Polynesia

Polynesia is a sub region of Oceania that includes over 1,000 islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who live on these islands are called Polynesians. The Polynesian islands are located in a triangle formed by New Zealand, Hawaii, and Easter Island. The Polynesian islands include Tonga and Samoa.

The word Polynesia comes from the Greek word for "many islands". The Polynesians are a seafaring culture that developed around oceanic exploration. 96.1% of Polynesians practice Christianity.

The six countries in Polynesia are:

New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Samoa.

The Fiji Islands are considered to be just beyond the western boundary of Polynesia.

Polynesian culture, the beliefs and practices of the indigenous peoples of the ethno geographic group of Pacific islands known as Polynesia (from Greek poly ‘many’ and nēsoi ‘islands’). Polynesia encompasses a huge triangular area of the east-central Pacific Ocean. The triangle has its apex at the Hawaiian Islands in the north and its base angles at New Zealand (Aotearoa) in the west and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in the east. It also includes (from northwest to southeast) Tuvalu, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa (formerly Western Samoa), American Samoa, Tonga, Niue, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia (Tahiti and the other Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Austral Islands, and the Tuamotu Archipelago, including the Gambier Islands [formerly the Mangareva Islands]), and Pitcairn Island. At the turn of the 21st century, about 70 percent of the total population of Polynesia resided in Hawaii.

The physical environment of the Polynesian islands is not as favourable for human habitation as it might at first seem. It certainly presented difficulties when the ancestors of the Polynesians entered the area some 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, first settling on the western islands—Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, and Tonga—which were devoid of much that was needed for human habitation. As a result, early peoples had to take in a wide variety of subsistence items, including most of the useful plants and all of the domestic animals they required. The physical environment has continued to exert a marked influence on Polynesian culture.

Polynesian cultures have been radically altered by Western colonialism. European explorers navigated much of the area in the latter quarter of the 18th century, and the first missionaries arrived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Britain annexed New Zealand through the Treaty of Waitangi (1840), but interethnic tension arose between the indigenous Māori. Other colonial powers that laid claim to various parts of Polynesia included France, Germany, New Zealand, the United States, and Chile.

Missionary influence on Polynesian peoples increased over time, and Christianity eventually became an integral part of the islanders’ lives. In many areas Christianity was also influenced by local traditions and customs. Quite commonly, villages competed to build larger and more elaborate churches, and first-time visitors to Polynesia are often surprised at the intensity of the islanders’ commitment to Christianity. Many Polynesians were recruited to proselytize other parts of the Pacific, particularly Melanesia.

After World War II, local sentiments for decolonization began to spread. Samoa became the first postcolonial Pacific nation when it gained sovereignty from New Zealand in 1962. It has a parliamentary system, but only traditional chiefs (matai) may vote and run for election. Tuvalu also follows the parliamentary style of government. Three island groups—Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii—had traditionally been monarchies. This form of government survives only in Tonga, where a British-style parliament gives special status to traditional nobles. Most of the remaining island groups have gained some degree of independence from colonial rule.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is the anomaly of the region. The aboriginal population was so decimated by European-introduced diseases and by slavers in the 1860s that it almost became extinct. In 1888 the island was annexed by Chile; its people are now the only Pacific islanders controlled by a Latin American power. Little remains of Easter Island’s original culture. The indigenous Polynesian language (also called Rapa Nui) survives, but most people also speak Spanish. About one-third of the island’s small population is from Chile.

Linguistic evidence suggests that western Polynesia was first settled some 3,000 years ago, by people of the Lapita culture. It has proved harder to establish when eastern Polynesia was settled. It is possible that some islands were occupied soon after the arrival of Lapita colonists in western Polynesia. However, while the Lapita are best known for their distinctive pottery, eastern Polynesia’s archaeological sites lack ceramics of any kind. Nonetheless, it is clear that the various island groups in Polynesia interacted frequently with one another during the early period of settlement, exchanging luxury goods such as basalt adzes, pearl shell, and red feathers.

