TahitiTahiti (English: ; Tahitian:; French:) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is a tropical island located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. Tahiti is composed of two roughly circular land masses joined by an isthmus: Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti. Both are the eroded remnants of now-extinct shield volcanoes.
Polynesian TriangleThe Polynesian Triangle is a region of the Pacific Ocean with three island groups at its corners: Hawaii (Hawaiʻi), Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and New Zealand (Aotearoa). This is often used as a simple way to define Polynesia. Outside the triangle, there are traces of Polynesian settlement as far north as Necker Island (Mokumanamana), as far east as Salas y Gómez Island (Motu Motiro Hiva), and as far south as Enderby Island (Motu Maha).
Polynesian outlierPolynesian outliers are a number of culturally Polynesian societies that geographically lie outside the main region of Polynesian influence, known as the Polynesian Triangle. Instead, Polynesian outliers are scattered in the two other Pacific subregions, Melanesia and Micronesia. Based on archaeological and linguistic analysis, these islands are considered to have been colonized by seafaring Polynesians, mostly from the area of Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
PolynesiansPolynesians are an ethnolinguistic group comprising closely related ethnic groupsnative to Polynesia, which encompasses the islands within the Polynesian Triangle in the Pacific Ocean. They trace their early prehistoric origins to Island Southeast Asia and are part of the larger Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, with an Urheimat in Taiwan. They speak the Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic subfamily within the Austronesian language family.
Oral traditionOral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, beliefs, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. The transmission is through speech or song and may include folktales, ballads, chants, prose or poetry. The information is mentally recorded by oral repositories, sometimes termed "walking libraries", who are usually also performers.
Proto-Polynesian languageProto-Polynesian (abbreviated PPn) is the reconstructedproto-language from which all modern Polynesian languages descend. It is a descendant of the Proto-Oceanic language (the language associated with the Lapita civilization), itself a descendant of Proto-Austronesian. The homeland of Proto-Polynesian speakers is believed to have been Tonga, Samoa, and nearby islands. PhonologyProto-Polynesian has a small phonological inventory, with 13 consonants and 5 vowels.
CultureSocial behavior and norms of a societySymbolic expression developed as prehistoric humans reached behavioral modernityReligion and expressive art are important aspects of human culture.Germans marching during a folk culture celebrationThe Acropolis of AthensWritings often create a sense of cultural identity, Ernest Hemingway writing.Culture ( or ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups.
TongaTonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about 750 km2 (290 sq mi), scattered over 700,000 km2 (270,000 sq mi) in the southern Pacific Ocean. As of September 2026, Tonga has a population of 103,291, 70% of whom live on the main island, Tongatapu. The country stretches approximately 800 km (500 mi; 430 nmi) north-south.
SamoaSamoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, a part of Oceania, which is in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono and Apolima), and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands (Nuʻutele, Nuʻulua, Fanuatapu and Namua).
ArchipelagoAn archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. The largest archipelago country in the world is Indonesia, whose territory comprises most of the Indonesian Archipelago.
Pacific OceanLargest ocean on EarthThe Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.
PolynesiaPolynesia (UK: , US: ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in common, including linguistic relations, cultural practices, and traditional beliefs. The term Polynésie was first used in 1756 by the French writer Charles de Brosses, who originally applied it to all the islands of the Pacific.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.