Polynesia

Polynesia (from Template:Lang-gr "poly) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including Polynesian language|language]],Polynesian culture, and beliefs. Historically, they were experienced sailors and used stars to navigate during the night.

The term "Polynesia" was first used in 1756 by French writer Charles de Brosses,and originally applied to all the Pacific islands of the Pacific. In 1831,Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a restriction on its use during a lecture to the Geographical Society of Paris.

Geography

Geology

Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over 70.1 million square miles of Pacific Ocean. Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos, including the Hawaiian islands and Samoan Islands,are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspot (geology].New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Ouvéa,the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia, are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of Zealandia continent Zealandia. Zealandia is believed to have mostly sunken by 23 mya and resurfaced geologically recently due to a change in the movements of the Pacific Plate in relation to the Indo-Australian plate, which served to uplift the New Zealand portion. At first, the Pacific plate was subducted under the Australian plate. The Alpine Fault that traverses the South Island is currently a transform fault while the convergent plate boundary from the North Island northwards is a subduction zone called the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone. The volcanism associated with this subduction zone is the origin of the Kermadec Islands and Tongan island archipelagos.

Out of about 117,000 or 118,000 square miles of land, over 103,000 square miles are within New Zealand; the Hawaiian archipelago comprises about half the remainder. The Zealandia continent has approximately 1.4 million square miles of continental shelf. The oldest rocks in the region are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old. The oldest Polynesian rocks outside of Zealandia are to be found in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain, and are 80 million years old.

Geographic area

Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, although there are some islands that are inhabited by Polynesian people situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii,New Zealand and Easter Island. The other main island groups located within the Polynesian Triangle are Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue,Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia.

There are also small Polynesian settlements in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, and in Vanuatu. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this great triangle is Rotuma, situated north of Fiji. The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits but speak a non-Polynesian language. Some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga.

However, in essence, Polynesia is a cultural term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania (the others being [Micronesia] and [Melanesia]). DNA studies suggest that the indigenous Pacific Islands population migrated from Taiwan thousands of years ago and dispersed throughout the region into three distinct cultural groups.

==Island groups

The following are the islands and island groups, either nations or overseas territories of former colonial powers, that are of native Polynesian culture or where archaeological evidence indicates Polynesian settlement in the past.Islands that were uninhabited at contact but which have archaeological evidence of Polynesian settlement include Norfolk Island, Pitcairn, New Zealand's [Kermadec Islands] and some small islands near Hawaii. Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the general triangle that geographically defines the region.

Main Polynesia

• [American Samoa] (territory of the United States)
• [Cook Islands] (self-governing state in [associated state free association] with [New Zealand])
• [Easter Island] (called Rapa Nui in the [Rapa Nui language], politically part of [Chile])
• [French Polynesia] (overseas country, a [Overseas collectivity] of [France])
• [Hawaii] (a [U.S. state] of the United States)
• [New Zealand] (independent nation)
• [Niue] (self-governing state in [associated state free association] with New Zealand)
• [Norfolk Island] (an [Australian External Territories])
• [Pitcairn Islands] (a [British Overseas Territories])
• [Samoa] (independent nation)
• [Tokelau] (overseas dependency of New Zealand)
• [Tonga] (independent nation)
• [Tuvalu] (independent nation)
• [Wallis and Futuna] ([[overseas collectivity] of France)
• [Rotuma] ([Fijian [Local government of Fiji|dependency])

Polynesian outliers

In Melanesia

• [Anuta] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Bellona Island] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Emae] (in Vanuatu)
• [Fiji Island]
• [Mele, Vanuatu
• [Nuguria] (in [Papua New Guinea])
• [Nukumanu] (in Papua New Guinea)
• [Ontong Java] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Pileni] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Rennell Island] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Sikaiana] (in the Solomon Islands)
• [Takuu] (in Papua New Guinea)
• [Tikopia] (in the Solomon Islands)
• There are [United States Minor Outlying Islands] in this area.

