“The Maori”
Introduction:
The Maori are an unfriendly and indigenous people of New Zealand. They are culturally related to Eastern Polynesians. They call themselves “Tongata” meaning the usual or ordinary people. My quest is to give you some insight on their infrastructure, social structure, and super structure. We will take a look at how they survived through the years and also learn about their Tapu (sacredness). Their marriage system, kinship, religious beliefs, and more will be explored.
Infrastructure:
Subsistence: The Maori subsistence consisted of fishing, hunting and cultivation. They were expert hunters/gatherers and fisherman. They planted potatoes, taro, yams and gourds. (Latham, C. (2009). To catch fish they would create nets and traps they also used fishing line. They Maori gathered berries, roots, shoots and shellfish. Rats were also captured and eaten. During the winter season was when hunting was most important. The Kai (food) was from the Bush Rivers and the ocean. It was distributed among the people communally. (McKerchan C., Bower S., Heta C. Signal and Matoe, L. (2015)
Economy/Settlements: The Maori today is a minority making up only about 10% of New Zealand’s population. . (Latham, C. 2009) In the beginning there were two types of settlements; Pa (fortified) and Kianga (unfortified). The Pa was where the people would go during times of war; located usually on a hill protected by platforms, Earth works and ditches. The Kianga were hamlets that were about
Another significant part of the Maori culture is the social structure. The Maori social structure can be described as tribal; all the members were in the same territory and shared a common descent (Leeming and Adam 2). When all the gods are living in the darkness with Rangi and Papa before they were divided up, they lived in a tribal-like community; all were of common descent and in the same territory. There is also a sub-tribe, hapu, which means a unit with ardent ties. The lands of the sub-tribes were divided into sections, just like how the gods are in every corner of the world (Rout and William 8). These aspects of social structures were based on the creation myth; the tribal mythology narrates how the sons rebelled because of the limited world in which they lived (Leeming and Adam 2). One variation of the story
In this chapter Jared Diamond describes how two societies the Maori and the Moriori were almost whipped out by the environment and in some cases each other. These two societies had some of the same ancestors but the Maori were way more developed than the Moriori. In the chapter Diamond explains how they were separated but developed in opposite directions. Diamond then goes on to explaining how the islands these societies lived on were different from each either. The next main point of this chapter was how population and politics were worked out on these islands. It is shown how many people lived on each island from populations as little as 5 people per square mile to 1,100 people per square mile. Diamonds last topic explains how both of these societies needed to advance their tools in order to survive the conditions they lived in.
For the Polynesian people, Maori is able to develop a more complex economy and culture system than Moriori, because of the availability of new environment allows them to farm. With farming they can have surplus, which allowed them to establish their community to develop denser population, support army to specialize in fighting. Further more, with a larger group, they develop strong leadership and political organization.
4. The Maori evolved differently because of population and leadership differences. The Maori conquered the
Sabina Lohr is the author of, “Day in the life of Tiwi Island’s Aboriginals.” It’s a short article written to describe the life of Tiwi’s aboriginals and how they have adapted to modern times. Sabine Lohr explains her experience with the people and how they managed to retain and practice their culture and how they have adjusted to modern times. Stephen Wallace is the author of, “In Ecuador’s Amazon, a small tribe lives under a dark, oily shadow.” This article is about a trip Stephen Wallace took to the Amazonian forest to visit the indigenous tribe, the Achuar Indians. Once there, he experienced what they do from day to day and learned a bit about their culture. His main reason for staying, was to learn about how the outside world affected this tribe and was it in a negative way.
For this research paper, I chose the population of Native Hawaiians. Native Hawaiians have some of the most interesting and unique cultural norms, and unique language and a strong agricultural system. I chose to research the Native Hawaiians because I have family that are full Native Hawaiian, I do not know much about the population and I have never been there. I have always been interested in the Hawaiian islands and what they have to offer to the locals and year-round tourists. With this paper I want to explore the language, culture, the agricultural system, health and elders.
