Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. November 15, kinikiahulagirl. Polynesian Geography Modern Polynesia comprises more than 1, islands scattered throughout the Central and South Pacific. Origins Many scholars believe that the Polynesian people originated on another island: Formosa, or modern-day Taiwan. Superior sailors Wherever their true homeland lies, the Neolithic Austronesians were accomplished sailors.
Polynesian languages. Guest Author — Laura Hartney. There are three primary island groups that make up the tropical islands of the area called Oceania in the Pacific Ocean — Melanesia , Micronesia and Polynesia.
This article lists highlights of the islands that form the island group called Micronesia. Federated States of Micronesia — sq. Guam — sq. Northern Mariana Islands — sq. Marshall Islands — 70 sq.
Nauru — 8 sq. Wake Island — 2. Finally, what is Austronesian? Which is why I am so proud of being Formosan. Aloha oe! Thank you for taking the time to read this. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
Both island chains were US possessions before being annexed with the Gilbert Islands to become Kiribati. The Line Islands were used for testing of British hydrogen bombs starting in Three atmospheric nuclear tests were conducted by the British on Malden Island, and six were conducted on Christmas Island. There is concern about how radiation affected people present during the tests and thereafter.
The Phoenix Islands have few inhabitants. In , Kiribati declared the entire island group a protected environmental area, which made it the largest protected marine habitat in the world. The United States controlled the eastern islands, which are referred to as American Samoa. Before World War I, Germany gained control of the larger, more extensive western islands only to lose them to New Zealand after the war.
Western Samoa was under the New Zealand government until , when it gained independence. The name was officially changed from Western Samoa to Samoa in The Samoan Islands are volcanic, and the most active volcano last erupted in In Samoa, three-quarters of the nearly two hundred thousand people live on the larger of the two main islands. Colonialism has had a major impact on the culture, especially in the case of religion.
Christianity became widespread once it was introduced and is now the religion of about 99 percent of the population. American music and societal trends are also a major influence on the islands because of migration between Hawaii and the US mainland.
Many Samoans have moved to the United States and established communities. Cultural traditions have been preserved and are often integrated into modern society. Samoa has some of the oldest history and traditions of Polynesia. American Samoa became a key military post for the United States.
South of Samoa is an archipelago that is home to the Kingdom of Tonga. Only about 36 of the islands are inhabited by a total population of about one hundred twenty thousand people. Tonga is ruled by a monarchy that never lost its governance powers throughout the colonial era.
Tonga is the only monarchy in the Pacific. The two main methods of gaining wealth are by remittances from citizens working abroad and tourism. The island nation of Tuvalu comprises four reef islands and five atolls for a total land area of about ten square miles. In , it had a population of about twelve thousand people.
These statistics indicate that Tuvalu is one of the four smallest countries in the world. Nauru is only about eight square miles in area. Only the Vatican and Monaco are smaller. The low elevation of the islands of Tuvalu make them susceptible to damage from rising sea levels. The highest point is only fifteen feet in elevation. Any increase in ocean levels as a result of climate change could threaten the existence of this country.
The South Pacific is home to many islands and island groups that are not independent countries. The biggest and most significant group in the southern region is French Polynesia. France colonized a large number of islands in the South Pacific and has continued to hold them in its control or possession as external departments or colonies.
In western Polynesia, the French maintain control over the islands of Wallis and Futuna. There are around islands in French Polynesia, and many are too small or lack resources to be inhabited.
The only ways to get to the islands are by aircraft or by ship. Transportation costs can be high for imported goods or for tourism development. Tahiti , located in the Society Islands , is the central hub of French Polynesia.
Papeete is the capital and main city with a population of almost thirty thousand. Most of the people live along the coastal areas; the interior is almost uninhabited. The Society Islands include the island of Bora Bora , which is considered by many to be a tropical paradise and one of the most exotic tourist destinations in the world.
Bora Bora is a world-class tourist destination catering to the international traveler. The volcanic Marquesas Islands to the northeast are the second-most remote islands in the world after the Hawaiian Islands. The weather pattern in the Pacific does not bring enormous amounts of precipitation to the Marquesas, a reality that restricts human expansion in the archipelago. The higher elevations in the mountains—the highest is 4, feet—draw some precipitation from the rain shadow effect, giving rise to lush rain forests on portions of the islands.
