Polynesian outliers

Polynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle; instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific subregions: Melanesia and Micronesia.

Based on archaeological and linguistic analysis, these islands are considered to have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Tonga, Samoa and Tuvalu.

The region commonly termed "Polynesia" includes thousands of islands, most of them arranged in a rough triangle bounded by Hawaii, Easter Island, and New Zealand. Outside the Polynesian Triangle, in areas commonly designated Micronesia and Melanesia, lie about two dozen islands, most of them small and widely separated, whose inhabitants speak Polynesian languages. These islands are collectively termed the Polynesian "outliers"

Their residents generally share features found within Triangle Polynesia. Physically, Polynesians tend to have brown complexions and dark, wavy hair, and they are typically large people of muscular build.

The fact that people in all of the Polynesian outliers speak recognizably Polynesian languages implies that their ancestors fairly recently migrated from the Polynesian heartland. Yet there is much social variation. In some places, outlier populations settled in close proximity to Melanesian or Micronesian populations and seem to have been influenced by them. In other locations, outlier populations remained isolated by geography, ecology, or choice and seem more classically Polynesian.

Polynesian outlier cultures are scattered across five countries of the Pacific: in the Federated States of Micronesia, in Papua New Guinea, in the Solomon Islands, in Vanuatu, and in New Caledonia.

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