ABSTRACT
Micronesia’s culture area within Oceania is located east of the Philippines and north of Melanesia. Traditional Micronesian religious beliefs embraced a variety of spirits and ghosts and emphasized ancestor worship in one form or another. In order better to understand the harsh realities of the contemporary situation in Micronesia and Papua New Guinea, and in order to discern the roots of current conflicts, it is clearly necessary to provide some account of the history of these island entities. Naturally the diversity of Micronesian and Papua New Guinean geography and typography as well as of their respective ethnic, linguistic and cultural traditions must be recognized. The smaller part of the nation-state of Papua New Guinea, in terms of land area, consists of several large and small islands lying to the North and East of New Guinea proper.
