Editing Melanesia (section)

==Etymology and name ambiguity==
The name ''Melanesia'' (from {{Langx|grc|μέλας|mé.las|black}}, and {{Langx|grc|νῆσος|nɛ̂ː.sos|island}}), [[Place name origins|etymologically]] means "islands of black [people]", in reference to the [[dark skin]] of the inhabitants.

The concept among Europeans of ''Melanesia'' as a distinct region evolved gradually over time as their expeditions mapped and explored the Pacific. Early European explorers noted the physical differences among groups of Pacific Islanders. In 1756, [[Charles de Brosses]] theorized that there was an "old black race" in the Pacific who had been conquered or defeated by the peoples of what is now called [[Polynesia]], whom he distinguished as having lighter skin.<ref name="Tcherkezoff 2003 Long Voyage">{{cite journal |last=Tcherkezoff |first=Serge |title=A Long and Unfortunate Voyage Toward the Invention of the Melanesia-Polynesia Distinction 1595–1832 |journal=Journal of Pacific History |year=2003 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=175–196 |doi=10.1080/0022334032000120521 |s2cid=219625326 }}</ref>{{rp|189–190}} In the first half of the nineteenth century, [[Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent]] and [[Jules Dumont d'Urville]] characterized [[Melanesians]] as a distinct racial group.<ref name="Pacific Maps @ Pacific Encounters">{{cite web |title=MAPS AND NOTES to illustrate the history of the European 'invention' of the Melanesia / Polynesia distinction |url=http://www.pacific-encounters.fr/cartographie_01_eng.php |access-date=7 March 2013 |archive-date=25 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525141145/http://www.pacific-encounters.fr/cartographie_01_eng.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Durville Islands">{{cite journal |last=Durmont D'Urville |first=Jules-Sebastian-Cesar |title=On The Islands of The Great Ocean |journal=Journal of Pacific History |year=2003 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=163–174 |doi=10.1080/0022334032000120512 |s2cid=162374626 }}</ref> {{rp|165}}

Over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed Melanesians as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, grouping. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on the boundaries of Melanesia, descriptions of which were therefore somewhat fluid. In the nineteenth century, [[Robert Henry Codrington]], a British missionary, produced a series of [[monograph]]s on "the Melanesians", based on his long-time residence in the region. In his published works on Melanesia, including ''The Melanesian Languages'' (1885) and ''The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore'' (1891), Codrington defined Melanesia as including Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and Fiji. He reasoned that the islands of New Guinea should not be included because only some of its people were Melanesians. Also, like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia.<ref name="Codrington Melanesians Encyc">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Codrington |first=Robert |title=Melanesians |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics |year=1915 |publisher=T & T Clark |location=Edinburgh |pages=528–535 }}</ref>{{rp|528}} It was in these works that Codrington introduced the Melanesian cultural concept of ''[[Mana (Oceanian mythology)|mana]]'' to the West.<ref name=":10027">{{Cite book |title=World Religions: Eastern Traditions |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |editor=Willard Gurdon Oxtoby |year=2002 |isbn=0-19-541521-3 |edition=2nd |location=Don Mills, Ontario |pages=324, 326 |oclc=46661540 }}</ref>

[[File:Flute de pan MHNT ETH AC NH 31 Savès.jpg|thumb|left|A pan flute from [[Solomon Islands]], 19th century]]

Uncertainty about the best way to delineate and define the region continues to this day. The scholarly consensus now includes New Guinea within Melanesia. [[Ann Chowning]] wrote in her 1977 textbook on Melanesia that there is no general agreement even among [[anthropologists]] about the geographical boundaries of Melanesia. Many apply the term only to the smaller islands, excluding New Guinea; Fiji has frequently been treated as an anomalous border region or even assigned wholly to Polynesia; and the people of the Torres Straits Islands are often simply classified as Australian aborigines.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chowning |first=Ann |title=An Introduction to the Peoples and Cultures of Melanesia |year=1977 |publisher=Cummings Publishing Company |location=Menlo Park }}</ref>{{rp|1}}

In 1998, Paul Sillitoe wrote: "It is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions ... begins".<ref name="Sillitoe Intro to Melanesia">{{cite book |last=Sillitoe |first=Paul |title=An Introduction to the Anthropology of Melanesia |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York }}</ref>{{rp|1}} He ultimately concludes that the region is a historical category which evolved in the nineteenth century from the discoveries made in the Pacific and has been legitimated by use and further research in the region. It covers populations that have a certain linguistic, biological and cultural affinity – a certain ill-defined sameness, which shades off at its margins into difference.<ref name="Sillitoe Intro to Melanesia" />{{rp|1}}

Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, and both exclude Australia. Most of the peoples of Melanesia live either in politically independent countries or in regions that currently have active independence movements, such as in [[Western New Guinea]] ([[Indonesia]]) and [[New Caledonia]] ([[France]]). Some have recently embraced the term "Melanesia" as a source of identity and empowerment. Stephanie Lawson writes that despite "a number of scholars finding the term problematic due to its historical associations with European exploration and colonisation, as well as the racism embedded in these", the term "has acquired a positive meaning and relevance for many of the people to whom it applies",<ref name="Lawson 2013"/>{{rp|1}} and has "moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing a positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation".<ref name="Lawson 2013"/>{{rp|14}} Additionally, while the terms "Polynesia" and "Micronesia" refer to the geographic characteristics of the islands, "Melanesia" specifically refers to the color of the inhabitants as the "black race of Oceania.<ref name="Lawson 2013">{{cite journal |last=Lawson |first=Stephanie |title='Melanesia': The History and Politics of an Idea |journal=Journal of Pacific History |year=2013 |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=1–22 |doi=10.1080/00223344.2012.760839 |s2cid=219627550 }}</ref>{{rp|4}} The author [[Bernard Narokobi]] has written that the concept of the "Melanesian Way" as a distinct cultural force could give the people of the region a sense of empowerment. This concept has in fact been used as a force in [[geopolitics]]. For instance, when the countries of [[Vanuatu]], [[Solomon Islands]], [[Papua New Guinea]], and [[Fiji]] reached a regional [[Preferential trading area|preferential trade agreement]], they named it the [[Melanesian Spearhead Group]].