Editing Oceania (section)

===Characteristics===
[[File:Oceania UN Geoscheme - Map with Zones.svg|thumb|upright=1.35|Oceania with its sovereign states and dependent territories within the subregions [[Australasia]], [[Melanesia]], [[Micronesia]], and [[Polynesia]]]]

Definitions of Oceania vary.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lidstone |first1=John |last2=Stoltman |first2=Joseph P. |last3=DeChano |first3=Lisa M. |title=International Perspectives on Natural Disasters: Occurrence, Mitigation, and Consequences |date=2004 |publisher=Springer Netherlands |page=193 |isbn=978-1402028519 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94q9GgFtjYoC&dq=%22and+Melanesia,+meaning%22&pg=PA193 |quote=Anthropologists have defined Oceania as that region of the Pacific Ocean that encompasses three distinct geographical areas—Polynesia, meaning "many islands"; Micronesia, meaning "small islands"; and Melanesia, meaning "black islands." Other definitions of Oceania are used by geographers, economists, and oceanographers. The definition of the region generally depends on the context that one assigns to it in research or writing. |access-date=2022-07-30 |archive-date=2022-07-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064235/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/International_Perspectives_on_Natural_Di/94q9GgFtjYoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22and+Melanesia%2C+meaning%22&pg=PA193&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="asianpacific">{{Cite book |last=Crocombe |first=R. G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iDg9oAkwsXAC&dq=%22included+in+cultural+definitions+of+oceania%22&pg=PR13 |title=Asia in the Pacific Islands: Replacing the West |date=2007 |publisher=University of the South Pacific. Institute of Pacific Studies |isbn=978-9820203884 |page=13 |access-date=24 January 2022 |archive-date=9 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209001401/https://books.google.com/books?id=iDg9oAkwsXAC&dq=%22included+in+cultural+definitions+of+oceania%22&pg=PR13 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="worldatlas" /> The broadest definition encompasses the islands between mainland [[Asia]] and the [[Americas]].<ref name="aging">{{cite book |doi=10.1093/med/9780198701590.003.0008 |chapter=Population ageing in Oceania |title=Oxford Textbook of Geriatric Medicine |year=2017 |last1=Flicker |first1=Leon |last2=Kerse |first2=Ngaire |pages=55–62 |isbn=978-0-19-870159-0 |quote=The region of Oceania describes a collection of islands scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean between Asia and the Americas. The region is vast and largely covered by ocean. There are four subregions of this region, including Australasia (Australia and New Zealand), Melanesia (Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and [[Western New Guinea]]), Micronesia (the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Palau etc.), and Polynesia (American Samoa, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuvalu etc.).}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Oceania {{pipe}} Definition, Population, & Facts {{pipe}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Oceania-region-Pacific-Ocean |website=Britannica.com |access-date=2022-07-30 |archive-date=2008-05-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531185210/https://www.britannica.com/place/Oceania-region-Pacific-Ocean |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="harv">{{Cite book |last=Bequaert |first=Joseph C. |url=http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/pdf/op16-11.pdf |title=The Hippoboscidae of Oceania |date=1941 |publisher=Harvard Medical School |quote=In the present taxonomic study of the Hippoboscidae, Oceania covers, rather arbitrarily, the many archipelagos and isolated islands scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean, from the Marianas and Caroline Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia to the Hawaiian islands and the Galapagos. |access-date=24 January 2022 |archive-date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124010141/http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/pubs-online/pdf/op16-11.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The island nation of [[Australia]] is the only piece of land in the area which is large enough to typically be considered a continent.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Margaret |first=Cowan E. |url={{Google books|JIGZhTRPSe4C|page=9|plainurl=yes}} |title=An Analysis of the Process Used to Develop a Publication of International Case Studies on Environmental Education |date=1983 |page=9 |quote=Australia, as a separate continent, is geographically a part of Oceania }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511619007.005 |chapter=Oceania: Pohnpei and the Eastern Carolines |title=The Archaeology of Islands |year=2007 |pages=90–113 |isbn=978-0-521-85374-3 |quote=The thousands of islands of Oceania, excluding the island-continent of Australia and the very large island of New Guinea, are regarded by many as the theatre for island archaeology par excellence. }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=A Master of Science thesis and an archaeology book are poor quality sources to support the text about Australia usually being regarded as a continent|date=January 2023}} The culture of the people who lived on these islands was often distinct from that of Asia and [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] America.<ref name="edu au">{{cite book |last1=Firth |first1=Stewart |last2=Naidu |first2=Vijay |title=Understanding Oceania: Celebrating the University of the South Pacific and its collaboration with The Australian National University |date=2019 |publisher=ANU Press |page=354 |isbn=978-1-76046-289-5 |url={{Google books|cHmfDwAAQBAJ|page=354|plainurl=yes}} }}</ref> Before [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]] arrived in the area, the sea shielded Australia and south central Pacific islands from cultural influences that spread through large continental landmasses and adjacent islands.<ref name="edu au" /><ref name="cam uk">{{cite web |date=21 September 2016 |title=Unprecedented study of Aboriginal Australians points to one shared Out of Africa migration for modern humans |url=https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/unprecedented-study-of-aboriginal-australians-points-to-one-shared-out-of-africa-migration-for |website=University of Cambridge |access-date=30 July 2022 |archive-date=15 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615162942/https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/unprecedented-study-of-aboriginal-australians-points-to-one-shared-out-of-africa-migration-for |url-status=live }}</ref> The islands of the [[Malay Archipelago]], north of Australia, mainly lie on the [[continental shelf]] of Asia, and their inhabitants had more exposure to mainland Asian culture as a result of this closer proximity.<ref name="edu au"/>

