Eastern Indonesia in Austronesian perspective: The evidence of relational terminologies

This paper considers eastern Indonesia from two directions: from the direction of western Austronesia (including Taiwan) and from the direction of Oceania. The paper is concerned with regional variation in terminological relations: what terminological patterns have carried through to eastern Indonesia from the western Austronesian region; what patterns have been transformed; what patterns are distinctive of the region; and what relational patterns continue on into Oceania. Eastern Indonesia is a transition zone and is by no means uniform: hence the paper is also concerned to identify patterns of local variation within eastern Indonesia.