The word "Maori" actually translates in English to "normal, natural, or ordinary" but more literally meaning "original", in order to differentiate themselves from the later immigrants. "Maoritanga" means "Maori-ness", more or less, and this is used commonly as a proud self description of its inhabitants.
Environment and Adaptation
The Maori are an Eastern Polynesian people who inhabit both the Northern and Southern islands of New Zealand. Their climate is varied, both from the North island to the South island, and from the coast to more inland. They don't experience extreme differences in temperature from one season to the next, only ranging from averages of 50-60 degree winter days to high 60-high 80 degree summers. The weather can change quickly due to high offshore winds, transitioning from sunny to stormy and back without warning. There is little pollution compared to most Western countries, which increases UV exposure during sunlight. During the summer, sun exposure increases, but usually a large portion of most winter days offers sunlight as well. Rainfall is high throughout both islands, and is evenly dispersed throughout the year. Snow covers the local mountain ranges in the winter, but rarely touches anywhere near sea level. In fact, last August, snow reached Auckland, an area of the North island that hasn't seen snow in over 40 years!
The Maori population suffered a huge decline in population during the mid to late 19th century, after Europeans migrated into New Zealand. The Europeans, or "Paheka," as the natives called them, imposed a more modern urban approach to trade and economics in contrast to the traditions of the Maori, most of whom occupied rural areas until the 1900s. Searching for employment and other resources following the Depression and WWII, many Maori families mobilized to assimilate themselves into urban society, abandoning several traditions while still maintaining to hold on to the foundation of their cultural beliefs. Today, the Maori are the 2nd largest group of New Zealand inhabitants, accounting for about 15% of the country's population. Statistics demonstrate that although they are expanding and striving to rise to the urban challenge, they have to compete for employment and wealth with the European majority, and most Maori households are economically far behind their goal.
New Zealand is home to a wide variety of animals, many of which are endangered due to hunting or other foreign environmental stresses as a result of human interference. The Kiwi, a now endangered, nocturnal, flightless bird, is actually New Zealand's national symbol, although it is rarely seen in the wild these days. It also was home to the only known wingless bird-the Moa, who the Maori hunted into extinction around 400 years ago, although remains have been found throughout the islands. The Tuatara that wanders the islands is the only species of beaked reptile still in existence-the only remaining member of an order of reptiles stretching back 200 million years! "As Time magazine said, New Zealand is an ultimate storehouse for discontinued zoological models." (http://www.acrossnz.com/nzInfo/fauna.php). Several varieties of whales and dolphins swim off the coast, including the world's rarest dolphin, Hector's dolphin, only found in New Zealand waters.
Heavy rainfall and regular sun exposure provide a good home for a variety of plant life. 80% of the plant variety is native to the islands. The Pohutukawa tree blooms bright red flowers in December, and is known as New Zealand's own Christmas tree. There are forests on the North island of giant Kauri trees, with some trees over 160 feet tall! About 20% of New Zealand land is made up of national parks, in an effort to conserve wildlife and educate the public simultaneously.
Consistent rainfall and regular sun exposure are two environmental stresses that the Maori must put up with in order to survive. They have darker, olive toned skin that demonstrates an increase in melanin production to protect them from UV rays. In addition, their noses and wide and shallow to their face, which provides an efficient method for air intake in a humid climate.
The Maori have adapted back and forth, from an agricultural society in their tropical ancestral Polynesian origin, to a hunting society until they pushed the moa into extinction and their food supply waned, and then back again. When the European immigrants arrived in the late 1700s, the Maori welcomed the muskets and other trade items they brought, but suffered heavy population loss soon after due to a variety of disease to which the Maori had no established immunity. Disease wiped out much of the population as the European population expanded, and the rural Maori society became outmoded. Most of the remaining Maori people migrated toward the European urban areas in order to seek employment, holding on to their basic ideals, but leaving much of their traditional culture behind. This resulted in a loss of social cohesion, which lead them to give in to vices such as alcohol and tobacco. With this negative adaptation, in addition to a loss of much of their land and culture, it seemed they were headed for extinction. However, the Maori population has regained footing recently, politically and economically, and although they are not yet as statistically successful as their European cohabitants, they now make up the 2nd largest population on the islands.
