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Melanesia (UK: ; US: ) is a subregion of Oceania (and occasionally Australasia) extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region consists of the four countries of: * Vanuatu * Solomon Islands * Fiji * Papua New Guinea. Besides these independent countries, Melanesia also includes: * New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France * West Papua. West Papua includes two provinces of Indonesia, Papua and West Papua Province. The name ''Melanesia'' (in French "Mélanésie" from the Greek , ''black'', and , ''islands'') was first used by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands whose inhabitants he thought were distinct from those of Polynesia and Micronesia. ==European encounter and definition== 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 were conquered or defeated by the peoples of what is now called Polynesia, whom he distinguished as having lighter skin. In the first half of the nineteenth century Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and Dumont D'Urville identified Melanesians as a distinct racial group.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.pacific-encounters.fr/cartographie_01_eng.php )〕 Over time, however, Europeans increasingly viewed 'Melanesia' as a distinct cultural, rather than racial, area. Scholars and other commentators disagreed on its boundaries, which were fluid. In the nineteenth century Robert Codrington, a British missionary, produced a series of monographs on 'the Melanesians' based on his long-time residence in the region. In works including ''The Melanesian Languages'' (1885) and ''The Melanesians: Studies in Their Anthropology and Folk-lore'' (1891), Codrington defined Melanesia as including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, and Fiji. He did not include the islands of New Guinea because only some of its people were Melanesians. Like Bory de Saint-Vincent, he excluded Australia from Melanesia. It was in these works that Codrington introduced the cultural concept of ''mana'' to the West. Uncertainty about the delineation and definition of the region continues. 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".In 1998 Paul Sillitoe wrote of Melanesia: "it is not easy to define precisely, on geographical, cultural, biological, or any other grounds, where Melanesia ends and the neighbouring regions... begins". 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".〔Both Sillitoe and Chowning include the island of New Guinea in the definition of Melanesia, and both exclude Australia. Most of the peoples in Melanesia have established independent countries, are admistered by France or have active independence movements (in the case of West Papua). Many have recently taken up the term 'Melanesia' as a source of identity and "empowerment." Stephanie Lawson writes that the term "moved from a term of denigration to one of affirmation, providing a positive basis for contemporary subregional identity as well as a formal organisation". For instance, the author Bernard Narokobi wrote about the "Melanesian Way" as a distinct form of culture that could empower the people of this region. The concept is also used in geopolitics. For instance, the Melanesian Spearhead Group preferential trade agreement is a regional trade treaty among Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Melanesia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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