Is Improved Unarmed Strike considered a weapon proficiency?
Can I take it as the proficiency programmed into a White Pyramid Ioun Stone or as the free proficiency offered to Half Elves as the "Ancestral Arms" alternative racial trait?
Is Improved Unarmed Strike considered a weapon proficiency?
No.
All characters are proficient with unarmed strikes and any natural weapons possessed by their race.
Improved Unarmed Strike is not a weapon type, it's a feat. As such, it's available when you can take a feat, and it has no prerequisites.
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No. Everyone's automatically proficient with their unarmed strikes - it's just that the default unarmed strike is a light bludgeoning weapon that does 1d3 nonlethal damage, provokes when you use it, and doesn't threaten any area. Like a sap, you can take a penalty to attack rolls in order to do lethal damage with it.
Improved Unarmed Strike upgrades this attack in several ways, but it doesn't grant proficiency, since you already have that.
I merged the threads on this topic.