Language
The Maori population speaks the Maori language (although only about 20-25% of the Maori people can still speak it). The official language of New Zealand in English, and Maori was added in 1987, in order to protect their native tongue.
The origin of the Maori language is of Malayo-Polynesian descent. It has a 15 letter alphabet, whose written form is enhanced with the use of macrons, or lines over the stressed vowels of certain words that can change the emphasis, or even the meaning, of a word. The Maori language is historically an oral language, with stories and geneologies being passed down from generation through carefully selected speakers. However, in 1814 missionaries first attempted to help the population create a written language to record such events that may get "lost in translation". Although it has been in progress for about 200 years, the written Maori language is actually still constantly growing and being refined.
Gender
There are more than two genders in the Maori culture. There are male and female, but they also recognize what they call Takatapui, for transgender or transsexual, or more specifically someone that is both Maori and non-heterosexual-this term refers to a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender individual. Lesbian women can also be called whakawahine. Homosexuality became an issue only after the arrival of the missionaries in the 1800s. Previously, it was widely accepted Blatantly homosexual men are taunted by being called laelae, which means "feminine behavior of men".
The Maori woman currently holds less power than their pre-European status. However, the Maori Prime Minister is a woman, along with several other female political figures. They are allowed to seek out higher education, although many drop out even prior to finishing the "required" education level. Although women are permitted to seek knowledge and education, or a promising career, only a small handful, increasing every year, actually does it. If only a single parent is able to work, it is usually the male, so the female can stay home with the child and the man can go provide. Again, the missionary colonists provided an ethnocentric view to a population, and the domestication of the Maori woman bagan. Recently women have regained most of their opportunities. For the most part, these rules are pretty malleable, although Maori women are often portrayed as unsatisfied with the feminine role in their household. A Maori man may stay at home to take care of a child, or perform so-called "female" jobs, and vice versa. However, in formal aspects of Maori culture, such as the opening or introduction of a ceremony, or during the haku or war dance, they are not permitted to speak or participate.
"With this wealth of historical evidence showing clearly the leadership roles that Maori women have performed over time, why has it become so common for people to assume that leadership in Maori society is traditionally a male preserve and that female roles are considered to be of less value than male roles? No matter how numerous they have been, how diverse their skills and fields of leadership, and how wide-ranging their iwi affiliations, for some reason the achievements of these women have been marginalised as being "exceptions to the rule", the rule being that only men could be leaders" (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/law/research/waikato_law_review/volume_2_1994/7). Before Maori women and children can be restored to their rightful place within whanau, hapu and iwi, it must be recognized that it is only through a transferral of power back to Maori that the difficult task of formulating strategies to deal with the destruction wrought by colonisation can begin. Many Maori women are forced to work both outside and in the home, while others are not so fortunate as to find paid employment at all. Often isolated from the support of whanau, both physically and culturally, Maori women are particularly vulnerable to overwork, ill-health, and domestic violence. Whanau, or extended family, is an important concept to the Maori people. The consequence of assimilationist policies has not simply been the perpetuation of the but the near-destruction of the Maori social fabric, and its replacement with a set of values and philosophies, Maori law.
The youth of the Maori culture seem to have strong
relationships with their mothers, who serve as a buffer for their more distant
fathers. Thus, whether a Maori child is female or male, the majority develops
their perspective of gender roles through the maternal side. The young Maori
develop their individual independence on their own, since the Maori wife has
many responsibilities at home in addition to any employment they can obtain.
Many teenagers dabble with drugs and alcohol, and (unprotected) sex simply
because they have little guidance.
Maori men, previous to European integration, had always been
the backbone, the labor, the provider for their family. With the transition to
urban society and the rise in unemployment, their biology hasn’t adapted to the
differences in the labor requirement. Many Maori women are left to pick up the
slack, keeping up the home and seeking out less physically strenuous employment
to increase the opportunity for success of her family unit.
The narrator in “The Blessed Curse” would probably either be
avoided or create discomfort among residents in today’s California culture.
First impressions would be difficult, most likely, and then once relationships
developed she would be more widely accepted.
Subsistence