The Moriori and the Maori people developed differently due to environmental differences. Although the Maori people were originally farmers, their cold crops could not grow in the cold climate of the Chathams. This caused them to resort to hunting/gathering. While this got them by, they weren’t able to bring in the mass amount of crops needed to support the other nonhunting craft specialists. Their prey did not require elaborate machines, so they just used traditional hunting methods. Also, they were a small island with no easily accessible neighboring islands, so they did not colonize and they learned to get along with each
The Tiwi with population of about 2000 are located on Melville and Bathurst islands of Australia. Their environment is heavily forested, characterized largely by mangrove forests. Games including wallabies, opossums, bandicoots, geese, snakes, lizards, turtles, and fruit bats are abundant in the area. In the past, only younger men hunted and fished while women gathered edible plants, fruits, and vegetables that make up the bulk of the daily food supply. Although there was no problem in securing food in the Tiwi environment, it was a challenging task as it demanded many hands.
Both tribes were ethnically Polynesian and biologically similar but each lived on a different island. The societies developed in isolation. The Maori came from a warlike, agricultural society and their island was densely populated while the Moriori were a less organized hunter-gatherer society. The Maori came to dominate over the Moriori because they were more technologically advanced and developed. The Moriori were unable to develop like the Maori because they were not able to become an agricultural society because they had brought a crop to the island that was unable to survive on their land. The inability for the crop to survive on their land forced the Moriori to be strictly hunter-gatherers. This example Diamond gives not only supports his claim that environmental factors have a greater effect on a society than biology but also supports his claim that a society must be able to domesticate plants and animals in order to develop. In essence, the ability to produce more food would then lead to the production of more people. Food surpluses, Diamond argues, were necessary for the development of a settled, sedentary
In this paper, I will be researching the Australian culture, Tiwi. Located on the Melville and Bathurst islands in northern Australia, the environment experiences torrential rain from November to March with temperatures consistently staying around twenty-seven degrees Celsius , but from June to September rain is rare with great temperature ranges. The terrain is diverse with mostly flat lands, small streams and rivers, and eucalyptus and cypress forest that make up the majority of the upper lands. With the diversity of the land, Tiwi’s experience a diet that is nutritious. (eHRAF) The Tiwi culture was first mentioned in text approximately forty thousand years ago by Dutch, Portuguese, and British settlers. The
Fiordland was well known to the Māori, and many legends recount its formation and naming. Demigod Tuterakiwhanoa
Biculturalism has a massive role in Aoteaora New Zealand’s society and has a massive impact in its history. Having a clear understanding of it is crucial in order to be more appreciative of how diverse New Zealand’s society has become, and it also helps us discern the negative aspects of diversity and multiculturalism. By examining and understanding biculturalism, it helps us discern the Treaty of Waitangi’s role and influences in the human services provision here in New Zealand.
The arrival of the Europeans caused many changes to the Māori society between 1642 and prior to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Europeans brought with them many things to trade; however, they contributed to fatal impact in New Zealand as they brought with them weapons which killed a lot of people and enslaved many more as more and more Māori competed for weapons. By 1830 the Māori had learnt a lot about the world. They had learnt the skills of trade with Europeans and the Māori had missionaries that taught them how to read, write and communicate with the outside world. New Zealand was no longer an unknown and isolated land
The Maori, “Children of Heaven”, are the indigenous people of New Zealand. It has been thought that Polynesian navigator Kupe, discovered New Zealand in 950 AD, and named the island Aotearoa, “Land of the long white cloud”.1 The Maori migrated to New Zealand from the tropical islands of
The Purpose of this report is to understand the culture and values of New Zealand culture in terms of their living condition, behaviour, society, aspect, ethics, rules, regulations, greetings, treating, food and environment. I will be focusing on the main cultures of New Zealand as it is a multi cultural society.