New Zealand's Maori

Environment

New Zealand, having once been connected to Antarctica (during the middle to late cretaceous period in time), is south of Australia in the Southern Hemisphere, and home to the Maori people. New Zealand is comprised of 2 islands, the North Island and the South Island. The North Island is comprised of rolling hills with a subtropical climate. The South Island is mountainous with glaciers, fjords and lakes. Both islands have several active volcanoes, and get plenty of rainfall each year.

Because New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, their seasons are the reverse of those in the United States. Winter is from June through August while Summer is from December through February (they celebrate Christmas in what feels like July). During the winter months, the average temperature ranges from 50 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, with the potential of getting as cold as 14 degrees Fahrenheit in the mountainous areas of the South Island. During the summer months, the average temperature ranges from 68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The average rainfall is 25 to 59 inches per year (in comparison to Southern California's 15 inches of rain per year). And the average amount of sun per year is about 2000 hours, almost as sunny as Southern California's 3000 hours of sun per year.

The Maori people came to New Zealand by canoe in about 800AD. After they arrived, they would eventually settle into 2 different types of settlements. The first type was a fortified settlement where people would stay in times of war. These types of settlements, where houses were typically close together, were usually on hills and protected by spiked fences, ditches and platforms that Maori warriors could fight from.

The second type of settlement was an unfortified settlement which consisted of about a half dozen scattered homes, a few roofed storage pits, and a cooking shelter with an oven. Communal buildings were often decorated with elaborate wood carvings. Homes were typically made from pole and thatch, but some Maori people could afford building their home with posts and timber.

Today, however, most Maori people live in urban areas, having started moving into more urban areas since the 1920s. Their homes today reflect what a typical New Zealand home would look like of someone who was from European descent.

Kiwi Bird

Since humans didn't arrive in New Zealand until approximately 1000 years ago, which is about when the Maori arrived, New Zealand has the longest period of isolation than any other country, aside from the North and South Poles. Because New Zealand was isolated for such a long time, it has a huge number of animals and plants that aren't found anywhere else in the world; they're endemic to New Zealand. Furthermore, New Zealand has only 2 native mammals which are both a type of bat. Because New Zealand had no other mammals, other creatures such as the kiwi bird, along with the bat, took over foraging, which is what mammals do elsewhere in the world. However, with the introduction of new species of animals (and plants) that humans brought with them, such as rats and cattle, New Zealand has lost much of its native fauna and flora because native animals did not have the evolutionary reflexes against these types of foreign invasion.

Currently, 90% of the freshwater fish in New Zealand are endemic and about 20 species have been introduced by humans. The new species tend to dominate the waters. There were no ground predators. About 71% of the birds found in New Zealand are endemic, 1/4 of them are nocturnal, and about 1/3 of them can't fly. And all native earthworms, conifers and amphibians are found only in New Zealand. But sadly, much of the forests of New Zealand have been destroyed. The Maori would burn them to create farm land and chase out prey, while the Europeans further burned the forests for more farm land or cut down the trees, some of which were the largest type of tree in the world, for its timber.

Climatic Adaptations

The volcanoes of New Zealand are an environmental stressor that the Maori people had to adapt to. And they did, creating volcano lore, as well as using the fertile soil for growing crops. Additionally, the weather can change rapidly as the ocean swiftly brings in storms. The Maori people had to adapt to those weather changes.

The Maori people had once been a seafaring people, traveling long distances in canoes. There appears to be a genetic predisposition that helped them travel such long distances. What is known as the "thrifty gene" helps people conserve energy, and could be something that helped the Maori arrive in New Zealand and survive its climate in the first place.

The Maori also have dark olive skin to help protect from the sun. Having darker skin helps block out harmful UV rays and helps protect the body's folate reserves from being depleted. While the Maori may have come to New Zealand with dark olive skin, they kept it because they were often working in the outdoors and needed to be protected against the sun.

Once Europeans arrived in New Zealand in 1769, the Maori people had to adapt again. The Maori people had to adapt to the illnesses that Europeans brought with them. Since they had no immunity to the new illnesses, they lost many lives, many people, until they were able to build an immunity through the generations.

Since the Maori people had been a seafaring people, making their livelihoods the oceans and what that brought with it, they had to change culturally once they arrived and settled in New Zealand. While fishing was still one livelihood they could continue doing, they had to adapt to life on land by hunting native wildlife, and gathering and/or growing food so they could survive. And, indeed, they did learn to grow food, which they also bartered with the Europeans and other Maori tribes for goods they wanted or needed.

Recently, aside from learning to hunt and gather food, the Maori have acculturated into European settlements by moving out of their tribal areas and into cities, living similarly to descendants of European New Zealanders. Gone are the typical housing of the Maori in favor of typical European-style houses. Clothes are also more typically of the European New Zealand type.

Language

The Maori language, or te reo Maori (which means the Maori language), is part of the Tahitic branch of languages in the Eastern Polynesian group, which is then a part of the larger group of languages called the Austronesian language family.

