Malaria has probably never existed in Polynesia, say Dr Merriman, biological anthropologist Professor Lisa Matisso-Smith and doctoral student Anna Gosling in a medical journal paper.
"But the ancestral populations passed through and may have originated in areas with endemic malaria, namely New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu."
Malaria would also have been endemic in the East Asian/island homeland of the people from whom Polynesians ultimately descended.
Monosodium urate - formed from uric acid - triggers a strong inflammatory response. Urate is released during the infection process caused by the malaria parasite.
High urate levels could have been "selected for" by evolutionary changes enhancing the survival rates of humans who had this variation in their genetic make-up, the scientists say in Rheumatology International.
The traditional view was that gout emerged in Maori and Pacific people only after the transition to modern, urban diets.
But 13th century skeletal remains near Blenheim and in Vanuatu, and 17th century Maori remains found near Auckland Airport revealed strong evidence of gout-caused erosion in joints.
Dr Merriman said the stigma of gout could be reduced by knowledge of the history.