One of the principal characteristics of traditional Polynesian cultures is an effective adaptation to and mastery of the ocean environment. The Polynesians were superb mariners—their voyages extended as far as Chile, approximately 2,200 miles (3,500 km) east of Easter Island—but their mastery did not extend merely to the technology involved in shipbuilding and navigation. It also permeated social organization, religion, food production, and most other facets of the culture; they had social mechanisms for coping with the human problems of shipwreck, such as separated families and the sudden loss of large portions of the group. In short, they were well equipped to handle the numerous hazards of the beautiful but challenging Pacific environment.

Another important characteristic of traditional culture was a certain amount of conservatism. This is apparent in all Polynesian cultures, even those that are separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, and whose populations were separated two or three millennia ago. For instance, a comparison of material goods such as stone adzes and fishhooks from widely separated groups reveals a remarkable similarity. The same is true for kinship terms, plant names, and much of the rest of the technical vocabulary of the cultures, as well as for art motifs and medical preparations. The ornate and voluminous genealogies, chants, legends, songs, and spells that were passed down and elaborated through the generations show a profound reverence for the past.

Polynesian cultures displayed a thoroughly practical exploitation of the environment. Their languages reflect their systematic observations of the natural world, abounding with terminology for stars, currents, winds, landforms, and directions. Polynesian languages also include a large number of grammatical elements, indicating, for example, direction of motion implied by verbs, including movement toward or away from the speaker, relative positions of objects with reference to the speaker, and direction of movement along a seashore-inland axis.

Polynesians also exhibited a profound interest in the supernatural, which they viewed as part of the continuum of reality rather than as a separate category of experience. As a result, Polynesian cultures placed every person in a well-defined relationship to society and to the universe. Creation traditions told of the origin of the world, setting forth the order of precedence of earth, sky, and sea and their inhabitants, including man and woman. Genealogies fixed the individual tightly into a hierarchical social order. A variety of legends interpreted natural phenomena, while historical accounts often described, with varying amounts of mythological elaboration, the migrations of people before they arrived at the island on which they were located, their adventures on the way, and the development of the culture following settlement.

Violence was an ever-present element of Polynesian cultures. This is reflected in the oral literature and in all aspects of traditional life. Various customs controlled and repressed the direct physical expression of aggression within the kin group and the tribe up to a point, but there were definite boundaries of behaviour beyond which only violence could restore status or assuage injured pride. Punishments for transgressing ritual prohibitions and social rules often incorporated ritual sacrifice or even the death of the transgressor. Intertribal warfare was extremely common, particularly when populations began to outgrow available resources.

Perhaps the most publicized and misconceived aspect of Polynesian culture has been its sensuality. As in many other aspects of life, Polynesian peoples generally took a very direct, realistic, and physical approach to gratification of the senses. Notably, while traditional culture placed clear restrictions on sexual behaviour, the fact that the range of acceptable behaviour was wider among Polynesians than among the Christian explorers and missionaries who reported it has fostered a stereotype of extreme sexual promiscuity. In reality, there was no abnormal focus or concentration on any aspect of sensual gratification, a situation in contrast to that seen in many other cultures where, for example, eating, drinking, or sex has become the focus of great cultural elaboration. In general, Polynesians’ balanced approach to sensual gratification seems just another reflection of a generally straightforward approach to the world.

Polynesian women have diverse cultural identities that relate to the geography and social structures of the continent. They have contributed to subsistence activities and the production of fine mats and bark cloth. Women often had some control over the distribution of these valued goods. They also participated in rituals related to land and garden fertility, and the growth and health of children and animals.

Polynesian women are often misrepresented in magazines and shows. Their eyes can range from chocolate brown to tawny to green, and their hair can be rich blacks, warm browns, and rusty reds.

Polynesian history includes examples of women who became important chiefs.