The Maori language was once the predominant language spoken in New Zealand, with Europeans learning the language so they could communicate and trade with the Maori, therefore helping to ensure European survival in New Zealand. While there was no written form of the Maori language before the 1800s, carvers would depict verbal lore through their pictorial carvings in wood and bone. Since there was no actual written form of communication when the Europeans first arrived, missionaries were the first to try to write it down starting in the early 1800s. By the 1820s, the Maori people were teaching each other how to read and write, often writing with coal on leaves or carving words into wood or bone.

But by the 1860s, Europeans began to outnumber the Maori, and English became the most common spoken language. The Maori language was even suppressed in schools, the Europeans believing that it would help the Maori assimilate to the European way of life. But by the 1970s, and gaining much momentum in the 1980s, a resurgence of the Maori language began to appear. And while most Maori people speak English today, there is a growing movement to teach the Maori language in preschools. The Maori people have much pride in their language and their culture.

Gender Roles

Before the arrival of Europeans, it is believed that the Maori were more accepting of different gender types than the modern day Maori people. This can be seen by the words they have in their language for varying gender identities. For example, someone who was born with a male body and a female gender identity was called a Whakawahine, Hinehi or Hinehua. For biological females who perceive themselves as male, the word tangata ira tane is used. And those who are devoted to a same sex partner, the word Takataapui is used. And Takataapui, or same sex relationships, were often condoned. But, once the Euorpeans started arriving, that all changed.

However, gender roles in the Maori society seem to have always been pretty fixed and inflexible. For instance, women cannot perform the traditional Maori war dance, cannot speak at welcoming ceremonies but can and do sing the welcoming song to welcome guests. Further gender roles include hunting and woodcarving for men, and weaving for women. Also, women, when menstruating, are not allowed near fisheries, food storage areas, cultivated areas or any other common area because it would be seen as insulting to the gods.

Because of lore and the belief system of the Maori people, there is typically little cross-over in gender specific duties, although that is changing some in recent times. While the Maori society is currently a patriarchal one, it is believed that the Maori people originally began as a matriarchal society (it seems to have changed from matriarchal to patriarchal prior to the Maori's arrival in New Zealand). This can be seen in their lore that Maui, who is similar to the Bible's Adam, took control of fire, agriculture and weapons from women using force (thus force against women is acceptable to some extent in Maori culture).

The Maori tend to raise children not just by mother and father, who both tended to be nurturing, but also through their extended family, specifically the grandparents. Children were, and are, seen as a communal responsibility. However, in current times, more family members must work, and work for more years than before, to obtain the appropriate amount of resources to sustain their family. Therefore, entire family units are unable to care for children to the same capacity that they once could.

To impart gender information to their children, Oriori, or lullabies, are sung to them to help teach them about their culture, their history and their gender roles. The elderly are usually responsible for imparting this wisdom, history and lore to the children. Furthermore, the Maori believe that cradling children while singing the lullabies will help to teach them about conflict resolution and the dynamics of negotiation.

While biology seems to grant men more strength, it would seem to make sense that men would do the bulk of work that takes strength, which is certainly what the Maori men tend to do. But unlike other cultures where women are seen doing the most of the field work, that is not the case with Maori women. In fact, Maori women find men who can gather food year round as very desirable mates. However, Maori women were the ones who cooked the food, carry water, and weave flax, which are duties commonly seen being done by women in other cultures.

For Maori culture, I could not find anything specific on how they traditionally viewed an intersexed child. However, since Maori traditionally believed that everything is connected, that balance and harmony and respect of children's freedom to explore and learn, I would think that an intersexed child would be accepted into the Maori culture. However, upon the arrival of Europeans, that acceptance would change to non-acceptance.

Subsistence

In traditional Maori culture, foraging, or hunting and gathering, was the common subsistence pattern along with some horticulture. They would fish, catch eel, and hunt birds and rats, with winter being the primary hunting season. They also gathered shellfish, roots, berries, shoots, and, in some harsher climates or difficult seasons, fern roots. But they also cultivated items such as taro, sweet potatoes (called Kumara and typically planted in October), gourds, and yams. Gathering food was year round, while planting kumara, eel-catching, and fishing were seasonal occupations. The Maori, however, have moved away from foraging and horticulture to live in larger cities, much as the European New Zealanders now do.

In traditional Maori culture, there are some duties that were strictly male or female. Women would cook all food, handle all cooked food, carry water and firewood, plait flax into baskets, weave, and be expected to extend hospitality towards guests. Being a good dancer for a woman was a big plus, but talking too much was not. Men were responsible for the more arduous and daring tasks, like cutting down trees, burning off fern, loosening soil for planting, snaring birds, open sea fishing, planting and cultivating kumara, carving, building war canoes, and tattooing.

