polynesia

  玻里尼西亞（Polynesia，是從希臘語名稱Πολυνησία而來，poly相當於眾多之意，而nesi則相當於島）由位於太平洋中南部，大致在180°经线以东和南北纬30°之间；一大群超過1,000個以上的島嶼所組成，陆地总面积2.6万平方公里，島嶼零星分布，人煙稀疏。數百年前，善於航海的玻里尼西亞人經過遠洋航行到達這些無人島嶼並在此定居，成為玻里尼西亞各島嶼的最初居民，如新西蘭的毛利人等。Polynesia (UK: /ˌpɒlɪˈniːziə/, US: /-ˈniːʒə/; from Greek: πολύς polys "many" and Greek: νῆσος nēsos "island") (Tongan: Faka-Polinisia; Māori: Porinihia; Hawaiian: Polenekia; Fijian: Kai-Polinesia; Samoan: Polenisia; Cook Islands Māori: Porinetia) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in common, including language relatedness, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs.^[1] In centuries past, they had a strong shared tradition of sailing and using stars to navigate at night. The largest country in Polynesia is New Zealand.The term Polynésie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses, who originally applied it to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a narrower definition during a lecture at the Geographical Society of Paris. By tradition, the islands located in the southern Pacific have also often been called the South Sea Islands,^[2] and their inhabitants have been called South Sea Islanders. The Hawaiian Islands have often been considered to be part of the South Sea Islands because of their relative proximity to the southern Pacific islands, even though they are in fact located in the North Pacific. Another term in use, which avoids this inconsistency, is “the Polynesian Triangle” (from the shape created by the layout of the islands in the Pacific Ocean). This term makes clear that the grouping includes the Hawaiian Islands, which are located at the northern vertex of the referenced “triangle.”Polynesia is generally defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, although some islands inhabited by Polynesian people are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of 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.Also, small Polynesian settlements are in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands and Vanuatu. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this great triangle is Rotuma, situated north of Fiji. The people of Rotuma have many common Polynesian traits, but speak a non-Polynesian language. Some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong historic and cultural links with Tonga. However, in essence, Polynesia remains a cultural term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania (the others being Micronesia and Melanesia).

- The Polynesian people are considered, by linguistic, archaeological and human genetic evidence, a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people. Tracing Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in Island Melanesia, Island Southeast Asia, and ultimately, in Taiwan.Between about 3000 and 1000 BCE speakers of Austronesian languages began spreading from Taiwan into Island Southeast Asia.There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia. These are outlined well by Kayser et al. (2000)^[11] and are as follows:

• Express Train model: A recent (c. 3000–1000 BCE) expansion out of Taiwan, via the Philippines and eastern Indonesia and from the northwest ("Bird's Head") of New Guinea, on to Island Melanesia by roughly 1400 BCE, reaching western Polynesian islands around 900 BCE followed by a roughly 1000 year "pause" before continued settlement in central and eastern Polynesia. This theory is supported by the majority of current genetic, linguistic, and archaeological data.
• Entangled Bank model: Emphasizes the long history of Austronesian speakers' cultural and genetic interactions with indigenous Island Southeast Asians and Melanesians along the way to becoming the first Polynesians.
• Slow Boat model: Similar to the express-train model but with a longer hiatus in Melanesia along with admixture — genetically, culturally and linguistically — with the local population. This is supported by the Y-chromosome data of Kayser et al. (2000), which shows that all three haplotypes of Polynesian Y chromosomes can be traced back to Melanesia.

myth

-  maui was half human and half god, moves about pacific ocean, mother taranga and father makea-tutara, youngest of five brothers. Flung into ocean by parents cos he was born prematurely, sea spirits wrapped him in seaweed and delivered him to tamanui-te-ra (sun god), grew up in land of gods. Grew up and returned home, mocked by brothers as maui-potiki (maui the last born). Grandma muri-ranga-whenua gave him a jawbone as fishing hook. He chanted karakia, prayer to sun god. He caught a large fish which became the north island of new zealand.