[[File:Mappe-Monde sur la Projection de Mercator Carte Encyprotype.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mercator projection|Mercator]] Planisphere by A.-H. Brué (1816), showing ''Océanie'', the ''Grand Océan'' and ''Polynésie'' including all the islands of the Pacific Ocean]]

The geographer [[Conrad Malte-Brun]] coined the [[French language|French]] expression ''Terres océaniques'' (Oceanic lands) {{circa}} 1804.<ref name="OED" /> In 1814 another French cartographer, Adrien-Hubert Brué, coined from this expression the shorter "Océanie",<ref>Grataloup, Christian, ''Continents et océans : le pavage européen du globe'', Monde(s), 2013, volume nr 3, pages 240.</ref> which derives from the [[Latin]] word {{wikt-lang|la|oceanus}}, and this from the [[Greek language|Greek]] word {{wikt-lang|grc|ὠκεανός}} (''ōkeanós''), "ocean". The term ''Oceania'' is used because, unlike the other continental groupings, it is the ocean that links the parts of the region together.<ref>Tcherkézoff, Serge, ''Polynésie / Mélanésie. L’invention française des « races » et des régions de l’Océanie'', Au vent des îles, Tahiti, 2009. {{ISBN|978-2-915654-52-3}}.</ref> John Eperjesi's 2005 book ''The Imperialist Imaginary'' says that Since the mid-19th century, [[Western world|Western]] cartographers have used the term ''Oceania'' to organize and classify the [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eperjesi |first1=John |title=The Imperialist Imaginary: Visions of Asia and the Pacific in American Culture |date=2004 |publisher=Dartmouth College Press |isbn=978-1-58465-435-3 }}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>

[[File:1852 Bocage Map of Australia and Polynesia - Geographicus - Oceanie-bocage-1852.jpg|thumb|1852 map by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage. Includes regions of [[Polynesia]], [[Micronesia]], [[Melanesia]] and [[Malesia]]]]