Patu Tuna
Eel killer made of whale bone

However, not all duties were strictly male or female, and some cross-over can be seen in traditional Maori society. Women were sometimes known to snare birds along with men. Women would carry home the fern rhizomes that men dug up, and would help gather shellfish. However, any deep sea diving for shellfish (or deep sea fishing) was restricted to men. Both sexes collected fruits or berries, with the exception of poisonous berries that only women collected to extract the juice for drinking. Both sexes would prepare pigments, dyes and plant oils as well as construct twine and rope. Also, women could help in work that required a large number of people. Additionally, men would sometimes weave high value items, such as cloaks, without being frowned upon. However, women did the bulk of the weaving and would often begin to learn how at around the age of 10.

Traditionally, the Maori people had a wide range of food, although some of it was seasonal, to choose from and eat. Because of a wide range of foods, they were often healthy, and even described as robust, healthy and happy into a very old age. But with the introduction of European foods and a more sedentary way of life, the Maori people have become prone to such ailments as diabetes and weight gain.

In the traditional Maori society, they would store kumara in storage pits. Since kumara was seasonal, these storage pits would help preserve kumara over the winter for a food source as well as for planting again in the spring. There were also food storage buildings called pataka that were mounted on stilts above ground to preserve food from rats and other varmints that might want to eat it. These food storage areas were to preserve the food over winter so that the Maori could prevent starvation and maintain a wide variety of foods to eat.

In the Maori culture, there were several types of specialists called, in general, tohunga (which means someone skilled in a specific activity). Tohunga would be just the first part of the Maori specialists title, followed by their actual line of work. Some specialists are builders, priests, star readers, anthropologists, tattooists, canoe builders and carvers.

Economic System

Maori Greenstone aka Jade

While the Maori people had no paper or official form of money, they did exchange items or give gifts for something they received. The items most often traded were food, flax coats, greenstone (jade), obsidian and ornaments. But none of these items or any services had set values, so what you would trade for something from one person would be different for what you would trade for the same item from a different person. However, generosity was highly valued in Maori society because it would enhance the individuals influence, prestige and power. A downside to interaction with Europeans was that the Maori improved their bargaining skills, which would sometimes dismay the Europeans, although it would often benefit the Maori people.

Marriage

Traditionally, the Maori have been known to be a monogomous group of people, although high ranking men would practice polygyny. Maori youth were expected to form sexual relationships with others prior to marriage. And girls would acquire tattoos on their chins and, sometimes, lips as a sign that they were ready for sexual relations and marriage. Additionally, since the Maori people had such close ties to their extended family, often calling their cousins brothers and sisters, they thought that marriage of siblings and first and second cousins was incestuous and, therefore, taboo.

Marriage of Hinemoa and Tutānekai

Family and tribal links were important to Maori marriages. Partners were ideally chosen from within the tribe (iwi) or clan (hapu) with marriages often arranged when the bride and groom were still children. However, when two people fell in love outside of an arranged marriage, they would seek counsel from senior family members; approval from the family or tribe was necessary.

There were also political marriages where the youth of a high ranking individual might be carefully arranged to maintain a beneficial connection to another tribe or clan. Female high ranking individuals who had arranged marriages, called puhi, were to remain virgins until their marriage. Great feasts were usually held when high ranking individuals got married.

Gifts were common at typical Maori weddings while high ranking Maori women would bring land and slaves to her husband. And women would typically live in their husbands homes. This can be viewed as a male-biased people where men are more valued than women, something that can be commonly seen throughout their culture.

The Maori were mostly endogamous, with marriage between 2 people from different tribes equating to the loss of land, food-gathering rights, and additional danger if conflicts arose due to divided loyalties. However, if one tribe defeated another, the defeated tribe would often be taken as slaves by the victorious tribe, in which case, the slave tribe could marry into the victorious tribe and gain the status of the person they married. Furthermore, if marriage between 2 people of different tribes occurred, it often occurred for political reasons.

In exogenous instances of marriage, it is a Maori custom for the family to inhabit lands from the parent of one tribe part of the time, then inhabit lands from the other parents tribe the rest of the time. This allows the children to inherit their parents land, as is the Maori custom. Enslaved tribes will live in the victorious' tribes land, while the enslaved members are considered dead to their original tribe.

The Maori people had an open idea of sexuality prior to the entrance of European culture. They have words such as takatapui in their language which is defined as same-sex intimate companions. They also have traditional songs that reflect the idea that same sex relationships are expectable, stating in one song that one male says his male companion is really a maiden who belongs to him. However, once Europeans came to New Zealand, they started making the Maori assimilate to western ideas of sexuality. It wasn't until recent decades that the Maori started trying to recapture their original ideas of sexuality.

Kinship

The Maori people practice an ambilateral form of kinship, which means that the children can claim kinship to either or both parents lineage. This allows them to trace their descent back to a single ancestor that can be traced through a mix of male and female ancestral lines. This can be important for Maori identity as rank in society is linked to one's ancestors.

In Maori culture, the immediate family included brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. This is what the Maori call whanau, which consisted of 3 to 4 generations living together in a group of houses. In the whanau, the elderly people were the authority figures who had a vast knowledge base and were responsible for teaching the children about their ancestors, as well as helping care for the children in general. Beyond that, the first born male of a family was typically the one most respected, so the elderly person who was male and had the most seniority was the one who was the most respected.

