MAORI CULTURE

Maori Culture

Maori Culture

Introduction

Maori's are any member of a Polynesian people of New Zealand. Maori traditional history describes their origins in terms of waves of migration from a mythical land between the 12th and 14th centuries, but archaeologists have dated habitations in New Zealand back to at least AD 800. Their first European contact was with Abel Janszoon Tasman (1642), who did battle with a group of Maori. Later Europeans were initially welcomed, but the arrival of muskets, disease, Western agricultural methods, and missionaries corroded Maori culture and social structure, and conflicts arose. The British assumed formal control of New Zealand in 1840; war over land broke out repeatedly over the next three decades. By 1872, all fighting had ended and great tracts of Maori land had been confiscated. Today about 9% of New Zealanders are classified as Maori; nearly all have some European ancestry. Though largely integrated into modern urban life, many Maori keep alive traditional cultural practices and struggle to retain control of their ancestral lands (Phillips, 2000). This paper discusses Maori culture in a holistic context. The key focus of this paper is to identify and classify the Maoris primary mode of subsistence, and to analyzes and evaluate the impact that the primary mode of subsistence of the Maori on beliefs and values, gender relations and kinship.

Discussion and Analysis

Maoris are Polynesian people who were the original inhabitants of New Zealand. The first of them arrived, probably from the Marquesas, about 800, bringing with them dogs and rats, and some cultivated plants, including the kumara (sweet potato). They also ate fern roots, fish and birds, including the large flightless moa, which they hunted to extinction. By 1200 they had explored the whole country, and by 1800 numbered over 100,000. They were skilful carvers of wood and greenstone (jade). Politically they were divided into loose tribes linked by trade and sporadic warfare, and ruled by hereditary chiefs. In the 19c they came to be outnumbered and dominated by European (pakeha) settlers. Their culture declined; they lost most of their land; and by 1896 their population had shrunk to 42,200. There has been some improvement in the 20c. Numbers have risen (c.500,000 in 2001), and since the 1970s they have become politically more assertive. The Maori language has been officially encouraged, and they have obtained the return of some of their land (Salmond, 1991).

The Maori have a rich and diverse culture which includes traditional and contemporary art. Traditional arts such as carving, weaving, kapa haka (group performance), whaikorero (oratory) and moko (tattoo) are practiced throughout the country. The practitioners who follow the footsteps of their Tipuna (ancestors), copy the techniques that have been used for hundreds of years to develop, but also exciting new techniques and forms. The Maori culture today includes art, film, television, poetry, theater and hip hop. The Maori have an oral culture that is rich in stories and legends. The creation of the Maori history describes how the world by the violent separation of Ranginui, the Sky ...