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[German Version] I. General – II. Traditional Religions – III. Christianity and Religious Change I. General In 2001, the population of Melanesia, a region of the Southwest Pacific, stretching from Irian Jaya in the west through to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia as far east as Fiji, numbered over seven million. Melanesians speak over 1,000 different languages and live in small societies, some of which are patrilineal and others matrilineal. They occupy varied habitats, from …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. History of Christianity I. History of Religion While in the widest sense Oceania embraces the region between Asia and the Americas this article is concerned only with the religious traditions of the island regions known as Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Traditionally Oceania was home to small-scale societies which today persist as parts of nation states. Although the large majority of the people in Oceania are Christian (see II below) and there are small rep…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichte Während O. im weitesten Sinne die Regionen zw. Asien und dem amer. Kontinent umfaßt, werden im folgenden lediglich rel. Traditionen der als Mikronesien, Melanesien und Polynesien bekannten Inselgebiete beschrieben. Traditionell war O. die Heimat kleiner Gesellschaften, die heute noch als Teile von Nationalstaaten existieren. Obwohl die große Mehrheit der Menschen in O. Christen (s.u. II.) sind und auch kleinere Gemeinschaften von Muslimen (in Papua) und Hind…