Editing Melanesia (section)

===Ancient history===
[[File:Atlas pittoresque pl 096.jpg|thumb|left|Sailors of Melanesia in the [[Pacific Ocean]], 1846]]
[[File:Chronological dispersal of Austronesian people across the Pacific.svg|thumb|Chronological dispersal of [[Austronesian peoples]] across the [[Indo-Pacific]]<ref name="Chambers2013">{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=Geoff |title=eLS |chapter=Genetics and the Origins of the Polynesians |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |date=2013 |doi=10.1002/9780470015902.a0020808.pub2 |isbn=978-0-470-01617-6 }}</ref>]]

The people of Melanesia have a distinctive ancestry. According to the [[Southern Dispersal]] theory, hominid populations from [[Africa]] dispersed along the southern edge of [[Asia]] some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. For some, the endpoint of this ancient migration was the ancient continent of [[Sahul]], a single landmass comprising both the areas that are now [[Australia]] and [[New Guinea]]. At that time, they were united by a land bridge, because sea levels were lower than in the present day. The first migration into Sahul was over 40,000 years ago. Some migrants settled in the part that is now New Guinea, while others continued south and became the [[Indigenous Australian|aboriginal inhabitants of Australia]].

[[File:Vanuatu blonde.jpg|thumb|150px|A [[Melanesians|Melanesian]] child from [[Vanuatu]]]]

Another wave of [[Austronesian peoples|Austronesian migrants]], originating ultimately from [[Taiwan]], arrived in Melanesia much later, probably between 4000 and 3000 BC. They settled mostly along the north coast of New Guinea and on the islands to its north and east.<ref name="genome">[http://news.temple.edu/news/genome-scan-shows-polynesians-have-little-genetic-relationship-melanesians "Genome Scans Show Polynesians Have Little Genetic Relationship to Melanesians"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171110034207/https://news.temple.edu/news/genome-scan-shows-polynesians-have-little-genetic-relationship-melanesians |date=10 November 2017 }}, Press Release, Temple University, 17 January 2008, accessed 19 July 2015</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Friedlaender |first1=Jonathan S. |last2=Friedlaender |first2=Françoise R. |last3=Reed |first3=Floyd A. |last4=Kidd |first4=Kenneth K. |last5=Kidd |first5=Judith R. |last6=Chambers |first6=Geoffrey K. |last7=Lea |first7=Rodney A. |last8=Loo |first8=Jun-Hun |last9=Koki |first9=George |date=18 January 2008 |title=The Genetic Structure of Pacific Islanders |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=e19 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0040019 |issn=1553-7404 |pmc=2211537 |pmid=18208337 |doi-access=free }}</ref> When they arrived, they came into contact with the much more ancient indigenous Papuan-speaking peoples.

Some late-20th-century scholars developed a theory, known as the "Polynesian theory", that there then followed a long period of interaction between these newcomers and the pre-existing inhabitants that led to many complex genetic, linguistic, and cultural mixing and other changes among the descendants of all the groups.<ref>{{cite book |author=Spriggs, Matthew |year=1997 |title=The Island Melanesians |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-16727-3 }}</ref> This theory was later called into question, however, by the findings of a [[genetic study]] published by [[Temple University]] in 2008. That study found that neither Polynesians nor [[Micronesians]] have much genetic relation to Melanesians. The study's results suggest that, after ancestors of the Polynesians, having developed sailing outrigger canoes, migrated out of East Asia, they moved quickly through the Melanesian area, mostly without settling there, and instead continued on to areas east of Melanesia, finally settling in those areas.

The genetic evidence suggests that they left few descendants in Melanesia, and therefore probably "only intermixed to a very modest degree with the indigenous populations there". The study did find a small Austronesian genetic signature (below 20%) in some of the Melanesian groups who speak [[Austronesian languages]], but found no such signature at all in [[Papuan languages|Papuan]]-speaking groups.<ref name="genome"/><ref name="Friedlaender">{{cite journal |last=Friedlaender |first=Jonathan |title=The Genetic Structure of Pacific Islanders |journal=PLOS Genetics |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=e19 |date=18 January 2008 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.0040019 |name-list-style=vanc |author2=Friedlaender FR |author3=Reed FA |author4=Kidd KK |author5=Kidd JR |pmid=18208337 |pmc=2211537 |doi-access=free }}</ref>