Regardless of gender, each child in a family generally received some type of inheritance when their parents died. These types of inheritances usually consisted of tools, clothing, weapons, and other small items that were generally shared equally among the children. However, some items of higher value were generally reserved for the first born son. These types of items include greenstone and high value cloaks. However, larger items that could not be divided were given equally to all children so they all held common ownership in the items. And while the eldest son received items of higher value, mothers would sometimes pass certain items along to their first born female heirs.

The naming of kin in the Maori culture is a bit different than what we have in the United States. For example, for grandparent, they use the word tipuna, but tipuna in and of itself doesn't reflect a gender. Therefore, they add tone to the end of it (tipuna tone) to indicate grandfather and wahine (tipuna wahine) to indicate grandmother. Similarly, parents are matua, while father is matua tane. However, mother is somewhat different, being whaea or whaene. A girls elder sisters are tuakana and her younger sisters are teina or taina. They're exactly the same words used for a boys elder brothers (tuakana) and younger brothers (teina or taina). A girls brother is tungane and a boys sister is tuahine. A son is called tama or tamaroa, while a daughter is tamahine. And a grandson is mokopuna tone while a granddaughter is mokopuna wahine.


Social Organization

The Maori culture is stratified in the sense that rank is based on several factors, some of which are gender, descent order, and who the person's ancestors are. For example, the most important person in a tribe is the first born son of the most senior family, and the most senior family is the one that can trace its first born son to that of a founding ancestor through as many first born sons as possible. While first born sons of high ranking individuals are expected to become the next leader, it is not always the case. If the leader proves to be unkind towards his tribe, not aggressive enough in wars, cannot lead his people and/or is not a good orator, then he may not become or stay the leader.

Tohunga Chief Nohura

Maori society was stratified into 3 classes with tohunga, or specialists, being a class of their own to the side of Maori society. There were the leaders or rangatira, the commonors or tutua, and the slaves or taurekareka. The rangatira, described above as the most senior family in a tribe, trace their lines to the founding ancestors. High ranking females were given the same respect you would expect a queen or princess to get. Some of the females remained virgins until marriage; these women were called puhi and the marriages of these women were important in obtaining or maintaining alliances between two tribes. The next group, the tutua, were descendants of the lesser lines of the Maori ancestors. And the taurekareka, or slaves, were from another tribe completely, and had been assimilated into the victorious tribe as menial laborers.

Sometimes, however, a chief would marry some of the taurekareka women, thus raising the social status of those women. Similarly, if a commoner were to marry one of the slaves, that slave would raise their status level to commoner as well. The children of such marriages would become free and fully obtain the class they were born into. However, generally speaking, there was not a lot of movement across classes.

The tohunga, or experts, were a special group of people, selected at birth to become a specialist. These experts were usually from the high ranking social class, but if there was an especially talented person in one of the lower ranks, they may be chosen to become a tohunga as well.

Political Structure

The Maori political structure is based on whanau, hapu and iwi. Whanau is the immediate or extended family consisting of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and siblings. The whanau takes care of day-to-day tasks and is pretty autonomous when it comes to household needs. However, the whanau is goverened by the hapu which consists of two or more whanau's that are descendent from the same recent ancestor. These hapu were considered independent colonies that had the rights of land. Hapu were ruled by tohunga. Then there were the iwi or tribes, that generally consisted of several hapu that were related to a more distant ancestor, typically one of the ancestors that arrived in New Zealand in one of the canoes. All of the tohunga in an iwi considered themselves equal.

Maori law appears to be derived from morals or customs called tikanga, rather than any written code. The tikanga rests more in a spiritual or moral nature than the legal system we are familiar with. The Maori believe in balance and reciprocity in all activities, including providing punishment when a law is broken, believing that everything (humans, animals, nature, etc.) is connected. So, for example, when someone murders someone else, there is an unbalance in the system that must be corrected. So the family of the murdered individual has the ability to reciprocate through revenge, which the Maori call utu (although utu has commonly been defined as revenge, it actual means the maintenance of universal balance and harmony).

The Role of Violence

Maori violence is portrayed through war dances called peruperu, tutungarahu, and whakatuwaewae, all which are performed with weapons. These dances were done prior to battle to scare and demoralize the enemy. Additionally, violence is seen in sports, such as cricket and rugby, where men are expected to be aggressive. Traditionally, competitions among men were supposed to help them become more aggressive and to prepare for real life conflicts. Even today, a from of haka can be seen on a regular basis. The All Blacks, the New Zealand rugby team, perform a haka war dance before each game in an attempt to psyche their opponents and to show their opponents what's coming their way.

While Maori people attribute greatness to being a warrior, there have been negative consequences of violence within the Maori culture. However, it is believed that some of the negative consequences didn't arise until the Europeans came. For example, since the Europeans installed corporal punishment in Maori schools, child abuse in the Maori home has risen. There is a recent movement, however, to take the Maori people back to their roots where children were revered and loved, where it was believed that all things were connected and that a balance must be kept.

