Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian triangle. The term “Polynesia”, meaning many islands, was first used by Charles de Brosses in 1756, and originally applied to all the islands of the Pacific. Jules Dumont d’Urville in an 1831 lecture (talk) to the Geographical Society of Paris proposed a restriction on its use.
Geographically, and oversimply, Polynesia may be described as a triangle with its corners at Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island. The other main island groups located within the Polynesian triangle are Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue, Wallis and Futuna and French Polynesia.
A Polynesian island group outside of this great triangle is Rotuma which is the north of the Fijian islands. There are also small outlier Polynesian enclaves in Papua New Guinea, the Solomons, The Caroline Islands, some of the Lau group to Fiji’s southeast and in Vanuatu. However, in essence, Polynesia is an anthropological term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania (the others being Micronesia and Melanesia) whose pre-colonial population generally belongs to one ethno-cultural family as a result of centuries of maritime migrations.
Other Information
- History of the Polynesian people
- Polynesian links to the Americas
- Cultures of Polynesia
- Economy of Polynesia
- Polynesian languages
- Polynesian peoples
- Polynesian mythology
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