have reached the islands of
Melanesia at least 35,000 years ago (according to radiocarbon dating of
artifacts).
It is 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 4,000 years ago. It seems there was a long period of interaction
that 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 departed to the east to become the original Polynesian people.
Most Melanesian people belong to a Christian church, the denomination
depending upon the established church of the colonial power. However,
many people combine their Christian faith with some pre-Christian
traditional indigenous practices. In
Fiji,
religion is one of the faultlines between indigenous Fijians and
Indo-Fijians, with the former overwhelmingly Christian, and the latter
mostly
Hindu and
Muslim.
Dense jungle historically allowed tribes to remain aloof from one
another. This resulted in a much greater diversity of language and
culture. There are hundreds of languages and even more dialects spoken
throughout Melanesia. Fiji has three official languages: English, which
was introduced by the former British colonial rulers, Bau Fijian, spoken
by ethnic Fijians, and Hindustani, the main language spoken by
Indo-Fijians. English is the main medium of communication. Bau Fijian
belongs to the Austronesian family of languages.
In
New Caledonia,
French is the official language, while an estimated 27 Kanak languages,
belonging to the Oceanic sub-branch of Austronesian languages, coexist.
There are three official languages for
Papua New Guinea,
in addition to over 700 indigenous non-Austronesian (or Papuan
languages) and Austronesian languages. An incredible ten percent of the
world's total languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea. In
Western New Guinea, there are over three hundred languages and two hundred additional dialects.
There are 74 languages in the Solomon Islands, four of those extinct.
While English is the official language, only one to two percent of the
population speak it, and the prevalent language is Solomons Pijin. In
Vanuatu,
English, French, and Bislama (a Creole language which evolved from
English) are the three official languages, while over one hundred local
languages are spoken there. The density of languages per capita is the
highest of any nation in the world (with an average of only two thousand
speakers per language).
Although English is the official language of the
Torres Strait Islands,
there are two indigenous languages. The language of the western and
central islands is a member of the Pama-Nyungan family of languages,
which covers most of Australia, while the language of eastern Torres
Strait is Meriam Mìr, related to the languages of the nearby coast of
Papua New Guinea.
Society and culture
People of Melanesian countries often talk about the “Melanesian way,”
that people of the region see as a distinctively Melanesian set of
cultural values and behavior.
Melanesians used the bow and arrow in hunting and fighting, and practiced
head-hunting as a tradition of stealthy raiding to secure proof of manhood. Tattooing is practiced throughout
Oceania, but scarification, or the raising of great scars or keloids as marks of age or social status, is a Papuan custom.
Family
In numerous places throughout Melanesia, an older social system, based on descent from the mother (
matrilineal), has changed to a
patrilineal
system. A combination of these two forms of social organization
frequently exists. The customs of kava drinking and tattooing were
possibly the result of later waves of immigration. A still later
migration brought the practice of betel-chewing.
In New Guinea, the basic village household consists of a husband, a
wife, their unmarried children, and perhaps the husband's parents.
Extended families
live in adjacent houses, gathering frequently for meals, companionship,
work parties, and ceremonies. Men's houses are no longer common,
although young men may live with other bachelors.
Central to
Torres Strait Islanders'
sense of identity are the extended families, within which respect for
elders is preserved. Families provide the framework within which
obligations to kin are met and the sharing of resources is ensured. The
family is also the source of emotional and spiritual support.
Cannibalism
New Guinea is well-known in the popular imagination for ritual
cannibalism that was practiced by some (but far from all) ethnic groups. The Korowai and Kombai peoples of southeastern
Western New Guinea
are two of the last surviving tribes in the world said to have engaged
in cannibalism in the recent past. In the Asmat area of southwestern
Papua, it may have occurred up until the early 1970s. In a 2006 episode
of the BBC/Discovery Channel documentary series "Going Tribal," ("Tribe"
in the UK) a Kombai man recounts his participation in cannibal rituals.
In 1963, a missionary named Tom Bozeman described the Dani tribe
feasting on an enemy slain in battle.
According to Jared Diamond in
Guns, Germs, and Steel, cannibalism may have arisen in New Guinea due to the scarcity of sources of protein.The traditional crops, taro and
sweet potato, are low in
protein compared to
wheat and pulses, and the only edible animals available were small or unappetizing, such as
mice,
spiders, and
frogs.
Cannibalism led to the spread of Kuru disease, affecting the brain,
similar to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, prompting the Australian
administration to outlaw the practice in 1959.
Notes
- ↑ Jared Diamond and Ernst Mayr, The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0195141709).
- ↑ Here Be Cannibals The Heretical Press. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
- ↑ Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005, ISBN 978-0393061314), 149.
References
- Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005. ISBN 978-0393061314
- Diamond, Jared, and Ernst Mayr. The Birds of Northern Melanesia: Speciation, Ecology, and Biogeography. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0195141709
- May, R.J., Anthony Regan, Sinclair Dinnen, Michael Morgan, Brij Lal, and Benjamin Reilly. Arc of Instability? - Melanesia in the Early 2000s. University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 2003. ISBN 1877175137
- Moore, Clive. New Guinea: Crossing Boundaries and History. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0824824853
- Regan, Anthony J., and Helga M. Griffin. Bougainville: before the conflict. Pandanus Press and the State Society and Governance Project in Melanesia, The Australian National University, Canberra, 2005. ISBN 1740761383
- Sullivan, Nancy. Governance Challenges for PNG and the Pacific Islands. DWU Press and State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project, RSPAS, ANU, 2004. ISBN 9980997672
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