In Micronesia

• [Kapingamarangi] (in the [Federated States of Micronesia])
• [Nukuoro] (in the Federated States of Micronesia)

Political history of Polynesia

Perhaps the oldest extensive political entity was that of the Samoa-based [Tu'i Manu'a Confederacy], ruled by the holders of the Tu'i Manu'a title, which may well be the oldest chieftain title in Polynesia. This confederacy likely included much of Western Polynesia and some outliers at the height of its power in the 10th and 11th centuries; most notably: the [Samoa], [Tonga], [Lau Islands] and perhaps the main islands of Fiji. The Tongans revolted around 1000 years ago and formed their own [Tu'i Tonga] empire that came to dominate Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji, with an influence stretching from [Nauru] in the Northwest, to [Niue] in the East. The empire ruled for much of the [Medieval period], until the Samoan revolt and subsequent rise of the [Malietoa] dynasties in Samoa, and ended with their capitulation to the Tongan [Tu'i Ha'atakalaua] dynasty in the 15th century.

Tonga 1500s–present

After a bloody civil war, political power in Tonga eventually fell under the [Tu'i Kanokupol]] dynasty in the 16th century.

In 1845 the ambitious young warrior, strategist, and orator [George Tupou I|Tāufaʻāhau] united Tonga into more Western-style kingdom. He held the chiefly title of Tuʻi Kanokupolu, but had been baptised[by whom?] with the name Jiaoji ("George") in 1831. In 1875, with the help of missionary [Shirley Waldemar Baker], he declared Tonga a constitutional monarchy, formally adopted the western royal style, emancipated the "serfs", enshrined a code of law, land tenure, and freedom of the press, and limited the power of the chiefs.

Tonga became a British-protected state under a Treaty of Friendship on 18 May 1900, when European settlers and rival Tongan chiefs tried to oust the second king. Within the British Empire, which posted no higher permanent representative on Tonga than a British Consul (1901–1970), Tonga formed part of the British Western Pacific Territories (under a colonial High Commissioner, residing on Fiji) from 1901 until 1952. Despite being under the protectorate, Tonga retained its monarchy without interruption.

On June 4, 1970 the Kingdom of Tonga received independence from the British protectorate.

Samoa Malietoa–present

Samoa remained under Malietoa chieftains until its East-West division by [Tripartite Convention (1899)]] subsequent annexation by the German Empire] and the United States. The German-controlled Western portion of Samoa (the consisting of the bulk of Samoan territory) was occupied by New Zealand in WWI, and administered by it under a Class C [League of Nations Mandate] until receiving independence on January 1, 1962. The new Independent State of Samoa was not a monarchy, though the Malietoa title-holder remained very influential. It officially ended, however with the death of Malietoa Tanumafili II on May 11, 2.

Hawaii

See: Kingdom of Hawaii. [File:Two natives with outrigger canoes at shoreline, Honolulu, Hawaii.jpg|thumb|[Outrigger canoe]s at Waikiki beach, late 1800s]

New Zealand Maori

On October 28, 1835 members of the [Ngā Puhi] and surrounding [iwi] issued a "declaration of independence", as a "confederation of tribes" to resist potential French colonization efforts and to prevent the ships and cargo of Maori merchants from being seized at foreign ports. They received recognition from the British monarch in 1836. (See [United Tribes of New Zealand], [Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand|New Zealand Declaration of Independenc]], [James Busb].)

Using the [Treaty of Waitangi] and [Terra nullius|right of discovery] as a basis, the [United Kingdom] annexed New Zealand as a part of [New South Wales] in 1840.

In response to the actions of the colonial government, Maori looked to form monarchy inclusive of all Maori tribes in order to reduce vulnerability to the British divide-and-conquer strategy. [Pōtatau Te Wherowhero] high priest and chief of the [Ngāti Mahuta] tribe of the [Waikato] iwi was crowned as the Maori king in 1858. The king's territory consisted primarily of the lands in the center of the North Island, and the iwi constituted from the most powerful non-signatories of the Treaty of Waitangi, with Te Wherowhero also never having signed it. (See Kingitanga.)

All tribes were pressed into subjection to the colonial government by the late 19th century. Although Maori were given the privilege of being legally enfranchised subjects of the British Empire under the Treaty, Maori culture and language were actively suppressed by the colonial government and by economic and social pressures from the Pakeha society until efforts were made to preserve indigenous culture starting in the late 1950s and culminating in the Waitangi Tribunal's interpretation of language and culture being included in the treasures set to be preserved under the Treaty of Waitangi. Moving from a low point of 15,000 speakers in the 1970s, there are now over 157,000 people who have some proficiency in the standard Māori language according to the 2006 census in New Zealand, due in large part to government recognition and promotion of the language.

