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CHAPTER 6 Desy Usmany & Yudha P. N. Yapsenang

The Dynamics of Melanesian History in Indonesia

The Melanesian Region
The term Melanesian first appeared in the meeting of Geography Society of Paris on
December 27, 1831 used by Dumont d’Urville, a French explorer to describe the ethnic
population in the Pacific region which has black skin and curly hair. Dumont also categorized
the population in the Pacific islands to four areas of ethnicities, namely Polynesia (‘many
islands’), Micronesia (‘small islands’), Malaysia (Malay islands, i.e. islands of Southeast Asia)
and Melanesia (‘black islands’). Furthermore, he categorized the Pacific population into
two groups based on their physical traits, namely the segment of the population whose
skin is yellow or copper-colored, among whom are the inhabitants of Polynesia, Micronesia
and the islands of Southeast Asia. The second category is the population with black skin
and curly hair (Melanesia), which includes the island of New Guinea, the Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia.
The Map of the Melanesian area which initially only included the island of New Guinea,
the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia, has been developed further, in line
with the new findings on the relationship of the Melanesian languages in the areas along the
Pacific in Map I, with the population in Papua. The Melanesian groups, which according to
experts, a number of linguists who maintain the terms Melanesia as part of the Austronesian
language family (AN), distinguish the groups as the AN and Non-AN Melanesian groups.
The group belonging to AN family is called Austro-Melanesia and Non Austronesian called
Melano-Papua. The naming of these two groups of Melanesia, in Papua, is known as the AN
language family of Papua and the Non AN3 language family of Papua.
J. C. Ancaux assumed that Melanesia was the result of the development of the Papuan
languages under the influence of the Austronesian language. He took samples from the
island of Biak, some from Yapen Island, Saireri Bay, Berau bay to Etna bay, where there
were a number of languages that were categorized as Melanesian languages. Muliono’s
(1963) research on languages in West Irian suggested that Melanesian languages were
spoken widely in Papua (Irian Barat), among others including the languages in Yapen

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