Austronesians in the context of "Island Melanesia"

The history of navigation, or the history of seafaring, is the art of directing vessels upon the open sea through the establishment of its position and course by means of traditional practice, geometry, astronomy, or special instruments. Many peoples have excelled as seafarers, prominent among them the Austronesians (Islander Southeast Asians, Malagasy, Islander Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians), the Harappans, the Phoenicians, the Iranians, the ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the ancient Indians, the Norse, the Chinese, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Hanseatic Germans, the Portuguese, the Spanish, the English, the French, the Dutch, and the Danes.

Lashed-lug boats are ancient boat-building techniques of the Austronesian peoples. It is characterized by the use of raised lugs (also called "cleats") on the inner face of hull planks. These lugs have holes drilled in them so that other hull components such as ribs, thwarts or other structural components can be tied to them with natural fiber ropes (hence "lashed"). This allows a structure to be put together without any metal fastenings. The planks are further stitched together edge-to-edge by sewing or using dowels ("treenails") unto a dugout keel and the solid carved wood pieces that form the caps for the prow and stern. Characteristically, the shell of the boat is created first, prior to being lashed unto ribs. The seams between planks are also sealed with absorbent tapa bark and fiber that expands when wet or caulked with resin-based preparations.

Lashed-lug construction has been used on a wide size range of vessels, from small craft, such as logboats that have had planks added to their sides to increase their freeboard, to large plank-built ships. It is found in traditional boats of Maritime Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Madagascar, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It forms part of the maritime technology used by Austronesian peoples in their spread throughout the islands of the Indo-Pacific starting at 3000 to 1500 BCE. The oldest recovered remains of ships of lashed-lug construction is the Pontian boat of Malaysia dated to at around c.260–430 CE.

The Malagasy (French: Malgache or Malagasy: Gasy) are the Austronesian-speaking ethnic groups indigenous to the island country of Madagascar. They emerged over several centuries through interaction between Austronesians from Maritime Southeast Asia, who settled mainly in the island's interior, and Bantu migrants from Southeast Africa who arrived later and established communities along the coasts. Traditionally, the Malagasy have been divided into various sub-ethnic groups. The "Highlanders," such as the Merina and Betsileo of the central highlands around Antananarivo, Alaotra (Ambatondrazaka) and Fianarantsoa, tend to have more Austronesian ancestry. In contrast, the "coastal dwellers," including the Sakalava, Bara, Vezo, Betsimisaraka, and Mahafaly, generally have a higher proportion of Bantu ancestry.

The Merina are broadly divided into two subgroups that differ in their ancestral composition. The first, often referred to as the "Merina A," includes the Hova and Andriana classes, who possess approximately 77 percent Asian ancestry (mainly from Borneo and other Austronesian peoples, with around 7 percent Han-related), 20 percent African ancestry (largely Bantu and Yoruba-related), and about 3 percent from other origins. The second subgroup, known as the "Merina B" or Andevo, have roughly 50 percent African ancestry, 46 percent Asian (primarily Austronesian with minor Han-related ancestry), and 4 percent from other sources. The Malagasy population was 2,242,000 in the first census in 1900. Their population had a massive growth in the next hundred years, especially under the French colonial period as French Madagascar.

The Indigenous people of Oceania are Aboriginal Australians, Papuans, and Austronesians (Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians). These indigenous peoples have a historical continuity with pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories. With the notable exceptions of Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands, indigenous people make up the majority of the populations of Oceania.

Han Taiwanese, also known as Taiwanese Han (Chinese: 臺灣漢人), Taiwanese Han Chinese, or Han Chinese Taiwanese, are Taiwanese people of full or partial ethnic Han ancestry. According to the Executive Yuan of Taiwan, they comprise 95 to 97 percent of the Taiwanese population, which also includes Austronesians and other non-Han people. Major waves of Han immigration occurred since the 17th century to the end of Chinese Civil War in 1949, with the exception of the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945). Han Taiwanese mainly speak three Sinitic languages: Mandarin, Hokkien and Hakka.