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Melanesian mythology, the Glossary

Melanesian mythology refers to the folklore, myths, and religions of Melanesia, a region in Southwest Oceania that encompasses the archipelagos of New Guinea (including Indonesian New Guinea and Papua New Guinea), the Torres Strait Islands, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji.^[1]

109 relations: Adaro (mythology), Admiralty Islands, Alexandre François, Ambae, Ambrym, Anthropology, Archipelago, Australo-Melanesian, Austronesian languages, Austronesian peoples, Baining people, Banks Islands, Branding iron, Brewing, Calabash, Cargo cult, Coconut, Columbidae, Conch, Cosmogony, Cowrie, Creation myth, Creator deity, Culture hero, Degei, Deity, Dichotomy, Dracaena (plant), Easter Island, Eleman languages, Elf, Fiji, Flood myth, Folklore, French National Centre for Scientific Research, Gaua, Gazelle Peninsula, Ghost, Guadalcanal, Huli people, Human cannibalism, Indigenous people of New Guinea, Indonesia, Island Melanesia, Kahausibware, Kai Islands, Kuwae, Lakon language, Makira, Malakula, ... Expand index (59 more) »

Adaro (mythology)

Adaro is a term for two distinct classes of beings found in the mythology of Makira island, in the Solomon Islands.

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Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean.

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Alexandre François

Alexandre François is a French linguist specialising in the description and study of the indigenous languages of Melanesia.

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Ambae

Ambae, also known as Aoba, Omba, Oba, or Opa and formerly Lepers’ Island, is an island in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, located near, approximately north-northwest of Vanuatu's capital city, Port Vila.

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Ambrym

Ambrym is a volcanic island in Malampa Province in the archipelago of Vanuatu.

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Anthropology

Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans.

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Archipelago

An archipelago, sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.

See Melanesian mythology and Archipelago

Australo-Melanesian

Australo-Melanesians (also known as Australasians or the Australomelanesoid, Australoid or Australioid race) is an outdated historical grouping of various people indigenous to Melanesia and Australia.

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Austronesian languages

The Austronesian languages are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples).

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Austronesian peoples

The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austronesian languages.

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Baining people

The Baining people are among the earliest continuously located inhabitants of the Gazelle Peninsula of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea; they currently live in the Baining Mountains, from which they take their name.

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Banks Islands

The Banks Islands (in Bislama Bankis) are a group of islands in northern Vanuatu.

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Branding iron

A branding iron is used for branding, pressing a heated metal shape against an object or livestock with the intention of leaving an identifying mark.

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Brewing

Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast.

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Calabash

Calabash (Lagenaria siceraria), also known as bottle gourd, white-flowered gourd, long melon, birdhouse gourd, New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean, and opo squash, is a vine grown for its fruit.

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Cargo cult

Cargo cult is a term used to denote various spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century.

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Coconut

The coconut tree (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus Cocos.

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Columbidae

Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons.

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Conch

Conch is a common name of a number of different medium-to-large-sized sea snails.

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Cosmogony

Cosmogony is any model concerning the origin of the cosmos or the universe.

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Cowrie

Cowrie or cowry is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails in the family Cypraeidae.

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Creation myth

A creation myth or cosmogonic myth is a type of cosmogony, a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it.

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Creator deity

A creator deity or creator god is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology.

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Culture hero

A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (cultural, ethnic, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or discovery.

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Degei

In Fijian mythology, Degei (pronounced Ndengei), enshrined as a serpent, is the supreme god of Fiji.

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Deity

A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over the universe, nature or human life.

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Dichotomy

A dichotomy is a partition of a whole (or a set) into two parts (subsets).

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Dracaena (plant)

Dracaena is a genus of about 120 species of trees and succulent shrubs.

See Melanesian mythology and Dracaena (plant)

Easter Island

Easter Island (Isla de Pascua; Rapa Nui) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.

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Eleman languages

The Eleman languages are a family spoken around Kerema Bay, Papua New Guinea.

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Elf

An elf (elves) is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic folklore.

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Fiji

Fiji (Viti,; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, Fijī), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean.

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Flood myth

A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution.

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Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture.

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French National Centre for Scientific Research

The French National Centre for Scientific Research (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.

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Gaua

Gaua (formerly known as Santa Maria Island) is the largest and second most populous of the Banks Islands in Torba Province in northern Vanuatu.

See Melanesian mythology and Gaua

Gazelle Peninsula

The Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern East New Britain, Papua New Guinea located on the island of New Britain within the Bismarck Archipelago, situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

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Ghost

In folklore, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or non-human animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living.

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Guadalcanal

Guadalcanal (indigenous name: Isatabu) is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second-largest by population (after Malaita). The island is mainly covered in dense tropical rainforest and has a mountainous hinterland.

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Huli people

The Huli are an indigenous Melanesian ethnic group who reside in Hela Province of Papua New Guinea.

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Human cannibalism

Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings.

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Indigenous people of New Guinea

The indigenous peoples of Western New Guinea in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, commonly called Papuans, are Melanesians.

See Melanesian mythology and Indigenous people of New Guinea

Indonesia

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans.

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Island Melanesia

Island Melanesia is a subregion of Melanesia in Oceania.

See Melanesian mythology and Island Melanesia

Kahausibware

Kahausibware is a serpentine female spirit and primeval creator goddess revered in the Solomon Islands.

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Kai Islands

The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku.

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Kuwae

Kuwae was a landmass that existed in the vicinity of Tongoa and was destroyed by volcanic eruption in fifteenth century, probably through caldera subsidence.

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Lakon language

Lakon is an Oceanic language, spoken on the west coast of Gaua island in Vanuatu.

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Makira

The island of Makira (previously known as San Cristóbal) is the largest island of Makira-Ulawa Province in Solomon Islands.

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Malakula

Malakula Island, also spelled Malekula, is the second-largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides, in Melanesia, a region of the Pacific Ocean.

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Melanesia

Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

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Micronesia

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean.

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Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay is a province of Papua New Guinea.

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Mono-Alu language

Mono, or Alu, is an Oceanic language of Solomon Islands reported in 1999 to be spoken by 660 people on Treasury Island (Mono proper), 2,270 on Shortland Island (Alu dialect), and 14 on Fauro Island.

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Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.

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Mota (island)

Mota (formerly Sugarloaf Island) is an island in the Banks group of northern Vanuatu.

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Mota Lava

Mota Lava or Motalava is an island of the Banks group, in the north of Vanuatu.

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Motu people

The Motu are native inhabitants of Papua New Guinea, living along the southern coastal area of the country.

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Mwesen language

Mwesen (formerly known by its Mota name Mosina) is an Oceanic language spoken in the southeastern area of Vanua Lava Island, in the Banks Islands of northern Vanuatu, by about 10 speakers.

See Melanesian mythology and Mwesen language

Mwotlap language

Mwotlap (pronounced; formerly known as Motlav) is an Oceanic language spoken by about 2,100 people in Vanuatu. The majority of speakers are found on the island of Motalava in the Banks Islands, with smaller communities in the islands of Ra (or Aya) and Vanua Lava, as well as migrant groups in the two main cities of the country, Santo and Port Vila.

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Myth

Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society.

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New Britain

New Britain (Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea.

See Melanesian mythology and New Britain

New Caledonia

New Caledonia (Nouvelle-Calédonie) is a ''sui generis'' collectivity of overseas France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, south of Vanuatu, about east of Australia, and from Metropolitan France.

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New Guinea

New Guinea (Hiri Motu: Niu Gini; Papua, fossilized Nugini, or historically Irian) is the world's second-largest island, with an area of.

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New Hebrides

New Hebrides, officially the New Hebrides Condominium (Condominium des Nouvelles-Hébrides) and named after the Hebrides in Scotland, was the colonial name for the island group in the South Pacific Ocean that is now Vanuatu.

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Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth.

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Oceania

Oceania is a geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

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Oceanic languages

The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages.

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Oral literature

Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed.

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Pacific War

The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War or the Pacific Theater, was the theater of World War II that was fought in eastern Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania.

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Pandanus

Pandanus is a genus of monocots with about 578 accepted species.

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Pangloss Collection

The Pangloss Collection is a digital library whose objective is to store and facilitate access to audio recordings in endangered languages of the world.

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Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia (a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia).

See Melanesian mythology and Papua New Guinea

Papuan languages

The Papuan languages are the non-Austronesian languages spoken on the western Pacific island of New Guinea, as well as neighbouring islands in Indonesia, Solomon Islands, and East Timor.

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Papuan mythology

The Papuans are one of four major cultural groups of Papua New Guinea.

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Physical object

In common usage and classical mechanics, a physical object or physical body (or simply an object or body) is a collection of matter within a defined contiguous boundary in three-dimensional space.