In the 19th century, many geographers divided Oceania into mostly racially based subdivisions: ''Australasia'', ''[[Malesia]]'' (encompassing the [[Malay Archipelago]]), ''Melanesia'', ''Micronesia'' and ''Polynesia''. The 2011 book ''Maritime Adaptations of the Pacific'', by Richard W. Casteel and Jean-Claude Passeron, states that, Oceania has traditionally been considered a continent in anthropological studies, similar to Africa, Asia, and the Americas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=W. Casteel |first1=Richard |last2=Passeron |first2=Jean-Claude |title=Maritime Adaptations of the Pacific |date=2011 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3110879902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RUryHhPBT3EC&dq=%22ALEUTS%22+%22OCEANIA%22&pg=PR5 |access-date=24 September 2022}}</ref> [[John Bartholomew|Bartholomew]] described Oceania as one of six major world divisions, including Australia and Pacific islands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bartholomew |first1=John |title=Zell's Descriptive Hand Atlas of the World |date=1873 |publisher=T.E. Zell |page=7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmSp46xxpJQC&dq=%22oceania%22+%22yokohama%22+%22australia%22&pg=PA3 |access-date=20 August 2022}}</ref> American author [[Samuel Griswold Goodrich]] wrote in his 1854 book ''History of All Nations'' that, some 19th-century geographers classified the Pacific islands as a third continent called Oceania, alongside the New and Old Worlds. In this book, the other two continents were categorized as being the New World (the Americas) and the [[Old World]] ([[Afro-Eurasia]]).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Goodrich |first1=Samuel Griswold |title=History of All Nations |date=1854 |publisher=Miller, Orton and Mulligan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=heJPYUnr70kC&dq=%22aleutian+islands%22+%22oceania%22&pg=PA52 |access-date=20 December 2022}}</ref> In his 1879 book ''Australasia'', British naturalist [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] commented that, geographers commonly used ''Oceania'' to refer to the Pacific islands, with Australia as its central landmass.<ref name="austral">{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1=Alfred Russel |title=Australasia |date=1879 |publisher=The University of Michigan |page=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e2kcAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2 |access-date=12 March 2022 |quote=Oceania is the word often used by continental geographers to describe the great world of islands we are now entering upon [...] This boundless watery domain, which extends northwards of Behring Straits and southward to the Antarctic barrier of ice, is studded with many island groups, which are, however, very irregularly distributed over its surface. The more northerly section, lying between Japan and California and between the Aleutian and Hawaiian Archipelagos is relieved by nothing but a few solitary reefs and rocks at enormously distant intervals. |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Australasia/e2kcAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22oceania+is+the+word+often%22&pg=PA2&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref> He did not explicitly label Oceania a continent in the book, but did note that it was one of the six major divisions of the world.<ref name="austral"/> ''The Oxford Handbook of World History'' (2011) describes the Oceania is often treated as a secondary topic in world history, appearing at the end of global narratives as a marginal region.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Handbook of World History |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199235810.001.0001 |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-19-923581-0 |editor-last1=Bentley |editor-first1=Jerry H }}</ref> 

