Polynesia

The Polynesia (name derived from the Greek polí='many/as', and nesi='island') is a large grouping of more than a thousand islands in the central and southern Pacific. Geographically it forms a triangle whose angles are located the Hawaiian Islands, New Zealand and Easter Island. Samoa, Tonga, the Marquesas and French Polynesia are the other main archipelagos that are located within the Polynesian triangle.

The term was coined by the French writer Charles de Brosses in 1756.

Geography

Geographically and simply, Polynesia can be described as a triangle of 30 million km², with its vertices in Hawaii (1), New Zealand (2) and Easter Island (3). The other major island groups located within the Polynesian triangle are Samoa (4), Tonga, the Cook Island chains, and French Polynesia (5). Outside of this great triangle lies Tuvalu. There are also enclaves of Polynesian population in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

There are two main types of islands: atolls (flat islands of coral formation), such as Tahiti; and those of volcanic formation, which have higher elevations, such as Hawaii.

Islands

Traditional Polynesia comprises the following archipelagos and islands:

• Hawaiian IslandsUnited States of America
• Rapa Nui and Isla Salas and GomezChileChile)
• Phoenix and Line Islands Republic of Kiribati)
• Tuvalu (Tuvalu)Tuvalu)
• Tonga (Tonga)Tonga)
• Tokelau Archipelago (still dependent on New ZealandNew Zealand)
• Cook IslandsNew ZealandNew Zealand)
• Niue (New ZealandNew Zealand)
• Wallis and Futuna Islands (Wallis and Futuna, France)
• SamoaSamoa (independent) and American Samoa (United States of America
• Tubuai Islands (French Polynesia, France)
• Society Islands (French Polynesia, France)
• Tuamotu Islands (French Polynesia, France)
• Marquise Islands (French Polynesia, France)
• Rapa Iti (French Polynesia, France)
• Southern Islands (French Polynesia, France)
• Pitcairn Islands and dependenciesUnited KingdomUnited Kingdom)

Political Geography

Nine countries have sovereignty over the territories of traditional Polynesia, of which four are located entirely in Polynesia (Samoa, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu) and five have their metropolises outside the Polynesian Polynesia (United States, France, New Zealand, Chile and the United Kingdom).

• United States (Hawái; American Samoa), with over 28.5 thousand km2 and over 1'406 thousand inhabitants

• France (French Polynesia; Wallis and Futuna), with more than 4.4 thousand km2 and more than 285 thousand inhabitants

• SamoaSamoa, with over 2.8 thousand km2 and over 195 thousand inhabitants

• Kiribati, with more than 0.8 thousand km2 and more than 110 thousand inhabitants

• Tonga, with over 0.7 thousand km2 and over 100,000 inhabitants

• New ZealandNew Zealand (Cook Island; Niue; Tokelau Islands), with over 0.5 thousand km2 and over 13 thousand inhabitants

• ChileChile (Rapa Nui; Salas and Gómez), with more than 0.1 thousand km2 and more than 7 thousand inhabitants

• United KingdomUnited Kingdom (Pitcairn), with over 0.04 thousand km2 and over 0.05 thousand inhabitants

• Tuvalu, with more than 0.02 thousand km2 and more than 11 thousand inhabitants

In Polynesia (which is the easternmost region of Oceania), the US territories are three times as large as all the others combined, France's territories are as large as all the others combined except the United States, and Samoa's territories are larger than all the others combined except for those of the United States and France (the Polynesian territories of Kiribati, Tonga, New Zealand, Chile, the United Kingdom, and Tuvalu add up to just over 2,000 km², together). The geostrategic importance of the Polynesian islands, even the smallest and most remote ones, is fundamentally based on the potential economic contribution of their extensive Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) for the lucrative exploitation of the natural resources of the surrounding sea.

In Polynesia, the population of the US territories is twice that of all the others combined, the population of the French territories is about three-fourths of the total of all the others combined except for the Americans, the population of the sovereign Samoan territories is almost equivalent to that of all the others combined except for the American and French. With much smaller numbers, the populations of Kiribati and Tonga exceed one hundred thousand inhabitants for each country, the Polynesian populations of New Zealand, Tuvalu and Chile each have several thousand inhabitants, and the Polynesian population of the United Kingdom less than a hundred. population. Even the smallest insular populations guarantee the exercise of the sovereignty of their respective countries, on which they are economically dependent for their subsistence (in the case of those whose political center is outside the region) or for the exploitation of some resources that are the basis of the national economy (in the case of those archipelagos that are independent countries).

