Culture
Melanesia
There is no consensus on the exact boundaries but Melanesia generally refers to the region extending eastwards from the western end of New Guinea up to, and including, the western half of the Fiji group, and from the Equator in the north to a line running from Cape York to the south of the New Caledonia, goes by the name of Melanesia.
The word is derived from the Greek and means 'black islands'. The principal islands and groups apart from those mentioned, are the Admiralties, the Bismark Archipelago, the D'Entrecasteaux, the Trobriands, the Louisiades, the Solomons, Vanikoro, Santa Cruz, and the New Hebrides. A few thousands of the inhabitants are of the same physical type as the Polynesians from the central Pacific. Presumably these are descended from the crews of canoes blown off course in earlier generations. They are to be found either on small islands such as Tikopia and Rennell (both administratively part of the British Solomon Islands) or on isolated coral atolls like Ontong Java and Sikaiana (also part of the Solomons Protectorate) and the Fead Islands, Nukumanu, and the Mortlocks, which are governed from Port Moresby. The rest of the people, the Melanesians, of whom there are more than two millions. are all physically akin despite local variations. They are classed as Pacific negroids and have black or dark brounsskins, long heads, and fuzzy hair. The thick protruding lips of the Aftican negroids, however are not found. In culture there are basic similarities throughout underlying marked differences of detail.
Ian Hogbin
Encyclopedia of Paua and New Guinea
Melbourne University Press, 1972
Edited by Peter Ryan