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Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean.

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Qat (deity)

Qat (or Qet, Kpwet, Iqet, Ikpwet etc. – see below) is the principal god in the oral mythology of the Banks Islands, a small archipelago of northern Vanuatu, Melanesia.

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Racism

Racism is discrimination and prejudice against people based on their race or ethnicity.

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Remote Oceania

Remote Oceania is the part of Oceania first settled within the last 5,000 to 5,500 years (i.e. since 3500 BC), comprising (first inhabitants) the Chamorro from the Marianas Islands, all Micronesian Islands (such as the Caroline Islands including Palau, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae and the Line Islands including Kiribati), south-eastern Island Melanesia and islands in the open Pacific east of the Solomon Islands: Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Polynesia, the Santa Cruz Islands, and Vanuatu.

See Melanesian mythology and Remote Oceania

Roi Mata

Roi Mata (or Roy Mata, Roymata) was a powerful Melanesian chief in what is now Vanuatu.

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Roland Burrage Dixon

Roland Burrage Dixon (November 6, 1875 – December 19, 1934) was an American anthropologist.

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Sacred dance

Sacred dance is the use of dance in religious ceremonies and rituals, present in most religions throughout history and prehistory.

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Sago

Sago is a starch extracted from the pith, or spongy core tissue, of various tropical palm stems, especially those of Metroxylon sagu.

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Samoa

Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono and Apolima); and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands (Nu'utele, Nu'ulua, Fanuatapu and Namua).

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Shepherd Islands

The Shepherd Islands (coordinates) are a group of islands lying between the larger islands of Epi and Éfaté, in the Shefa province of Vanuatu.

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Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, Islands of Destiny, Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is a country consisting of 21 major islands Guadalcanal, Malaita, Makira, Santa Isabel, Choiseul, New Georgia, Kolombangara, Rennell, Vella Lavella, Vangunu, Nendo, Maramasike, Rendova, Shortland, San Jorge, Banie, Ranongga, Pavuvu, Nggela Pile and Nggela Sule, Tetepare, (which are bigger in area than 100 square kilometres) and over 900 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, to the northeast of Australia.

See Melanesian mythology and Solomon Islands

Submarine volcano

Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt.

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Sugarcane

Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, perennial grass (in the genus Saccharum, tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production.

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Sulka language

Sulka is a language isolate of New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

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Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System.

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Swan maiden

The "swan maiden" story is a name in folkloristics used to refer to three kinds of stories: those where one of the characters is a bird-maiden, in which she can appear either as a bird or as a woman; those in which one of the elements of the narrative is the theft of the feather-robe belonging to a bird-maiden, though it is not the most important theme in the story; and finally the most commonly referred to motif, and also the most archaic in origin: those stories in which the main theme, among several mixed motifs, is that of a man who finds the bird-maiden bathing and steals her feathered robe, which leads to him becoming married to the bird-maiden.

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Tangaroa

Tangaroa (Takaroa in the South Island) is the great atua of the sea, lakes, rivers, and creatures that live within them, especially fish, in Māori mythology.

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Tapa cloth

Tapa cloth (or simply tapa) is a barkcloth made in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, primarily in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji, but as far afield as Niue, Cook Islands, Futuna, Solomon Islands, Java, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Hawaii (where it is called kapa).

See Melanesian mythology and Tapa cloth

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanesian_mythology

Also known as Ul (mythology).

, Melanesia, Micronesia, Milne Bay Province, Mono-Alu language, Moon, Mota (island), Mota Lava, Motu people, Mwesen language, Mwotlap language, Myth, New Britain, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Hebrides, Obsidian, Oceania, Oceanic languages, Oral literature, Pacific War, Pandanus, Pangloss Collection, Papua New Guinea, Papuan languages, Papuan mythology, Physical object, Polynesia, Qat (deity), Racism, Remote Oceania, Roi Mata, Roland Burrage Dixon, Sacred dance, Sago, Samoa, Shepherd Islands, Solomon Islands, Submarine volcano, Sugarcane, Sulka language, Sun, Swan maiden, Tangaroa, Tapa cloth, Taro, The Mythology of All Races, Thrombus, Torres Islands, Torres Strait, Torres Strait Islands, Tortoise, Ulupoka, Vanua Lava, Vanuatu, Warohunugamwanehaora, Water spirit, Western New Guinea, Woodlark Island, 1452/1453 mystery eruption.

Melanesian mythology, the Glossary

Table of Contents

References