Micronesians
[2] Ethno-linguistic groups classified as Micronesian include the Carolinians (Northern Mariana Islands), Chamorros (Guam & Northern Mariana Islands), Chuukese, Mortlockese, Namonuito, Paafang, Puluwat and Pollapese (Chuuk), I-Kiribati (Kiribati), Kosraeans (Kosrae), Marshallese (Marshall Islands), Nauruans (Nauru), Palauan, Sonsorolese, and Hatohobei (Palau), Pohnpeians, Pingelapese, Ngatikese, Mwokilese (Pohnpei), and Yapese, Ulithian, Woleian, Satawalese (Yap).
[3][4] Based on the current scientific consensus, the Micronesians are considered, by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence, to be a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people, who include the Polynesians and the Melanesians.
[8][9][10][11][12] This intermingling occurred in the northern coast of New Guinea and adjacent islands, which was the location where the Oceanic language family developed around four thousand years or so ago, after the Austronesian languages of this area grew distinct and became a separate branch of the Austronesian family.
[14][13] The migrants from the east belonged to the Lapita culture and settled eastern Micronesia over the course of several hundreds of years from perhaps the Santa Cruz Islands, around 500-100 BC.
"[15] Yap was settled separately approximately 2000 years ago, as its language was brought by an Oceanic-speaking source in Melanesia,[16] perhaps the Admiralty Islands.
Micronesia was settled by three separate streams of First Remote Oceanian lineage, which corresponds to East Asian ancestry and clusters closely to modern day peoples of the Philippines such as the Kankanaey and the Amis and Atayal of Taiwan.
The study also supports the Admiralty Islands as the source of the Central Micronesian peoples and languages.
The Palauans, Chamorros, Yapese, Chuukese, Pohnpeians, Kosraeans, Nauruans and Banabans belong to the high-islander group.
[14] Archeological evidence has revealed that some of the Bonin Islands were prehistorically inhabited by members of an unknown Micronesian ethnicity.
[19] Raobeia Ken Sigrah claims that Banabans, native to Banaba, are ethnically distinct from other I-Kiribati.
[21] After 1945, the British authorities relocated most of the population to Rabi Island, Fiji, with subsequent waves of emigration in 1977, and from 1981 to 1983.
It is thought that their ancestors may have originally immigrated from Asia, Indonesia, Melanesia and to Micronesia around 2,000 years ago.
The immigration of Refaluwasch to Saipan began in the early 19th century, after the Spanish reduced the local population of Chamorro natives to just 3,700.
They began to immigrate mostly sailing from small canoes from other islands, which a typhoon previously devastated.
They are most closely related to other Austronesian natives to the west in the Philippines and Taiwan, as well as the Carolines to the south.
[citation needed] Palauans are not noted for being great long-distance voyagers and navigators when compared to other Micronesian peoples.
Ethnographic information about them was left by Jose Somera, a member of the Don Francisco Padilla expedition who discovered the islands in 1710.
According to him, their clothing consisted of an apron, cloak and conical hat, and was similar to that described by Paul Klein in 1696 among the Carolinians.
[32] Tobian is a Micronesian language spoken in the Hatohobei (Tobi) and Koror states in Palau by about 150 people.
The Tobians share a cultural heritage that shows close ties with peoples of the central Caroline Islands, more than 1000 km to the northeast and on the other side of Palau.
These voyagers used wayfinding techniques such as the navigation by the stars, and observations of birds, ocean swells, and wind patterns, and relied on a large body of knowledge from oral tradition.
[34][35][36] Weriyeng[37] is one of the last two schools of traditional navigation found in the central Caroline Islands in Micronesia, the other being Fanur.
The ancestral land influenced the social organization, family structures, the economy, shared food and common work.
The family and the community would cooperate with fishing, farming, raising children and passing knowledge to the next generations.
Various professions would make chants and offerings to their patron spirits, which they believed would control the outcome of their efforts.
Shamans, mediums, diviners and sorcerers could be consulted to deal with the spirit world.
Taboos would often be placed on food and sexual activities before a person would engage in an important pursuit.
Violating this taboo would cause a spirit to send sickness or death to the offender or even the entire community.