<div>In most non-[[English language|English]]-speaking countries Oceania is treated as a continent in the sense that it is "one of the parts of the world", and Australia is only seen as an island nation. In other non-English-speaking countries Australia and [[Eurasia]] are thought of as continents, while Asia, Europe, and Oceania are regarded as "parts of the world".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brotschul |first1=Amy |title=Continents in French |url=https://study.com/academy/lesson/continents-in-french.html |website=Study.com |access-date=4 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Divisões dos continentes |url=https://atlasescolar.ibge.gov.br/images/atlas/mapas_mundo/mundo_034_divisao_continentes.pdf |access-date=12 January 2021 |publisher=IBGE |archive-date=13 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813231055/https://atlasescolar.ibge.gov.br/images/atlas/mapas_mundo/mundo_034_divisao_continentes.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Nevertheless, various writers from [[English language|English]]-speaking countries have described Oceania as a continent over the years.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/znsj7yc BBC Bitesize: The continent of Oceania]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Visual_Guide_to_Understanding_Planet/Yxhp1LqpE2gC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+continent+of+Oceania&pg=PA120&printsec=frontcover The Visual Guide to Understanding Planet Earth - Planet Earth By QA international Collectif QA international Collectif, 2007, P.120]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Current_Review_of_Economic_and_Social_Pr/5qKD-DeVixMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Among+the+six+continents,+Oceania+(comprising+Australia,+New+Zealand&pg=RA17-PA13&printsec=frontcover Current Review of Economic and Social Problems in the United Nations, 1950, P.13]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/IELTS_Writing_Task_1_Academic_and_Genera/tgDsCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Continent+of+Oceania&pg=PT19&printsec=frontcover IELTS Writing Task 1 – Academic and General By Nathan Dixon, 2015]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/What/-kSBeFkUUHwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+continent+of+Oceania&pg=PA29&printsec=frontcover What? By Erin McHugh, 2005, P.29]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGyleDQzs0kC&dq=continent+oceania&pg=PA532|title=Daily Consular and Trade Reports|date=6 May 1928|publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of Manufactures|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HskKAAAAYAAJ&dq=continent+of+oceania+1920&pg=PA46|title=Mineral Resources of the United States|first=United States Bureau of|last=Mines|date=6 May 1922|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}</ref> Prior to the 1950s, before the popularization of the theory of [[plate tectonics]], [[Antarctica]], Australia, and [[Greenland]] were sometimes described as island continents, but none were usually taught as one of the world's continents in the English-speaking countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Southwell |first1=Thomas |title=Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society: Volume 4 |date=1889 |publisher=Norfolk Naturalists' Trust and Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P0NMAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22greenland%22+%22island+continent%22&pg=PA164 |access-date=16 November 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society: Volume 36 |date=1932 |publisher=Royal Aeronautical Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sJPyAAAAMAAJ&q=%22continent+of+greenland%22 |access-date=16 November 2022}}</ref><ref name=lewis32b>{{harvp|Lewis & Wigen, The Myth of Continents|1997|p=32}}: "...the 1950s... was also the period when... Oceania as a "great division" was replaced by Australia as a continent along with a series of isolated and continentally attached islands. [Footnote 78: When Southeast Asia was conceptualised as a world region during World War II..., Indonesia and the Philippines were perforce added to Asia, which reduced the extent of Oceania, leading to a reconceptualisation of Australia as a continent in its own right. This manoeuvre is apparent in postwar atlases]"</ref> In his 1961 book ''The United States and the Southwest Pacific'', American author [[C. Hartley Grattan|Clinton Hartley Grattan]] commented that, By 1961, the term ''Oceania'' to describe Australia, [[New Zealand]], and the Pacific Islands was considered somewhat outdated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grattan |first1=Clinton Hartley |title=The United States and the Southwest Pacific |date=1961 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-49244-8 }}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref> Australia is a founding member of the [[Pacific Islands Forum]] in 1971, and at times has been interpreted as the largest Pacific island.<ref name="'O'Malley SMH 21 Sep 2014">{{cite news |last1=O'Malley |first1=Nick |title=Australia is a Pacific island – it has a responsibility |url=https://www.smh.com.au/world/australia-is-a-pacific-island--it-has-a-responsibility-20140921-10jwdw.html |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=21 September 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.afr.com/world/asia/rudd-on-avoiding-war-and-australia-s-big-policy-failure-in-the-pacific-20220329-p5a945|title=Rudd on avoiding war and Australia's big policy failure in the Pacific|date=31 March 2022|website=Australian Financial Review|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=30 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.afr.com/world/asia/rudd-on-avoiding-war-and-australia-s-big-policy-failure-in-the-pacific-20220329-p5a945|url-status=live}}</ref> Some geographers group the [[Australian Plate|Australian tectonic plate]] with others in the Pacific to form a geological continent.<ref>{{harvp|Lewis & Wigen, The Myth of Continents|1997 |page=40 |ps=: "The joining of Australia with various Pacific islands to form the quasi continent of Oceania ... "}}</ref> [[National Geographic|''National Geographic'']] defines Oceania as a continent based on its connection to the Pacific Ocean rather than landmass.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/oceania-physical-geography/|title=Australia and Oceania: Physical Geography|first=National Geographic|last=Society|date=4 January 2012|website=National Geographic Society|access-date=30 July 2022|archive-date=23 May 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523144947/https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/oceania-physical-geography/|url-status=live}}</ref> Others have labelled it as the "liquid continent".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Werry |first1=Margaret |title=Sea-change: Performing a fluid continent: 2nd Oceanic Performance Biennial: Rarotonga, Cook Islands, 8–11 July 2015 |journal=Performance Research |date=3 March 2016 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=90–95 |doi=10.1080/13528165.2016.1173926 |s2cid=148622133 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rubow |first1=Cecilie |last2=Bird |first2=Cliff |title=Eco-theological Responses to Climate Change in Oceania |journal=Worldviews |date=2016 |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=150–168 |doi=10.1163/15685357-02002003 |jstor=26552256 |url=https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/ecotheological-responses-to-climate-change-in-oceania(b5e47709-5d0b-41ff-be39-3544eb29a4ff).html }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/martin-clunes-ultimate-guide-pacific-islands/ |title=Martin Clunes' ultimate guide to the Pacific islands |publisher=Telegraph.co.uk |date=8 January 2022 |access-date=27 February 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064859/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/oceania/martin-clunes-ultimate-guide-pacific-islands/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Pacific Ocean itself has been labelled as a "continent of islands", and contains approximately 25,000, which is more than all the other major oceans combined.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.eh-resources.org/pacific-islands-bibliography/|title=Environmental history of the Pacific Islands: a Bibliography {{pipe}}|website=Eh-resources.org|access-date=2022-07-30|archive-date=2021-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419224008/https://www.eh-resources.org/pacific-islands-bibliography/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldvision.com.au/docs/default-source/publications/australia-and-the-pacific/the-pacific--transition-and-uncertainty.pdf?sfvrsn=d26fec3c_4 |title=POLICY BRIEF: The Pacific: Transition & Uncertainty |publisher=World Vision |date=March 2008 |access-date=1 June 2022 |archive-date=17 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317104928/https://www.worldvision.com.au/docs/default-source/publications/australia-and-the-pacific/the-pacific--transition-and-uncertainty.pdf?sfvrsn=d26fec3c_4 |url-status=live }}</ref> In a 1991 article, American archeologist Toni L. Carrell wrote, The vast size and distances within the [[Pacific Rim|Pacific Basin]] make it challenging to view it as a single geographical unit.<ref name="nps">{{cite web |url=http://npshistory.com/series/archeology/scrc/36/report.pdf |title=Micronesia: Submerged Cultural Resources Assessment |publisher=National Park Service |date=1991 |access-date=1 November 2022}}</ref>