Religion

The Maori practiced a polytheistic form of religion, believing in several gods, which was similar to Polynesian forms of religion. While the Maori had no word for religion themselves, missionaries attributed the word whakapono (which means faith or trust) to the Maori religion. Some of the important deities are Ranginui (sky father), Papatuanuku (earth mother), Tane (god of the forest), Hineahuone (first woman shaped by Tane), Tawhirimatea (god of wind), Tangoroa (god of the sea), Rongo (god of cultivated foods), Haumi (god of uncultivated foods), and the war gods, Maru, Uenuku and Kahukura.

Tane, separating earth and sky

Maori religious beliefs seem to differ depending on what tribe you're from. However, they all seem to have 3 things in common. They all believe that there was movement from absolute nothingness to somethingness, or in other words, from dark to light. They all also believe that there was a separation of the earth from the sky. The third commonality they have is that they all believe that gods are at work in fashioning the natural world.

So, in short, the Maori believe that the creation story begins in darkness and nothingness. Ranginui and Papatuanuku emerge, joined together in an embrace, their children born between them. The children want to separate their parents so that light can get to the world. It is generally believed that Tane is the child responsible for separating them, thus allowing the movement away from darkness into light. The children of Ranginui and Papatuanuku then become gods of various domains of the world, such as Tane being god of the forests, Ruaumoko god of earthquakes, and Tangaroa god of the sea. Through the genealogical line of Ranginui and Papatuanuku, the Maori explain the natural world and its creation. And this is why they believe everything is connected and that there is always a balance to be kept.

Meeting House, used for religious purposes

Because the Maori believe everything is so interconnected, that everything is related to everything else, their cultural system would break (and has broken) down, at least to some extent, if religion were absent. They would not be the same people if they did not believe in their religion, and in some ways, they have changed since becoming a Christian community since the arrival of Europeans.

Some of the Maori rituals are Tua, Tohi, First Fruit rituals, and Ngau Paepae. Tua was the ritual where babies were named only after their naval cord was severed, and was performed in the child's place of birth. Tohi followed the Tua ritual and was where children were dedicated to particular gods. Male babies were often dedicated to the god of war while girls were dedicated to the moon goddess of fertility. First fruit rituals were to honor the god of that particular earthly domain. So, for example, the first kumara harvested would be offered to the Rongo, the god of cultivated foods. And then there was Ngua Paepae, which is where a warrior would bite a beam in the latrine to help increase his fighting ability before going to war.

Art

Artwork is most commonly expressed through weaving and carving. The functions of carving is to pass down history, religion, language and tradition. The act of carving was spiritual and the shavings were never thrown away or used for burning. Weaving is done with flax and is used to make such things as fishing nets, baskets, floor mats, cloaks, ornaments, and skirts. They use weaving to tell stories and pass on their history.

Music has many purposes in the Maori culture, but above all tries to pass on the wisdom and knowledge of ancestors. There are the Maori lullabies, love songs, challenges, laments, and chants. Music benefits the Maori culture by keeping their history alive.

Performance art can be seen through haka, which is dance. There are many types of Haka, such as the Ka Mate which is a short dance that expresses Maori emotion. There is also peruperu which is a war dance involving weapons. The peruperu is there to try to convey to the enemies the kind of warriors the Maori are. For more information, visit the following website about haka. 

Religious art can be seen through carving. Carving is often found on meeting houses, which were places of religion for the Maori. The carvings in a meeting house tell the story, give the history, of the tribe that uses that meeting house. The genealogy of a tribe is spiritually important for the Maori people.

Another type of art is tattooing. Tattooing for men made them appear fierce in battle and made them attractive to women. It also showed their rank, their virility and/or their ferocity. Additionally, ancestry is shown on each side of the face. Maori women were seen as beautiful if their lips were tattooed blue along with some tattooing on their chin.

Conclusion

Europeans came to New Zealand and started settling in the late 1700s. The Maori originally thought they were goblins because they could row their boats backwards like they had eyes in the back of their head. In the early 1800s, wars between tribes started erupting because of the tension of new technologies being introduced into their culture. Additionally, missionary work began, affecting how and what Maori children were taught.

In the mid-1800s, Maori land became an issue when the Europeans started claiming it for their own. Wars broke out between the Maori and the Europeans over land, the Europeans finally winning, partly due to European diseases that wiped out a good number of the Maori people. After this point, Maori influence over New Zealand politics became quite small, while assimilation into European culture took off, risking the loss of Maori culture entirely.

Wellington, New Zealand

In the early to mid-1900s, Maori leaders began to arise who had a strong impact on New Zealand politics, and helped promote a resurgence of Maori culture and way of life. Because of the work of these leaders, in the latter part of the 20th century, the Maori became increasingly aware of what colonization had done to their culture. They have now started bringing claims of land to court, and now own much land again, as well as businesses that were once non-inclusive of the Maori people.