With less than ten thousand people, the Marquesas do not have a large population to support and rely on financial support from outside to sustain them. French painter Paul Gauguin is buried there, and the islands are remembered as his home during the last years of his life.
The Austral Islands are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia and are home to only about 6, people. French Polynesia also includes the Tuamotu Archipelago , between the Society Islands and the Marquesas, which comprises about 75 atolls and an uncounted number of coral reefs that extend for about nine hundred miles. The islands have a population of fewer than twenty thousand people, and the main economic activity is the cultivation of black pearls and coconuts.
The French government used islands in the Tuamotu Archipelago as test sites for nuclear weapons. From to , the French tested 41 atomic devices above ground in the atmosphere, and from to , they tested atomic devices below ground.
Radiation concerns are the same here as they are on the Marshall Islands, where the United States tested atomic weapons. Scientific testing monitored by the World Health Organization has determined the humans living closest to the atolls are not presently in danger of radioactive materials either in the environment or in their food supply.
The long-term effects of the underground tests continue to be monitored. The main island, Pitcairn, is the only inhabited island in this chain and is one of the least inhabited islands in the world; the total population is fewer than fifty people. Even farther east than Pitcairn, on the edge of Polynesia, is Easter Island. Now under the government of Chile, Easter Island was historically inhabited by Polynesians who built large stone heads that remain somewhat of a mystery.
The islands of western Melanesia, with their malarial coasts and often hostile peoples, were avoided by early voyagers, so that they were not opened up until late in the nineteenth century. In the high, almost inaccessible interiors of New Guinea and New Britain there are still groups whose culture is that of the Stone Age. But the peoples living along the coasts and in the river valleys are by now mostly converted to Christianity, and are well along in the footsteps of the Polynesians.
Our troops have found them invaluable as carriers, stretcher-bearers, construction workers, guides, and even guerrilla fighters. The eastern Melanesians in Fiji and New Caledonia are well adjusted to civilization. The Micronesian islands, lying north of the equator from the Gilberts to the Marianas and Palaus, are of special interest to Americans at this time. They are small and scattered, most of them being coral atolls that rise only a few feet above the surrounding ocean. Especially in Guam they have become strongly mixed in modern days with Filipino and Spanish strains.
Altogether the total Micronesian population is about , The western Micronesians have been under white influence for nearly four centuries, and nearly all of them have long been Catholics.
Those farther east were brought into contact much later, largely through visits by American whalers and the work of American missionaries. Most of there are Protestants. The peoples of the Marshalls and eastern Carolines have had their schooling largely from American mission workers, even in Japanese days, and are no strangers to our customs and ideas.
In Guam the Chamorros have moved ahead rapidly under American administration, but most Micronesians tend to be conservative, as might be expected of people whose life is closely adapted to getting along in such small islands, and who have felt the weight of one alien ruler after another. Long ago, the short Negrito folk, and also people akin to the heavy-featured Australian aborigines of today, crossed over the island steppingstones into New Guinea and Australia.
Much later, probably in the early Christian era, the ancestors of the Polynesians struck east in large ocean-going canoes. Making possibly the greatest voyages ever known to man, they discovered and settled every habitable island in the eastern Pacific, and left traces of their passing on almost every unusable speck. Observers two or three decades ago prophesied that the islanders would soon die out. Supporting this belief was the fact that, at the earlier stages of contact with whites, new diseases and other death-dealing influences took a heavy toll.
The population of many islands was cut by a half or more. In some areas, notably in parts of the Solomons and New Hebrides, numbers are still going down, so that he visitor finds villages with few children, or deserted entirely. But in most parts of the South Seas an increase is now under way. Birth rates have stayed high, being geared to conservative sex and family customs. Melanesian culture, the beliefs and practices of the indigenous peoples of the ethnogeographic group of Pacific Islands known as Melanesia.
Oceanic languages, also called Eastern Austronesian, widespread, highly varied, and controversial language group of the Austronesian language family. The Austronesian peoples, also sometimes referred to as the Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of various peoples in Taiwan collectively known as Taiwanese indigenous peoples , Maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania and Madagascar that speak the Austronesian languages.
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