Polynesians

Polynesians
Total population
2,000,000[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States 816,144[2]
New Zealand 598,605+
Australia 210,843
Chile 5,682
Languages
English, French, and Polynesian languages (Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan, Māori, Hawaiian, Rapa Nui and others)
Religion
Christianity (96.1%)[3] and Polynesian mythology[4]
Related ethnic groups
Austronesians

The Polynesian people consist of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages, and inhabit Polynesia. The native Polynesian people of New Zealand and Hawaii are minorities in their homelands.

Origins

The Polynesian spread of colonization of the Pacific throughout the so-called Polynesian Triangle.
Polynesian warrior canoes

Polynesians, including Samoans, Tongans, Niueans, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian Mā'ohi, Hawaiian Māoli, Marquesans and New Zealand Māori, are a subset of the Austronesian peoples. They share the same origins as the indigenous peoples of maritime Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and Taiwan. This is supported by genetic,[5] linguistic,[6] and archaeological evidence.

The origins of the Polynesian people are addressed in the theories regarding human migration into the Pacific, which began about 3,000 years ago. These are outlined well by Kayser et al. (2000).[7] The most widely accepted theory is that modern Austronesians originated from migrations out of Taiwan between 3000 and 1000 BC; travelling via the Philippines and eastern Indonesia and from the northwest ("Bird's Head") of New Guinea, on to Island Melanesia by roughly 1400 BC, reaching the western Polynesian islands right about 900 BC.. However, Soares et al. (2008) have argued for an older pre-Holocene Sundaland origin within Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) based on mitochondrial DNA.[8]

Paternal Y chromosome analysis by Kayser et al. (2000) also showed that Polynesians have significant Melanesian genetic admixture.[9] However, a follow-up study by Kayser et al. (2008) discovered that only 21% of the Polynesian autosomal gene pool is of Melanesian origin, with the rest (79%) being of East Asian origin.[10] Another study by Friedlaender et al. (2008) also confirmed that Polynesians are closer genetically to Micronesians, Taiwanese Aborigines, and East Asians, than to Melanesians. The study concluded that Polynesians moved through Melanesia fairly rapidly, allowing only limited admixture between Austronesians and Melanesians.[11] Thus the high frequencies of mtDNA B4a1a1 in the Polynesians are the result of drift and represent the descendants of a few East Asian females who mixed with Papuan males.[12] The Polynesian population experienced a founder effect and genetic drift.[13]

Recent DNA studies show that the Atayal people from Taiwan and the Kankanaey people of the northern Philippines, who later mixed with Melanesians, were most probably among the original ancestors of modern Polynesians.[14][15]

The results of research at the Teouma Lapita site (Efate Island, Vanuatu) and the Talasiu Lapita site (near Nuku'alofa, Tonga) published in 2016 supports the 'out of Taiwan' theory although with the qualification that the migration bypassed New Guinea and Island Melanesia. The conclusion from the research published in 2016 is that the initial population of those two sites appears to come directly from Taiwan or the northern Philippines and did not mix with the ‘AustraloPapuans’ of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.[16] DNA analysis of modern Polynesians indicates that there has been intermarriage that results in a mixed Asian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians. The research at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites implies that the migration and intermarriage, which resulted in the mixed Asian-Papuan ancestry of the Polynesians,[17] occurred after the first initial migration to Vanuatu and Tonga.[16][18] The preliminary analysis of skulls found at the Teouma and Talasiu Lapita sites is that the skulls lacks Australian or Papuan affinities and instead has affinities to mainland Asian populations.[19]

People

Female dancers of the Hawaii Islands depicted by Louis Choris, c. 1816
A portrait of Māori man, by Gottfried Lindauer.
Kava ('ava) makers (aumaga) of Samoa. A woman seated between two men with the round tanoa (or laulau) wooden bowl in front. Standing is a third man, distributor of the 'ava, holding the coconut shell cup (tauau) used for distributing the beverage.

