Melanesian ethnicity indicates genetic origins in Melanesia, which comprises a subgroup of Oceania situated between the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn in the western Pacific Ocean. Couched between Australia to the southwest, the Polynesian Islands to the east, and Micronesia to the north, Melanesia includes the 5 independent countries of Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor. Melanesia also comprises Western New Guinea and the Maluku Islands (Moluccas) — an archipelago commonly known as the Spice Islands, which played a significant role in the Portuguese, Dutch, and British spice trade starting in the fifteenth century. Due to unique prehistoric migrations and subsequent isolation, Melanesians have distinct genetic traits, including incidence of blond hair — a very rare trait among native populations outside of Europe.
Melanesian history
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans first arrived in Papua New Guinea, the largest Melanesian island, around 45,000 years ago. Papuan-speaking settlers are believed to have begun to arrive at the Solomon Islands around 28,000 years ago, while Austronesian peoples settled Fiji and Vanuatu around 3500–1000 B.C.E. With scarce written records before first contact with Europeans, not much is known of the history of the peoples inhabiting the islands of Melanesia prior to the sixteenth century. Archeological evidence, mainly on the island of Fiji, has been able to unearth a history of both settled culture and sea-borne mobility: drua, large watercraft with rigged sails, were constructed in Fiji, allowing natives to establish trade links with neighboring archipelagos. Fijian village architecture included wood-and-straw huts called bures, as well as a system of ramparts and moats to protect important settlements.
Europeans first made contact with Melanesia during the sixteenth century, in search of the source of the eastern spice trade. After annexing Malacca on the Malay Peninsula, a Portuguese fleet sent by Afonso de Albuquerque made contact with the Maluku Islands, reaching also New Guinea and the Solomon Islands by the end of the century. In 1606, a Spanish expedition became the first to reach Vanuatu, while the Dutch reached Fiji in 1643. European colonization of Melanesia gathered pace from the late eighteenth century, much to the detriment of the local population: the Europeans practiced “blackbirding,” whisking away members of the adult male population of many Melanesian islands and forcing them to become indentured workers in Australia. By the early twenteeth century, Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany directly controlled virtually all of Melanesia.
The balance of foreign domination in Melanesia was significantly shaken during the first half of the twenteeth century by the World Wars. During World War I, Australian forces seized German New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago, both of which became League of Nations-mandated territories of Australia in 1920. In World War II, the Japanese invaded Dutch New Guinea and the Australian territories in 1942, marking Melanesia as a significant front in the Pacific-Asian Theater. Papuans fought alongside Australian and American troops, while the islands of Éfaté and Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu were used as Allied military bases. During the Japanese occupation of the Moluccas, the islanders mounted a local resistance known as the South Moluccan Brigade.
Following the conclusion of the war, local councils were established throughout the 1950s in several Melanesian islands, with the objective of increasing local participation in governance. Local leaders and parties, such as A.D. Patel of the National Federation Party in Fiji, Peter Kenilorea of the Solomon Islands United Party, and Walter Hadye Lin̄i of the New Hebrides National Party in Vanuatu vigorously pushed for independence. Fiji was granted independence from Britain in 1970, and Papua New Guinea in 1975; the Solomon Islands became independent of Britain in 1978, while Vanuatu was granted independence from the British-French Condominium in 1980.
Over the past few centuries, independence struggles continued in Melanesian countries remaining under foreign control, while often inadequate governance dogged the beginnings of the newly-independent countries. The Solomon Islands have succumbed to recurring ethnic violence, while democratic rule was interrupted in Fiji by 2 coups in 1987 and a further coup in 2000. There has been intermittent ethnic and nationalist violence on the Maluku Islands, and acts of terrorism by members of the secessionist Republic of South Maluku has claimed thousands of Christian and Muslim lives in Maluku.
Melanesian culture
Melanesian natives often talk about the “Melanesian way,” a distinctively regional set of cultural values and behavior. In the absence of a written record, oral tradition and myth are important to the native inhabitants of Melanesia. For example, in the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea, the origin myth of many groups tells of a crocodile who split in 2; his upper jaw became the heavens and his lower jaw, the earth. Today, most Melanesians belong to a Christian church, the denomination depending upon the church of the colonial country which preceded independence. Many Melanesians today combine their Christian faith with aspects of pre-Christian traditional shamanistic practices.
Traditionally combining forms of subsistence agriculture and hunting-gathering, Melanesian societies used bows and arrows in hunting and fighting. Tattooing is practiced throughout Oceania, but scarification (the raising of great scars or keloids as marks of age or social status) is a distinct Papuan custom. Coming of age is an especially important rite in all Melanesian societies, although rites vary among different Melanesian societies. Funerals were also important rites in traditional Melanesian societies, involving much feasting and displays of emotion. Unfortunately, cultural music, dance, and oral traditions have been lost over time, partly because of the Christianization of Melanesian society that caused them to abandon these practices before they could be documented.
Traditionally, the people of Melanesia wore minimal clothing. Today, the laplap (a piece of cloth, usually store-bought, that is wrapped around the waist or up under the armpits to cover the body) has become a common item of clothing for both men and women. In other parts of the region, Western-style shorts or long trousers and shirts are common apparel. The sago palm is an important staple of Melanesian cuisine: the pith (core tissue) of the palm is processed into a starch that can be made into pancakes or dumplings. A sago pancake, for example, has the appearance of a soft tortilla. In the higher elevations, yams are the principle staple, with pork eaten on ceremonial occasions.
Melanesian languages
Most Melanesians speak either one of the many languages of the Austronesian language family, or one of the many Papuan languages unrelated to the Austronesian and Australian languages common to the region. Melanesia also houses several creole languages, such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, and Papuan Malay.
Explore more about ethnicity estimates
- MyHeritage DNA at MyHeritage
- Ethnicities around the world at MyHeritage
- What Is My Ethnicity? How MyHeritage Estimates Ethnicities at MyHeritage Knowledge Base
- Where's My Ethnicity?!: Why An Ethnicity Might Not Show Up In Your DNA (and How To Find Evidence Of It Anyway) at MyHeritage Knowledge Base