Nauruans

Last updated
Nauruans
Nauruan-warrior-1880ers.jpg
Nauruan warrior, 1880
Total population
c. 15,000
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Nauru.svg  Nauru c. 11,000
Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia c. 800
Flag of New Zealand.svg  New Zealand 135 [1]
Languages
Nauruan (native), English, Nauru Pidgin
Religion
Christianity, Shamanism, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Polynesians, Melanesians, and Micronesians

Nauruans are a nation and an ethnic group indigenous to the Pacific island country of Nauru. They are most likely a blend of Micronesian, Melanesian and Polynesian ancestry. [2]

Contents

The origin of the Nauruan people has not yet been finally determined. It was probably seafaring or shipwrecked Polynesians or Melanesians, who established themselves there because there was not already an indigenous population present, whereas the Micronesians were already crossed with the Melanesians in this area.

The Nauruans have two elements of their population: the native Micronesians and the Polynesians who had immigrated long before. Through these two extremes, diverse traditions came to exist.

In about 1920, influenza spread through Nauru, which took a heavy toll on the Nauruans. In 1925, the first cases of diabetes were diagnosed by doctors. Today, depending on age, every second to third Nauruan is diabetic – a higher rate than any other country in the world.

Tribes

The Nauruans were historically divided into 12 tribes, each with its own chief and a distinct style of clothing, with children inheriting the tribe from their mother's side.

Each of the 12 tribes is associated with certain concepts: [3]

  1. Eamwit - snake/eel, sly, slippery, good at lying and copier of styles
  2. Eamwitmwit - cricket/insect, vain beauty, tidiness, shrill noise and manner
  3. Eaoru - destroyer, harms plans, jealousy
  4. Eamwidara - dragonfly
  5. Iruwa- stranger, foreigner, a person from other countries, intelligence, beauty, masculinity
  6. Eano-straightforward, mad, eager
  7. Iwi (extinct) - lice
  8. Irutsi (extinct) - cannibalism
  9. Deiboe - small black fish, moody, cheater, behavior can change any time
  10. Ranibok - object washed ashore
  11. Emea - user of rake, slave, healthy, beautiful hair, cheater in friendship
  12. Emangum - player, actor

Society

Nauruans were classified into three social classes: temonibes (senior members of senior clans), amenengames (middle class) and the itsios (serf class). [4] While temonibes and amenengames were determined at birth, itsio were usually allocated by being prisoners of war, and were often treated as goods. There was a separate class of castaways that were treated as pets, but they were never as low as the itsios.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micronesia</span> Subregion of Oceania

Micronesia is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Polynesia to the east, and Melanesia to the south—as well as with the wider community of Austronesian peoples.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Nauru</span>

History of Nauru, is about Nauru, an island country in the Pacific Ocean. Human activity is thought to have begun roughly 3,000 years ago when clans settled the island. A people and culture developed on the island, the Nauru which had 12 tribes. At the end of the 1700s, a British ship came, and this was the first known contact with the outside world. The British ship called it "pleasant island" and it was a friendly greeting; the British sailed on. Thirty years later, in 1830, an escaped Irish convict took over the island and was finally evicted in 1841. There were scattered interactions with passing vessels and trade. In the mid-to-late 19th century, a devastating civil war started, which took the lives of many Nauru. This war was ended when Germany annexed the island in 1888, and negotiations ended the fighting. In the 1900s, phosphate mining started, and the Germans built some modern facilities on the island. German control ended at the end of World War I, and it was passed to Australia as protectorate. This continued until WW2, when the Empire of Japan invaded the island. Although it was occupied for a few years, many Nauru died at this time, and much of the population was deported from the island and/or used for slave labor. With the surrender of Japan, the Nauru were returned to the island, and it was put under Australian administration again, under the condition it would become independent. This happened in 1968, and Nauru has been a stable democracy since that time. In the last three decades of the 20th century, Nauru had enormous per capita wealth from the phosphate mining, to the point they were some of the richest people on the planet. However, when this ended and the investments were depleted, it has had a harder time, and international aid is important in the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanesia</span> Subregion of Oceania

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pacific Islander</span> Person from the Pacific Islands

Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania or any other island located in the Pacific Ocean.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flag of Nauru</span>

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The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melanesians</span> Indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia

Melanesians are the predominant and indigenous inhabitants of Melanesia, in an area stretching from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands. Most speak one of the many languages of the Austronesian language family or one of the many unrelated families of Papuan languages. There are several creoles of the region, such as Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, Solomon Islands Pijin, Bislama, and Papuan Malay.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rotumans</span> Indigenous peoples from Rotuma

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of Nauru</span> Overview of and topical guide to Nauru

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Nauru:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nauruan nationality law</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in Nauru</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in Kiribati</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese occupation of Nauru</span> Part of World War II

The Japanese occupation of Nauru was the period of three years during which Nauru, a Pacific island which at that time was under Australian administration, was occupied by the Japanese military as part of its operations in the Pacific War during World War II. With the onset of the war, the islands that flanked Japan's South Seas possessions became of vital concern to Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and in particular to the Imperial Navy, which was tasked with protecting Japan's outlying Pacific territories.

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References

  1. "2018 Census ethnic group summaries | Stats NZ".
  2. Report of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Administration of the Territory of Nauru. 1950. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  3. "Tribes of Nauru". naurugov.nr. Retrieved 2021-12-18.
  4. Wedgewood, Camilla H. (September 1936). "Report on Research Work in Nauru Island, Central Pacific". Oceania. 7 (1): 1–33. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1936.tb00376.x. JSTOR   40327587 . Retrieved 2021-12-18.