Polynesia

Polynesia (from Greek, poly = many and nesos = island) is a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.

Native Culture of Polynesia

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, Samoa, and the Polynesian outliers. Because of a strong readiness to accept new ideas, and due to relatively large numbers of Christian missionaries in the islands, Polynesians readily adopted Christianity.

Related Topics:
Tonga - Samoa - Polynesian outlier - Christianity

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

From the Cook Islands eastward, the cultures are highly adapted to smaller islands and atolls. Anthropologists term their system of kinship the Hawaiian system. Religion, farming, fishing, weather prediction, catamaran construction, and navigation were highly developed skills, because the population of an entire island could hang on them. Trading consisted of both luxuries and mundane items. Many low-lying islands could suffer severe famine if their gardens were poisoned by the salt from the storm-surge of a hurricane. In these cases fishing, the primary source of protein, would not ease loss of food energy. Navigators, in particular, were revered and each island maintained a house of navigation, with a boat-building area.

Related Topics:
Anthropologists - Kinship - Hawaiian system - Farming - Fishing - Catamaran - Navigation - Food energy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Settlements by the Polynesians were divided into two categories. The hamlet and the village. Size of the island inhabited determined whether or not a hamlet would be built. The larger volcanic islands usually had hamlets, because of the many zones that could be divided across the island. Food and resources were more plentiful and so these settlements of four to five houses (usually with gardens) were established, so that there would be no overlap between the zones. Villages, on the other hand, were built on the coasts of smaller islands and consisted of thirty or more houses. Usually these villages were fortified with walls and pallisades made of stone and wood.

Related Topics:
Hamlet - Village - Volcanic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The native languages of Polynesia are all members of the family of Oceanic languages, which itself is a sub-branch of the Austronesian language family. Most of the languages of Polynesia are also members of the subfamily of Polynesian languages. European colonialism brought with it several Indo-European languages, which in turn have lead to many creoles.

Related Topics:
Oceanic languages - Austronesian - Polynesian languages - European - Colonialism - Indo-European languages - Creole

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

See also

• Polynesian mythology
• List of Polynesians