China's economic policy of late has expanded "aggressively" towards Oceania, including Polynesia, especially towards the small independent island countries, causing suspicion and distrust of other powers that also have economic interests in the region.

Languages

All Polynesian languages are part of the Oceanic languages (in turn part of the Malayo-Polynesian languages); the languages most closely related to the Polynesian ones are those of Fiji and in second place the Micronesian languages.

In those archipelagos and islands that are dependencies, there is bilingualism, speaking native Polynesian languages although the languages of their metropolis predominate. French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna, are French-speaking and have 300,000 inhabitants. The American Samoa of the United States, the New Zealand Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the British Pitcairn, are English-speaking and have about 60,000 inhabitants. The Chilean Rapa Nui, is Spanish-speaking and has 7 thousand inhabitants

Origins of the Polynesians

Samoan family from 1914.

Cook Bay, Moorea

Archaeological evidence

Polynesian culture is thought to stem from the Lapita culture, which developed mainly in northern Melanesia around 3,000-3,500 years ago and spread through western Polynesia (Futuna, Samoa, Tonga) 2,100-3,200 years ago.Polynesian simple pottery would be a simplification of the Lapita cultural complex resulting from isolation.

Probably from Indonesia, groups of lapita culture first migrated through Melanesia to develop a culture of long voyages in their double canoes. Between the years 1600 a. C. and 1200 a. C. they moved from places like the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, to Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.

Genetic Evidence

The first to carry out studies to elucidate the origin of the Polynesians was the geneticist Bryan Sykes, who began with 20 blood samples on the island of Rarotonga, to study mitochondrial DNA, in 1990. Later in 1992, he obtained 1,200 samples from different Polynesian islands. One conclusion from these studies was that all Polynesians (with few exceptions) are descendants of a group of people who left the shores of China or Taiwan around 1,500 BC.

The discovery of a single genetic marker that causes alpha thalassemia, allows us to deduce that Polynesians descend from Melanesians. On the other hand, a Polynesian allele (gene) of human leukocyte antigens (HLA) is shared by other populations Malay, Chinese and Japanese, which would indicate an Asian origin.

Matrilineal (mitochondrial) genetics indicates that 94% of Polynesians would have an Asian origin being mostly of the B4a1a haplogroup, as in part of Indonesia and in some aboriginal tribes of Taiwan; compared to 6% of Melanesian origin. The original Polynesian population is the product of the mixture of Melanesian peoples but to a greater extent of Malays, due to the fact that almost all Polynesians belong to a subclade of B (mtDNA), which had a founder effect, that is, a new population was formed from a very small number of the initial Asian population.

In contrast, patrilineal genetics (Y chromosome) indicates the opposite, haplogroup C1b2 being the majority, related to Melanesian populations, in such a way that 66% of the Polynesian male lineage has a Melanesian origin, compared to 28%. % of Asian origin, finally concluding that Polynesia has a dual origin coming from both Austronesian and Papuan populations.

Genetic analysis has reconstructed the sequence of branching migration in Polynesia and estimated its dates, revealing a serial founder expansion originating in Samoa. Polynesian travelers reached Rarotonga in the Cook Islands around AD 830. C., unfolding then towards the northwest to the islands of the Society and arriving in 1050 d. C. to the Tuamotu Islands (Tōtaiete mā) in 1110 AD. Migrants also continued south towards the Austral Islands (Tuha'a Pae), arriving at Rapa Iti around AD 1190. C., and finally to the [[geographically distant islands, but with genetically connected populations, where the megalithic statue-building cultures developed, the Marquesas Islands (Te Henua 'Dwarf) in the north, Raivavae in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui), the easternmost of the Polynesian islands, where they settled around AD 1200. C. via Mangareva, the final section that had already been suggested previously based on similarities between the Mangarevana and Rapanui languages, and by similarities in their traditional ceremonial stone platforms.

Linguistic evidence

Polynesian languages are the defining factor of the entire region. If the relationship of kinship with the other Malayo-Polynesian languages is followed, the migratory process that gave rise to the Polynesian peoples can be deduced.

Throughout the Pacific Ocean, a relationship has been established that unites the triangular area between Hawaiian, Maori and Rapanui, whose center with the greatest linguistic diversity is between Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu; these peoples would come from Fiji, the center of expansion of the Fijian-Polynesian languages, which in turn come from the Oceanic languages, with great variability in the northern islands of Melanesia. The Oceanic languages would come from Celebes where the languages developed. Sulawesi-Polynesian, who together with the peoples of the Malay Archipelago originate ultimately from Taiwan, the cradle of the Austronesian languages.