While the Maori have lost a lot due to European invasion of their land, they have shown great flexibility and tenacity. While there was a time when their culture was disappearing fast, they have now taken great pride in their culture, using modern technologies to create traditional Maori art. They are once again and influential part of their country, involved in politics, entertainment, and arts, helping to keep it a diverse and beautiful place.

Bibliography

http://africanus.hubpages.com/hub/AFRICANS-and-Europeans-The-Question-of-Colour-Part2

http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Maori/Art/Explore/

http://history-nz.org/maori3.html

http://history-nz.org/maori4.html

http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/newzealand/index.htm

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BucTheC-t1-g1-t3-body1-d2-d8.html

http://org.newtrier.k12.il.us/academics/faculty/feiertag/113/Maori%20Project/Maori%20Project%202004/Period%207/group6/Copy%20of%20group61.htm

http://paleozonenutrition.com/2010/07/07/taine-randell-maori-eating-like-their-ancestors-losing-weight-improving-health-60-minutes/

http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/2090/Ritchie%20NZ%20Families.pdf?sequence=1

http://rsnz.natlib.govt.nz/volume/rsnz_36/rsnz_36_00_000310.html

http://tpt.org.nz/downloads/takatapuiidentity.doc

http://www.apanui.co.nz/directory/peter-shields-home-page/the-treaty-of-waitangi/history/heal

http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/site_resources/library/Education/Teachers_Guide/Teacher_Resources_Library/Maori_Education_Kits/Maori_08MaoriFoodGathering_1_.pdf

http://www.biodiversity.govt.nz/picture/biodiversity/index.html

http://www.culturecrossing.net/basics_business_student_details.php?Id=12&CID=148

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Academic/Course_Pages/legal_systems_very_different_12/final_papers_06/Maori/Maori.html

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Maori.aspx

http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/New-Zealand.html#b

http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Maori-Economy.html

http://www.everyculture.com/Oceania/Maori-Marriage-and-Family.html

http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Mauritania-to-Nigeria/Maori.html

http://www.haka.co.nz/haka.php

http://www.hinau.co.nz/Maori%20Myth.html#Gender

http://www.islandvoices.net/polynesia.php?sub_section=history&nav=maori

http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_78_1969/Volume_78,_No._4/Maori_women_in_traditional_family_and_tribal_life,_by_Berys_N._Heuer,_p_448_-_494/p1

http://www.justice.govt.nz/publications/publications-archived/2001/he-hinatore-ki-te-ao-maori-a-glimpse-into-the-maori-world/part-1-traditional-maori-concepts/maori-social-structures

http://www.maori.org.nz/waiata/default.php?pid=sp95&parent=85

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/media/features/food-&-wine/food&wine_kai-maori-food_feature.cfm

http://www.newzealand.com/us/weather/

http://www.niwa.co.nz/education-and-training/schools/resources/climate/overview

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/tereo-introduction

http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/poly/index.html

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/hokakatanga-maori-sexualities

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/kumara

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/maori

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/maori-creation-traditions

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/marriage-and-partnering

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/nga-karakia-a-te-maori-traditional-maori-religion

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-maori-i-te-ohanga-maori-in-the-economy

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-rangai-mahi-maori-in-the-workforce

http://www.tourism.org.nz/climate.html

The Culture of Art

In the Lascaux Caves, there seem to be animals that represent seasons or, rather, time. I think the artists are trying to portray something of their religious or spiritual beliefs. Animals tend to portray our relationship with the earth, the spiritual, and/or our religious beliefs. So I think that animals are portrayed to depict those beliefs, and that depicting human interaction with them wasn't necessary to the story. The most current theory is that these paintings can be viewed as a story about the creation of the world.

The paintings can tell us what types of relationships people had to their environment by the depictions they created. It can also tell us what types of tools they used, what they used for lighting, what they tended to eat, and perhaps some of their beliefs about the world they live in. They had to decorate the caves in poor lighting. And in some of the areas, the cave ceilings were high, but painted anyway, so they had to somehow navigate those heights to paint or carve. Also, some of the corridors and chambers were small and narrow, and those parts were still painted or carved.

Three possible functions of art could have been to preserve a point in time, to tell a story, and perhaps as a form of worship. Sometimes, important events are preserved in art for future generations to see and learn from. Also, people often want to tell a story, some sort of history, and preserve that for current or future generations to read, similar to that of oral lore. And lastly, people celebrate their religious beliefs through art. Sometimes they also partake in artistic endeavors as a means of worship.

Both now and in the past, people have used art to express ideas or concepts. People try to put their beliefs into their artwork, as is seen by current religious forms of artwork such as music, and in past forms of artwork such as statues and paintings with religious themes. Art can be used to decorate an environment through carving or painting, or it can be transient like music, clothing, weaving or body painting (like with henna).

For me, dance is my favorite form of art, specifically Flamenco and traditional Irish dances. 