Maori are very much integrated into New Zealand society, and many are of mixed Maori and European, Asian, or Pacific Islander heritage. The New Zealand Defence forces are over half Maori, and the New Zealand Special Forces are 2/3 Maori. [Jerry Mateparae], the former chief of the armed forces, now serves as [Governor-General of New Zealand]. However, despite major achievements towards equality, Maori are still under-represented in many fields.

Fiji

(See: History of Fiji, [Seru Epenisa Cakobau], [Fiji during the time of Cakobau].)

The Lau islands had after the Tu'i Mana'u dynasty were subject to periods of Tongan and then Fijian control until their eventual conquest by Seru Epenisa Cakobau of the Kingdom of Fiji by 1871. In around 1855 a Tongan prince, [Enele Ma'afu], proclaimed the Lau islands as his kingdom, and took the title Tui Lau].

Fiji itself had been ruled by numerous divided chieftains until Cakobau unified the landmass. The Lapita culture, the ancestors of the Polynesians, existed in Fiji from 3500 BCE until they were displaced by the Melanesians about a thousand years later. (Interestingly, Samoans and subsequent Polynesian cultures adopted Melanesian face painting methods.)

In 1873, Cakobau ceded a Fiji heavily indebted to foreign creditors to the United Kingdom. It became independent on 10 October 1970 and a republic on 28 September 1987.

Cook Islands

See: [Kingdom of Rarotonga].

Tuvalu

The stories as to the ancestors of the Tuvaluans vary from island to island. On Funafuti and Vaitupu the founding ancestor is described as being from [Samoa]; whereas on Nanumea the founding ancestor is described as being from [Tonga]]. These stories can be linked to what is known about the Samoa-based [ Manu'a Tu'i Manu'a Confederacy], ruled by the holders of the Tu'i Manu'a title, which confederacy likely included much of Western Polynesia and some outliers at the height of its power in the 10th and 11th centuries. The extent of influence of the [Tuʻi Tonga] line of Tongan kings, which originated in the 10th century is understood to have extended to some of the islands of Tuvalu in the mid-13th century. However the existence of the [Tuʻi Tonga Empire] is disputed.

The history of [Niutao] recalls that in the 15th century Tongan warriors were defeated in a battle on the reef of Niutao, Tongan warriors also invaded Niutao later in the 15th century and again were repelled. A third and fourth invasion of Tongan occurred in the late 16th century, again with the Tongans being defeated. (See: History of Tuvalu.)

===Polynesian links to the American The[|sweet potato], called kūmara in [Māori language], which is native to the Americas, was widespread in Polynesia when Europeans first reached the Pacific. Remains of the plant have been radiocarbon-dated in the Cook Islands to 1000 AD, and current thinking is that it was brought to central Polynesia circa 700 AD and spread across Polynesia from there, possibly by Polynesians who had traveled to South America and back.

[Thor Heyerdahl] proposed in the mid-20th century that the Polynesians had migrated from South America on [balsa]]-log boats. Many anthropologists have criticised Heyerdahl's theory, including [Wade Davis] in his book The Wayfinders. Davis says that Heyerdahl "ignored the overwhelming body of linguistic, ethnographic, and ethnobotanical evidence, augmented today by genetic and archaeological data, indicating that he was patently wrong."

Cultures of Polynesia

{Main|Polynesian culture} [File:Paul Gauguin 056.jpg|Painting of Tahitian Women on the Beach by [Paul Gauguin]]—[Musée d'Orsay]|thumb]

Polynesia divides into two distinct cultural groups, East Polynesia and West Polynesia. The culture of West Polynesia is conditioned to high populations. It has strong institutions of marriage and well-developed judicial, monetary and trading traditions. It comprises the groups of [Tonga], [Niue], [Samoa] and extended to the atolls of Tuvalu to the north. The pattern of settlement that is believed to have occurred is that the Polynesians spread out from the Samoan Islands into the Tuvaluan atolls, with [Tuvalu] providing a stepping stone to migration into the [Polynesian Outlier communities] in [Melanesia] and [Micronesia]=The Polynesians – Unlike in [Melanesia], leaders were chosen in Polynesia based on their hereditary bloodline. Samoa however, had another system of government that combines elements of heredity and real-world skills to choose leaders. This system is called [Fa'amatai]. According to Ben R. Finney and Eric M. Jones, "On Tahiti, for example, the 35,000 Polynesians living there at the time of European discovery were divided between high-status persons with full access to food and other resources, and low-status persons with limited access."

[Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi], [Prime Minister of Samoa], who initiated the [Polynesian Leaders Group] in late 2011.

Political union

After several years of discussing a potential regional grouping, three sovereign states (Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu) and five self-governing but non-sovereign territories formally launched, in November 2011, the Polynesian Leaders Group, intended to cooperate on a variety of issues including culture and language, education, responses to climate change, and trade and investment. It does not, however, constitute a political or monetary union.

Polynesian navigation

{Main|Polynesian navigation}

Polynesia comprised islands diffused throughout a triangular area with sides of four thousand miles. The area from the Hawaiian Islands in the north, to Easter Island in the east and to New Zealand in the south were all settled by Polynesians.

[Navigator]s traveled to small inhabited islands using only their own senses and knowledge passed by [oral tradition] from navigator to apprentice. In order to locate directions at various times of day and year, navigators in Eastern Polynesia memorized important facts: the motion of specific stars, and where they would rise on the horizon of the ocean;weather; times of travel; wildlife species (which congregate at particular positions); directions of swells on the ocean, and how the crew would feel their motion; colors of the sea and sky, especially how clouds would cluster at the locations of some islands; and angles for approaching harbors.

[File:Priests traveling across kealakekua bay for first contact rituals.jpg|thumb|right|Polynesian (Hawaiian) navigators sailing multi-hulled canoe, ca 1781.]] [File:Va'a canoe, Matavai village, Savaii, Samoa MS.JPG|thumb|right|A common fishing canoe va'a with outrigger in [Savai'i] island, [Samoa], 2009.] These [wayfinding] techniques, along with [outrigger] [canoe] construction methods, were kept as secrets. Generally each island maintained a guild of navigators who had very high status; in times of famine or difficulty these navigators could trade for aid or evacuate people to neighboring islands. On his first voyage of Pacific exploration Cook had the services of a Polynesian navigator,[Tupaia (navigator)], who drew a hand-drawn Chart of the islands within {convert|2000|mi|km} radius (to the north and west) of his home island of Ra'iatea. Tupaia had knowledge of 130 islands and named 74 on his Chart. Tupaia had navigated from Ra'iatea in short voyages to 13 islands. He had not visited western Polynesia, as since his grandfather’s time the extent of voyaging by Raiateans has diminished to the islands of eastern Polynesia. His grandfather and father had passed to Tupaia the knowledge as to the location of the major islands of western Polynesia and the navigation information necessary to voyage to [Fiji], [Samoa]] and [Tonga]. As the Admiralty orders directed Cook to search for the [Terra Australis|“Great Southern Continent”], Cook ignored Tupaia’s Chart and his skills as a navigator. To this day, original traditional methods of Polynesian Navigation are still taught in the [[Polynesian outlier] of [Duff Islands|Taumako Island] in the [Islands of the Solomon Islands|Solomon Islands].

From a single chicken bone recovered from the archaeological site of El Arenal-1, on the Arauco Peninsula, Chile, a 2007 research report looking at radiocarbon dating and an ancient DNA sequence indicate that Polynesian navigators may have reached the Americas at least 100 years before Columbus (who arrived 1492 AD), introducing chickens to South America. A later report looking at the same specimens concluded:

A published, apparently pre-Columbian, Chilean specimen and six pre-European Polynesian specimens also cluster with the same European/Indian subcontinental/Southeast Asian sequences, providing no support for a Polynesian introduction of chickens to South America. In contrast, sequences from two archaeological sites on Easter Island group with an uncommon haplogroup from Indonesia, Japan, and China and may represent a genetic signature of an early Polynesian dispersal. Modeling of the potential marine carbon contribution to the Chilean archaeological specimen casts further doubt on claims for pre-Columbian chickens, and definitive proof will require further analyses of ancient DNA sequences and radiocarbon and stable isotope data from archaeological excavations within both Chile and Polynesia.

