The Systematisation of Tradition: Maori Culture as a Strategic Resource

In this article I discuss the systematisation of Maori tradition in New Zealand during the 1970s and 1980s. More particularly, my focus is on the politicisation and rationalisation of Maori tradition within the New Zealand state, these processes occurring partly in response to calls by Maori leaders for a dismantling of colonial and monocultural structures in New Zealand and reactive objectifications of Maori tradition which challenged the legitimacy of the post-colonial state administration. I begin with a consideration of the main objectives towards which the systematisation of tradition has been directed over the past two decades, and I examine the way in which priorities have shifted in response to reactive politicisations of ethnic identity. I then draw upon a number of specific examples to illustrate the ethnicisation and rationalisation of Maori tradition as aspects of the systematisation process within the New Zealand state.     

The Traditionalisation of the Maori Meeting House

By focusing on two successive phases in the traditionalisation of the Maori meeting house — exhibition and aestheticisation in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and standardisation and tribalisation during the 1930s and 1940s — I seek to illustrate how the diverse projects of national identity, tourist marketing, ethnology and state-directed rural development converged to displace meeting houses out of time. I argue that while the short-term effect of this displacement was to suppress developing traditions of oppositional Maori agency this was not the case in the longer term, nor was it always the intention of those engaged in the process.     

Patterns of dental wear in the early Maori dentition

The levels of tooth wear were surveyed in 50 pre‐contact Maori skulls (23 of them female) from New Zealand. In addition to a generalized tooth wear index, we evaluated occlusal wear for erosion and abrasion. Occlusal microwear was also investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and, finally, the occlusal slope was determined at the level of the first molar teeth. The general pattern of wear was one of severe occlusal reduction with no significant differences between males and females. Both silicone impressions and SEM views confirmed a large component (30%) of erosion. While most individuals had flat wear planes, 33% of males and 44% of females showed reversed Monson's curves. Accentuated Monson's curves were found in 23.8% of males. While these results confirm early studies of the excessive wear experienced by pre‐contact Maori, our study shows for the first time that erosion played a significant role in the dental wear of these people. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Periapical lesions and dental wear in the early Maori

Dental wear and intrabony lesions were evaluated in a sample of 225 skulls (136 male) of pre‐contact New Zealand Maoris. The degree and direction of surface wear was scored according to the method of Molnar ( Molnar 1971 . Human tooth wear, tooth function and cultural variability. American Journal of Physical Anthropology34: 175–190) and revealed severe surface loss in both males and females with horizontal wear being the dominant pattern (62.4% male, 57.5% female). The width of coronal tissue above the pulp chamber, as well as the maximum depth and width of periapical lesions, was measured from both standard radiographs and digital images. The high prevalence of periapical pathology in the Maori underlined the extreme nature of dental wear in these people. It is postulated that this degree of tooth loss may be attributable to a change in diet from large birds to marine‐dependence, the introduction of the kumara to New Zealand, dental erosion and finally, to the excessive masticatory forces exerted by a robust facial complex on normally sized teeth. Fenestrated lesions were highly prevalent (83% of skulls) and were centered mostly on the maxilla, with an even distribution among tooth classes. The finding of periapical lesions in teeth with minimal observable wear was attributed to traumatic occlusion. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Maori Hapu as a Whole Way of Struggle: 1840s–50s Before the Land Wars

Research in Maori land history, burgeoning under the influence of the Waitangi Tribunal since the mid-1980s, promises a better understanding of the history of Maori kinship as well as New Zealand political economy. It has often been merely assumed, for instance, that contemporary hapu are a (or the) traditional form. I argue that Maori kinship and especially hapu or their equivalent need to be better understood in historical perspective. This essay examines some evidence and issues arising from the first few decades of colonisation before the land wars of the 1860s.     

Visiting Tieke Kāainga: the Authenticity of a Maori Welcome

ABSTRACT Whanganui National Park is one of New Zealand's leading tourist attractions. Tieke Kainga (Tieke settlement) is a Department of Conservation camp site in the middle reaches of the river that was occupied in the mid‐1990s by members of Tamahaki an indigenous group who claim that the land was taken from them illegally. Although a modus vivendi currently exists whereby the Department and Maori group co manage the site, Tamahaki's struggle for exclusive ownership of it continues. Part of the strategy they adopted to solidify their claim involves welcoming tourists and government officials to Tieke Kāinga in a manner that accords with Maori tradition. Such welcomes establish dramatically that Tamahaki own Tieke and that the guests formally acknowledge by their participation in the performance that they are visitors. This paper questions the authenticity of the welcomes performed there and concludes that they are real for good reason. Authentic Maori welcomes solidify Tamahaki's occupation of Tieke and broadcast the morality of their claim to the site.     

Identification of ancient starch grains from the tribe Triticeae in the North China Plain

Both macrofossil and microfossil plant remains from the grass family (Poaceae) have been recovered from Neolithic and historic sites in China. Basing our work on the plant taxa that were previously recovered, we analyzed the economically significant genera for modern starch grain analysis with a focus on the important tribe Triticeae. Modern starch grains from the tribe Triticeae were compared with those from other grasses, and criteria for identification were determined. In total, 38 species within 28 genera, 13 tribes and 4 subfamilies were selected for analysis. Results demonstrate that starch grains from members of the tribe Triticeae are discernible from those of other tribes by their distinctive lenticular morphologies and surficial pressure craters. A dichotomous key covering 10 species within 7 genera of the Triticeae was created, thus allowing identification of members of the tribe to the level of genus. Application of the dichotomous key to the ancient starch assemblage recovered from lithic tools excavated from the early Neolithic site of Donghulin demonstrates that plants from the genera Hordeum and Agropyron were exploited alongside millets at this site.