National Museum of Natural Science

The basin of the Pacific Ocean consists of the large Pacific Ocean Plate in the East, the Philippine Plate in the West and Indonesia and the Oceania Plate.

Megalithic statues on the Polynesian Easter Island. Easter Island is the eastern boundary of Austronesia. Islanders moved from Society Islands to Easter Island in 500 A.D. There are over 800 giant stone monoliths that are carved out of rock. Most of the monoliths display long faces, long ears, bushy eyebrows and deep-set eyes. Their height can be up to 9.8 meters. The weight can be up to 80 tons, and all of them face the land. Some scholars of Polynesia's ancient culture believe that the statues have religious qualities.

Due to plate tectonics, ridges and valleys have been formed, with sustained volcanic activities and earthquakes. Basalt from the eruptions of underwater volcanoes piled up to create many volcanic islands. There are many active volcanoes in the Pacific Ring. For islanders of the Pacific Ocean, coral islands or shore reefs formed by lime provide important materials for their daily lives.

Oceania means land in the Pacific Ocean. It is believed to consist of more than 10,000 islands. It can be divided into Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. The total area is about one million square kilometers, mainly located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Because it is located in the Tropical Zone, the weather is very humid and hot. Many islands are not inhabited. Oceania, in a broad sense, includes Australia and New Zealand.

Among the indigenous peoples of Oceania, awareness of, and experiences with, nature and the supernatural have developed into unique views of the universe, involving beliefs, legends, religious ceremonies, shamanism, taboos and arts.

After coming in contact with Europeans and being colonially ruled, islanders were introduced to Christianity. However, traditional animism is still influential. While accepting Christianity, the inhabitants often combine it with their own interpretations of nature and their culture.

There are 28 countries in Oceania with a total population of over 14 million. The indigenous tribes can be divided into two groups according to their languages: Papuan language family and Austronesian language family.

In general, the peoples of these two language families migrated to the Pacific Ocean at different periods: the former about 35,000 years ago with more than 700 languages including more than 3,000 dialects, and the latter about 4,000 years ago and consisting of 1,000 to 2,000 languages.