Flamenco dance was the musical outlet for the poor and oppressed, often danced by gypsies in Spain. Flamenco is a way to express emotion, and it was once believed young people did not have the emotional capacity to dance it. Flamenco has become a highly specialized form of dance, and is now typically accompanied with Flamenco guitar and singing. Flamenco benefits society by allowing the expression of emotion through dance and music. If too much emotion is a detriment, than I believe that would be it's only detriment, having risen from a culture of poverty to a culture respected.

Traditional Irish dance is believed to have originated by the Druids as a form of religious ritual, often seen in the Irish ring dances. But as different cultures invaded Ireland, they brought their forms of dance with them that were then integrated into traditional Irish dance. Their dances had many forms and were performed for various reasons, such as welcoming newcomers and performed at wakes to mourn the loss of loved ones. There are now competitions in Ireland where dancers wear a distinct costume that represents the school they are from. Irish dances are typically group dances, but good dancers become highly esteemed soloists. Traditional Irish dance can be beneficial as a possible historical lesson in the effects of cultural suppression (the Irish stopped using arm movements because another culture didn't like dancing).

The Yanomamo

The Yanomamo people are generally closely related to others in their tribe. If they lose someone in their tribe, it effects them deeply. They are then expected to take revenge on the tribe they believe caused the death of their kinsmen. If they don't take revenge, then the whole tribe is seen as weak and is often raided more often by other tribes who take their resources. In Western cultures, we typically don't or aren't expected to take blood revenge. Instead, Western cultures tend to rely on the legal system, like police officers who arrest the individual(s) who killed someone, the lawyers who prosecute them, and the prison system that houses convicted murderers.

For the Yaanomamo people, revenge killings often happen shortly after the loss of one of their kinsmen. A group of men will get together and go to the village of the offending tribe, often a 4-5 day walk from their own village. Despite the fact that the individual tribesmen will build effigies of the person from the offending tribe that they want to kill, they often kill the first man they come across from the offending tribe, then retreat as quickly as they can back to their own village before the victim is discovered by his own tribe.

Those who become unokais tend to be more powerful in the Yanomamo tribes. They tend to be seen as strong individuals who tend to get more wives and more power. The unokais who have killed the most tend to become tribal leaders with big families. And unokais tend to have more wives than non-unokais, thus producing more offspring and having larger families. And the bigger your immediate family, the more resources you are able to obtain. Even young male children are encouraged to be more aggressive.

The Yanomamo people can become leaders of a tribe if they take part in many revenge killings. Socially, this is seen as a sign of strength, thus making the man who takes revenge more often than others is respected by his tribesmen. And since most people in a tribe are closely related, in general, any lose of one particular person can be felt by the tribe as a whole. Thus the leaders tend to determine if a raid will happen. And the stronger you are perceived to be, the more successful you are generally going to be, attracting more wives to yourself than someone who never goes on raids or takes part in blood revenge.

If laws are not created to protect citizens against being killed, then it seems killing becomes an acceptable means of revenge, despite the fact that killing is wrong (and perhaps, in some cases, despite the fact that there's no proof). In the Yanomamo culture, it doesn't even seem like revenge is exacted on the perpetrator of the crime, but rather on the tribe who harbors the perpetrator of the crime. It seems that killing is more random and revenge is taken out on whoever the revenging party comes across first. This is not protecting the innocent from the dangers associated with murder as a crime.

Kinship

My mom, Ginny, was born in Inglewood, California in 1943. Her parents, both of European decent, had both grown up on the East Coast, which is where they met and married. Ginny's mother had been raised in a religious home, having a preacher for a father. Ginny's dad, however, was not religiously affiliated, and would eventually come to work for Lawrence Berkeley Lab, which is what brought them to California where Ginny was born. They then moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico where Ginny was raised. Both her parents worked in for Los Alamos Lab until they retired, never discussing work with their children. Ginny's father was strict, which led to tension between her and her father. Ginny's mother was not as strict, but was strong minded, and both parents made decisions and raised their children jointly.

The interview method used was a skype interview, since Ginny lives in Colorado (I have no relatives in Southern California). The interview was short because the video quality was poor, despite several attempts to reconnect. Because the video quality was poor (sound and picture were a bit choppy), I felt distracted and would have rather spoken in person. However, I was quite comfortable with the subject matter. I feel that interviewing someone I didn't know wouldn't be too difficult if I had a strong interest in the subject matter. It could be awkward, though, due to cultural differences and potential language barriers (similar to choppy sound and picture on a computer).

There seems to be an equality in terms of emphasis on maternal and paternal lines in this particular case. Perhaps it's due to the fact that it focuses primarily on immediate and current family members, leaving out missing parents. Closeness also seems relative to immediate and current family members. There is some regret in terms of differences between father and daughter that were not resolved prior to death, but since both parents are deceased, it is difficult to say if closeness would be with both parents. However, there is closeness with siblings and direct children. Nieces and nephews seem to be a distant second, and news about nieces and nephews travels through Ginny's direct siblings with no common direct communication between Ginny and any nieces or nephews. Differences that cause strain on relationships within the family seem to be primarily divorce of those who are not directly related.