Knowledge of the traditional Polynesian methods of navigation were largely lost after contact with and colonization by Europeans. This left the problem of accounting for the presence of the Polynesians in such isolated and scattered parts of the Pacific. By the late 19th century to the early 20th century a more generous view of Polynesian navigation had come into favor, perhaps creating a romantic picture of their canoes, seamanship and navigational expertise.

In the mid to late 1960s, scholars began testing sailing and paddling experiments related to Polynesian navigation: [[David Henry Lewis] sailed his catamaran from Tahiti to New Zealand using stellar navigation without instruments and [Ben Finney] built a 40-foot replica of a Hawaiian double canoe "Nalehia" and tested it in Hawaii. Meanwhile, Micronesian ethnographic research in the Caroline Islands revealed that traditional stellar navigational methods were still in every day use. Recent re-creations of Polynesian voyaging have used methods based largely on Micronesian methods and the teachings of a Micronesian navigator, [Mau Piailug].

It is probable that the Polynesian navigators employed a whole range of techniques including use of the stars, the movement of ocean currents and wave patterns, the air and sea interference patterns caused by islands and atolls, the flight of birds, the winds and the weather. Scientists think that long-distance Polynesian voyaging followed the seasonal paths of bird migration. There are some references in their oral traditions to the flight of birds and some say that there were range marks onshore pointing to distant islands in line with these flyways. One theory is that they would have taken a frigatebird with them. These birds refuse to land on the water as their feathers will become waterlogged making it impossible to fly. When the voyagers thought they were close to land they may have released the bird, which would either fly towards land or else return to the canoe. It is likely that the Polynesians also used wave and swell formations to navigate. It is thought that the Polynesian navigators may have measured the time it took to sail between islands in "canoe-days’’ or a similar type of expression.

Also, people of the Marshall Islands used special devices called Marshall Islands stick chart, showing the places and directions of swells and wave-breaks, with tiny seashells affixed to them to mark the positions of islands along the way. Materials for these maps were readily available on beaches, and their making was simple; however, their effective use needed years and years of study.

See also

• List of Polynesians
• Polynesian mythology
• Polynesian Society
• Polynesian Voyaging Society

References

• Finney, Ben R. (1976) (editor). Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society Corp.
  • Finney, Ben R. (1976). "New, Non-Armchair Research". In Ben R. Finney (1963), Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society Inc.
• Gatty, Harold (1999). Finding Your Ways Without Map or Compass. Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-40613-X.
• Kayser, M., Brauer, S., Weiss, G., Underhill, P. A., Roewer, L., Schiefenhšfel, W., and Stoneking, M. (2000). "Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes". Current Biology, 2000, volume 10, pages 1237–1246.
• Kayser, M., Brauer, S., Weiss, G., Underhill, P. A., Roewer, L., Schiefenhšfel, W., and Stoneking, M. (2000). "Melanesian Origin of Polynesian Y Chromosomes (correction)". Current Biology, 2000, volume 11, pages 1–2.
• Lewis, David (1976). "A Return Voyage Between Puluwat and Saipan Using Micronesian Navigational Techniques". In Ben R. Finney (1963), Pacific Navigation and Voyaging, The Polynesian Society Inc.
• Sharp, Andrew (1963). Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia, Longman Paul Ltd.
• Bellwood, Peter (1987). The Polynesians – Prehistory of an Island People, Thames and Hudson

External links

• History of Easter Island illustrated by stamps
• Interview with David Lewis
• Lewis commenting on Spirits of the Voyage
• Photogallery—French Polynesia (Tahiti, Moorea, Motu Tiahura)
• Useful introduction to Maori society, including canoe voyages
• Obituary: David Henry Lewis—including how he came to rediscover Pacific Ocean navigation methods

{Polynesia}} {Countries and territories of Oceania} {Culture of Oceania|state=autocollapse} {Regions of the world}

[Category:Polynesia| [Category:Geography of Oceania [Category:Islands of Oceania]