History

Trilli Ha'amonga'a Mauibuilt in the 13th century to the north of Tongatapu

Hawaiian Polynesian Navigators, in catamaran according to John Webber's drawing in 1781

Polynesia's recorded history is one of the most recent, compared to the rest of the world.

The cultures and civilizations of Polynesia and the Pacific islands were known by Asia, Africa and Europe (that is, by the other populations of the Eastern Hemisphere or Old World) after the colonization of America.

First populations

The settlement of Polynesia began around the year 1000 B.C. C. from Samoa, true center of dispersion of Polynesian culture. From there they occupied the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Tuamotu and arrived at the Marquesas Islands in the 3rd century; to Hawaii and Easter between the 4th and 6th centuries. Starting from Tahiti, they arrived in New Zealand from the 8th century.

States were formed each governed by a Tu'i, in Samoa (Tu'i Manua), Fiji (Tu'Polotu) and Tonga (Tu' i Tonga). From 950 the power of the Tu'i Tonga with headquarters in Tongatapu increased, which came to control Samoa, Fiji and Tonga, a network of marriage alliances with local chiefs of various islands and also a commercial network across the Pacific.

Contacts with America theories

In the American case, Peruvian historiography mainly theorizes and postulates as probable that the Incas navigated and traded with the Polynesians of the Marquesas or other islands of Oceania. The Spanish chroniclers Sarmiento de Gamboa, Martín de Murúa and Miguel Cabello Valboa, during the conquest, collected a mythical story that Túpac Yupanqui, while on the coast, would have learned of some distant islands, deciding to go after them. Enlisting a large fleet of rafts, he would have set sail for islands called Ninachumbi and Auachumbi that would be located in Polynesia, possibly in the Marquesas or even Mangareva Islands, this would be a hypothesis to explain that the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), an American plant, arrived early in New Zealand, although there is evidence that seabirds and migratory birds would have transported the seed.

As demonstrated by Jean Hervé Daude, the construction of the Ahu Vinapu (a wall) on the Rapa Nui island, is similar in architecture to that of a Chulpa from Sillustani, near Lake Titicaca in the Andes. The Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl positively tested the oceanic intercontinental route from America (Peru) to Oceania (Marquesas Islands) with his expedition called Kon-Tiki (made with materials and techniques from the period studied) in honor of the god of the Incas, Wiracocha, the creator of the universe, since Kon-Tiki is an invocation of it.

Genetic research found that inhabitants of remote eastern Polynesia interbred with South Americans between AD 1150 and 1230. C. Native American ancestry was identified in people from Palliser, Nuku Hiva, and Fatu Hiva islands in the Marquesas, and on Mangareva (and the Zenú people of Colombia carry the closest DNA to that found among Polynesians).

Another hypothesis also indicates that there were pre-Columbian maritime contacts between Polynesians and the southern coast of present-day Chile, since it has been proven that in the 14th century, Tongan chickens reached the Chilean coast.. Other indications that prove the arrival of Polynesians on an island in Chile are 6 skulls found on Mocha Island with the typical pentagonal Polynesian shape of the skull and the shape of the jaw.

Contact theories could largely be due to a possible Polynesian emigration to South America in its constant expansion, also due to having a historical and notorious navigation culture in contrast to the earthly cultures of a large part of the peoples of America.

European colonization

In the s. XVI Spanish explorers crossed Polynesia on their circumnavigation route around the world. However, it is in the 18th century that Europeans discovered most of the archipelagos and islands of Oceania, including the Polynesia, integrating them into its progressive world cartography. The effective European colonization occurred in the s. XIX and was carried out mainly by the hegemonic colonial empires that divided up Polynesia as they did with all of Oceania and the entire world. In the specific case of Polynesia, its domain was mainly held by France and the United Kingdom (which "inherited" most of its Polynesian domains to New Zealand), but also the United States United, among others.

In the s. In the 20th century, several archipelagos have become independent, becoming sovereign Polynesian countries. However, there are also numerous Polynesian archipelagos whose sovereignty belongs to countries whose metropolis is located on another continent. This is the case, for example, of French Polynesia (France), Niue (New Zealand), Pitcairn (United Kingdom), among others.