Unfortunately, I only know my mother's side of the family well. My father has been estranged from his remaining family members, the only one I'm even familiar with being my Uncle George, my father's brother (my father is not listed on the kinship chart). I haven't seen anyone from my father's side of the family since I was a little kid. Most of them have died.

In terms of my mother's side of the family, I believe my grandfather was the most influential decision maker when he was still alive, followed closely by my grandmother. The siblings, my mom, aunt and uncles, seem to hold almost equal say, my oldest uncle and aunt having the strongest voices. I think that the 4 of them grew up in a home where they were all given voices; what they chose to do with those voices seems to have carried out into their current lives. I think my aunt, who's younger than my mom, has a bit of a stronger voice in decisions than my mom because she got pregnant at a young age in an age when that was a taboo, and so had to grow up faster and became more independent than my mom. I also think my oldest uncle has a stronger voice in decisions just because he's the oldest.

I think that those who marry into the family are welcomed into the family, but aren't necessarily expected to stay. There has been divorce with every one of my mom's siblings, including my mom. So while new members who are married into the family are an exciting addition, there is some weariness.

I learned a lot more about my mom's relationships with her siblings and her nieces and nephews (my cousins). I feel I am a bit closer to my cousins than my mother is, despite the fact that I don't speak with them much, either. However, my mother seems to maintain closer relationships with her siblings than I do with mine. It has been difficult to maintain close ties to family members because they are spread out all over the United States. I know that this bothers my aunt, because no one comes to visit her in Boise, despite the fact that she will visit others in their states.

Subsistence and Economy

Part 1

Hunter gatherers had a host of benefits. They had plenty of leisure time to strengthen family ties, live social lives, and develop their spirituality. They had a lot of mobility with few belongings to weigh them down, lived in small groups, and believed in communal property, although new finds were based on a first come, first served basis. The division of labor was flexible, with an egalitarian outlook. They would share food, rarely had warfare, and had limited status division due to material wealth.

Despite the benefits, hunter gatherers had to be aware of water sources. They also lacked transportation, so had to carry their supplies, which were often limited due to weight. They also had to walk up to 12 miles or more (depending on whether they were hunting or gathering). The women would often carry their children in both directions as well as between 15 and 33 pounds of food back from a gathering expedition. They had no storage capabilities, and could not keep a surplus of food.

On the other side, agriculture has a variety of benefits such as being able to grow a substantial surplus of food, which they can use for trade. They lived in fixed, developed settlements near their fields with other farming families. Because a few of the people did most of the farming work, it allowed others to begin to invent and specialize in producing equipment. They were also able to keep farm animals for food and clothing, produce pottery for storage, and build homes from brick or other materials.

However, there were also disadvantages as well. Agriculture was more time consuming and took more effort. One crop fields could turn into barren wastelands and farmers could be coerced out of crops due to taxes, rent or tributes. Farmers held little political power and had no economic control. A division of labor was seen, with large numbers of people having to share resources. Despite that, the farmers became more sedentary.

Even though agriculturists settled down and grew crops, the hunter gatherers had a better diet, consisting of a variety of vegetables and fruits that grew in their territories. While fruits and vegetables consisted of about 60% of their diet, the hunter gatherers rounded off their diets with a variety of meats that were native to their territory. The agriculturists were limited in what they could obtain due to working longer hours, and typically being in areas where crops were generally similar with less variety. For meat, the agriculturists did not hunt local wildlife, but would slaughter the animals they had raised for food. which were often not as varied as for the hunter gatherer.

Despite more work, less edible variety, and more division of labor, one possible reason for some to settle into agriculture could be finding space that contained all of the things they were looking for, perhaps combined with health related reasons to stay put (elderly or sick family members or difficult pregnancies where one or more of the group could no longer travel great distances).

Part 2

"There is a direct relationship between the availability of surplus and the ability to trade." If you have a surplus of your crop, you have the opportunity of offering some or all of your surplus in exchange for something you either don't have or want more of.

Trading with those around you can bring benefits, such as making connections with those you know and attracting people you may not know to trade with you. If you are fare with your trades, you make stronger connections with those around you. Additionally, news of your fairness can travel outside of your immediate circle to others who may want to trade with you.

Trading also has disadvantages, such as creating a societal hierarchy and potentially becoming indebted to others. The person or people with the most to trade or with the commodity that others highly value are often the ones who hold the most power, thus creating a hierarchy that may not otherwise have been there. Additionally, if there is something that someone needs, but doesn't have enough to trade for it, that person could become indebted to someone else if that someone else is inclined to advance product to the borrower.

With the development of agriculture, there was opportunity to grow a surplus of food. However, the families growing the food were unable to use all of the food that they grew. Therefore, they started trading their surplus to others who may want what they grew. Trade began in this fashion, with farmers trading their food for supplies and equipment that they could use for their farm or their homes.