ANTHROPOLOGY IN WESTERN HEMISPHERE AND PACIFIC ISLANDS. 41 



MICRONESIA. 



The islands called Micronesia lie well scattered to the east and south- 

 east of Japan. They are the Marianne or Ladrone Islands, together with 

 the Pelew, Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, and Ellice groups. The inhabitants 

 are known jointly as Micronesians, and are a hybrid people. Physically 

 and culturally they stand between the Polynesians and the Melanesians. 

 Tradition points to migrations from both the east and west; the former 

 migration is said distinctly to have come from Samoa, hence is Polynesian. 

 The migrations from the westward are said to have been more numerous; 

 they are believed to have been largely from the Philippines and islands 

 farther south, and to have been subsequent to the Polynesian immigration. 

 Thus they were Malayan in large part, if not entirely. 



Though the Micronesians differ in appearance in the various island 

 groups, depending upon the proximity to or contact with neighboring peoples, 

 they should probably be considered to-day as of Malayan stock, which 

 modified the early Polynesian settlers and which in turn was probably modi- 

 fied in historic times by Melanesians and even Japanese and Chinese. 



The Micronesian languages are as complicated as is the ethnic composi- 

 tion, and they have been studied but little. This "melting-pot " of the Pacific 

 offers, among other problems, a good field for research in ethnic amalgamation 

 and cultural assimilation. 



MALAYSIA. 



Malaysia includes the Malay peninsula of continental Asia, and the vast 

 island world of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Celebes, the Philippines, Formosa, 

 and many smaller islands. This area receives its name from the small Malay 

 group or tribe, the last of many swarms of people now widely scattered under 

 the name Malayan. People speaking the Malayan language have gone far 

 beyond the bounds of Malaysia. They went northward to southern Japan, 

 which was heavily impregnated with Malayan blood, and again they migrated 

 to the westward across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar, off the southern 

 part of the east coast of Africa. What was the cause of their early remark- 

 able pioneering instinct? 



Much discussion and controversy have been waged about the Malayans. 

 Who are they? Where did they come from? What are their ethnic char- 

 acteristics? They were formerly regarded as merely an offshoot of the 

 Mongolian stock; this view was upheld by Wallace, and is the one most 

 commonly taught in American colleges to-day. Others, especially those 

 who know them personally, believe them to be a distinct race, some regarding 

 them as the most recent of all the great races, and insular in origin, not 

 continental. The Polynesians were formerly believed to be a branch of the 

 Malayans, and the Oceanic languages are still commonly called " Malay o- 

 Polynesian." It has recently been established that the Polynesian is the 

 older language, and the two peoples are radically distinct linguisticall}\ 