Oceania's subregions of [[Australasia]], [[Melanesia]], [[Micronesia]], and [[Polynesia]] cover two major plates; the Australian Plate (also known as the [[Indo-Australian Plate]]) and the [[Pacific Plate]], in addition to two minor plates; the [[Nazca Plate]] and the [[Philippine Sea Plate]].<ref name="birds"/><ref name="plates"/> The Australian Plate includes Australia, [[Fiji]], [[New Caledonia]], [[Papua New Guinea]], [[Vanuatu]], and parts of New Zealand.<ref name="birds">{{cite book |last1=Steadman |first1=David W. |title=Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds |date=2006 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page=7 |isbn=978-0226771427 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBZXJQ3HDg0C&dq=%22tropical+%22easter+island%22+%22indo+australian+plate%22&pg=PA7 |access-date=4 February 2022 |archive-date=30 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730064236/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Extinction_and_Biogeography_of_Tropical/vBZXJQ3HDg0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22tropical+%22easter+island%22+%22indo+australian+plate%22&pg=PA7&printsec=frontcover |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="plates"/> The Pacific Plate covers the [[Solomon Islands (archipelago)|Solomon Islands]] and parts of New Zealand, as well as Micronesia (excluding the westernmost islands near the Philippine Sea Plate) and Polynesia (excluding Easter Island).<ref name="birds"/><ref name="plates"/> The Nazca Plate, which includes Easter Island, neighbours the [[South American Plate]], and is still considered to be a separate tectonic plate, despite only containing a handful of islands.<ref name="birds"/><ref name="plates">{{cite journal |last1=Nunn |first1=Patrick D. |last2=Kumar |first2=Lalit |last3=Eliot |first3=Ian |last4=McLean |first4=Roger F. |title=Classifying Pacific islands |journal=Geoscience Letters |date=December 2016 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=7 |doi=10.1186/s40562-016-0041-8 |bibcode=2016GSL.....3....7N |s2cid=53970527 |doi-access=free }}</ref></div>
[[File:Map of Near and Remote Oceania and location of Efate Island, Vanuatu.tif|thumb|upright=1.3|Map displaying parts of [[Near Oceania]] and [[Remote Oceania]] with a focus on [[Efate]]]]

The new terms [[Near Oceania]] and [[Remote Oceania]] were proposed in 1973 by anthropologists [[Roger Curtis Green|Roger Green]] and [[Andrew Pawley]]. By their definition, Near Oceania consists of New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands, with the exception of the [[Santa Cruz Islands]].<ref>Green & Pawley, 1973, "Dating the Dispersal of the Oceanic Languages"</ref> They are designed to dispel the outdated categories of [[Melanesia]], [[Micronesia]], and [[Polynesia]]; many scholars now replace those categories with Green's terms since the early 1990s, but the old categories are still used in science, popular culture and general usage.<ref>« Although based on a superficial understanding of the Pacific islanders, Dumont d’Urville’s tripartite classification stuck. Indeed, these categories — Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians — became so deeply entrenched in Western anthropological thought that it is difficult even now to break out the mould in which they entrap us ([[Nicholas Thomas (anthropologist)|Thomas]], 1989). Such labels provide handy geographical referents, yet they mislead us greatly if we take them to be meaningful segments of cultural history. Only Polynesia has stood the tests of time and increased knowledge, as a category with historical significance », [[Patrick Vinton Kirch]], ''On the Road of the Winds : an Archeological History of the Pacific Islands before European Contact'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000: 5.</ref>