There are an estimated 2 million ethnic Polynesians and people of Polynesian descent worldwide, the majority of whom live in Polynesia, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.[1] The Polynesian peoples are shown below in their distinctive ethnic and cultural groupings (estimates of the larger groups are shown):

Eastern Polynesia

Western Polynesia

Polynesian outliers

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Polynesian men a global sports commodity - Stuff.co.nz
  2. ↑ Population Movement in the Pacific: A Perspective on Future Prospects. Wellington: New Zealand Department of Labour
  3. ↑ Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020 Society, Religion, and Mission, Center for the Study of Global Christianity
  4. ↑ Victoria University of Wellington, New view of Polynesian conversion to Christianity, 4 Apr 2014
  5. ↑ "Mitochondrial DNA Provides a Link between Polynesians and Indigenous Taiwanese". PLoS Biology. 3 (8): e281. 2005. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0030281.
  6. ↑ "Pacific People Spread From Taiwan, Language Evolution Study Shows". ScienceDaily. 27 January 2009. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  7. ↑ Kayser, M.; Brauer, S.; Weiss, G.; Underhill, P.; Roewer, L.; Schiefenhövel, W.; Stoneking, M. (2000). "Melanesian origin of Polynesian Y chromosomes". Current Biology. 10 (20): 1237–46. PMID 11069104. doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(00)00734-X.
  8. ↑ Dr. Martin Richards. "Climate Change and Postglacial Human Dispersals in Southeast Asia". Oxford Journals. Retrieved 1 January 2010.
  9. ↑ M. Kayser, S. Brauer, G. Weiss, P.A. Underhill, L. Roewer, W. Schiefenhövel, and M. Stoneking, "Melanesian origin of Polynesian Y chromosomes," Current Biology, vol. 10, no. 20, pages 1237-1246 (19 Oct. 2000). See also correction in: Current Biology, vol. 11, no. 2, pages 141-142 (23 Jan. 2001).
  10. ↑ Kayser, Manfred; Lao, Oscar; Saar, Kathrin; Brauer, Silke; Wang, Xingyu; Nürnberg, Peter; Trent, Ronald J.; Stoneking, Mark (2008). "Genome-wide analysis indicates more Asian than Melanesian ancestry of Polynesians". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 82 (1): 194–198. PMC 2253960 Freely accessible. PMID 18179899. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.010.
  11. ↑ Friedlaender, Jonathan S., Françoise R. Friedlaender, Floyd A. Reed, Kenneth K. Kidd, Judith R. Kidd, Geoffrey K. Chambers, Rodney A. Lea et al. "The genetic structure of Pacific Islanders." PLoS genetics 4, no. 1 (2008): e19.
  12. ↑ Assessing Y-chromosome Variation in the South Pacific Using Newly Detected, By Krista Erin Latham
  13. ↑ http://www.pnas.org/content/95/15/9047.full.pdf
  14. ↑ http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/10/game-changing-study-suggests-first-polynesians-voyaged-all-way-east-asia
  15. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-04/dna-reveals-lapita-ancestors-of-pacific-islanders-came-from-asia/7893100
  16. 1 2 Pontus Skoglund; et al. (27 October 2016). "Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific". Nature. 538: 510–513. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  17. ↑ Kayser, M.; Brauer, S; Cordaux, R; Casto, A; Lao, O; Zhivotovsky, L. A.; Moyse-Faurie, C; Rutledge, R. B.; Schiefenhoevel, W; Gil, D; Lin, A. A.; Underhill, P. A.; Oefner, P. J.; Trent, R. J.; Stoneking, M (2006). "Melanesian and Asian Origins of Polynesians: MtDNA and Y Chromosome Gradients Across the Pacific" (PDF). Molecular Biology and Evolution. 23 (11): 2234–44. PMID 16923821. doi:10.1093/molbev/msl093.
  18. ↑ "First ancestry of Ni-Vanuatu is Asian: New DNA Discoveries recently published". Island Business. December 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  19. ↑ Skoglund, P; Posth, C; Sirak, K; Spriggs, M; Valentin, F; Bedford, S; Clark, GR; Reepmeyer, C; Petchey, F; Fernandes, D; Fu, Q; Harney, E; Lipson, M; Mallick, S; Novak, M; Rohland, N; Stewardson, K; Abdullah, S; Cox, MP; Friedlaender, FR; Friedlaender, JS; Kivisild, T; Koki, G; Kusuma, P; Merriwether, DA; Ricaut, FX; Wee, JT; Patterson, N; Krause, J; Pinhasi, R; Reich, D (3 October 2016). "Genomic insights into the peopling of the Southwest Pacific - Supplementary Note 1: The Teouma site / Supplementary Note 2: The Talasiu site". Nature. 538: 510–513. PMID 27698418. doi:10.1038/nature19844. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
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