Page 339 - Melanesia
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Vanuatu: Diversity and Custom
W ith a population of approximately larger built, lighter skinned Polynesians also seedlings and their most important animal
221,000 (from the Vanuatu Statistics settled in the islands. As with all nations - the pig. This animal is probably the most
Bureau 2006), Vanuatu boasts 113 distinct and peoples, over millennia these different significant aspect of life in Vanuatu, for it
languages and innumerable dialects. This groups came into both peaceful and violent symbolises not simply a source of protein, it
makes it one of the most culturally diverse contact, sometimes intermarrying and is the cornerstone of their ritual life, a token
countries on earth. This amazing diversity is sometimes having losing their cultural iden- of wealth and power upon which entire
a result of 3,000 years of sporadic immigra- tity to a more dominant group. Each succes- societies are founded.
tion from many Pacific countries. Although sive wave of immigrants carried with them
most settlers arrive from Melanesia, the all the tools needed to live. Food crops, tree
