Melanesia
Melanesia (from Greek "black islands") is a region spanning from the west Pacific to the Arafura Sea; north-east and north of Australia. The term was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote a ethnic and geographical grouping of islands as distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.Understanding of the origin and history of these regions remained confused throughout the twentieth century, complicated in part by claims upon parts of Melanesia by non-Melanesian nations.
Various generic studies of the Pacific people in combination with eariler archalogical evidence have now clarified much of the confusion. The Melanesian people have a Y chromosome marker H17, not found in Polynesians. Lapita pottery is Melanesian in origin, and can be found on islands since occupied by other people. Melanesians are the oldest of the Pacific people, pre-dating others by tens of thousands of years. The Melanesian people like the Australian Aborigines with whom Papuan Melanesians share a common ancestory, arrived some forty to fifty thousand years BC.
Though there is great ethnic richness and diversity across Melanesia, social status is generally based upon social skills and personal assets; where as Polynesians use heredity to determine social status.
The following islands and groups of islands are considered traditional part of Melanesia:
Other Melanesian islands include: