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Polynesia
Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς "polys" many + νῆσος "nēsos" island) 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 language, culture and beliefs. Historically, they were experienced sailors and used stars to determine their night hours.
Geology
(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia)
The term "Polynesia" was first used in 1756 by French writer Charles de Brosses, and originally applied to all the 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.
Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over 70 million square miles of Pacific Ocean. Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos, including the Hawaiian islands and Samoa, are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspots. New Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Ouvéa, the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia, are the unsubmerged portions of the largely sunken continent of Zealandia. Zealandia is believed to have mostly sunken by 23 million years ago 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 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 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.
Ethnologically, 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 what Wikipedia states 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. Some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the general triangle that geographically defines the region.
In italics are our comments and indications of what we assign to Polynesia.
- American Samoa (overseas United States territory)
- Cook Islands (self-governing state in free association with New Zealand)
- Easter Island (called Rapa Nui in Rapa Nui, politically part of Chile)
- French Polynesia ("overseas country", a collectivity of France)
- Hawaii (a state of the United States)
- New Zealand (independent nation)
- Niue (self-governing state in free association with New Zealand)
- Norfolk Island (an Australian External Territory)
- Pitcairn Islands (a British Overseas Territory)
- Samoa (independent nation)
- Tokelau (overseas dependency of New Zealand)
- Tonga (independent nation)
- Tuvalu (independent nation)
- Wallis and Futuna (overseas collectivity of France)
- Rotuma