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| ISBN-13: | 9781775581185 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Auckland University Press |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 480 |
| File size: | 19 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Maori Music
By Mervyn McLean
Auckland University Press
Copyright © 1996 Mervyn McLeanAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-77558-118-5
CHAPTER 1
SONG AND DANCE IN HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
THE NEW ZEALAND MAORI
POLYNESIAN ORIGINS
The Maori people are believed to have settled New Zealand from somewhere in Eastern Polynesia about 1000 years ago. Their immediate place of origin is still not known with the Society Islands, the Marquesas Islands and the Southern Cook Islands all as candidates. The ultimate origins of the Maori, in common with other Polynesian peoples, lie with remote Austronesian-speaking ancestors who began their migrations between 5 and 10 millennia ago, most likely from somewhere in Southeast Asia.
ADAPTATION AND CHANGE
The shift from a tropical environment to a temperate one required numerous adjustments and adaptations. Two periods are distinguished by archaeologists. A so-called Archaic period lasted until about AD 1350 in the North Island of New Zealand and about 200 years longer in the northernmost part of the South Island. Settlements at this time seem to have been seasonally occupied and typically undefended; the economy was based on fishing, gathering and, especially in the South Island, the hunting of a large flightless bird called the moa. Although Europeans were responsible for the most thoroughgoing destruction of indigenous forest in New Zealand, there is evidence of considerable modification of the landscape by the Maori before European colonisation began. The burning of large tracts of forest in the South Island and its replacement by tussock and fern is thought to have reduced moa to the point where continued hunting exterminated them. In the North Island the same occurred after extensive firing of forests for agriculture and to increase supplies of fern-root. It is possible that these changes contributed to the ushering in of the next phase of Maori culture. During the fourteenth century occurred an apparently abrupt transition to the Classic Maori phase as seen by Europeans two centuries later. By then, the moa was extinct, the climate was possibly less favourable, and the population, although low by European standards, had expanded to a point where there was fierce competition for resources. During this period warfare became endemic, as did customs associated with it. Archaeologically, the Classic phase is characterised by earthwork fortifications, increased use of storage pits for kuumara (sweet potato), and a greatly expanded inventory of artefacts. Amongst the latter were a standardised form of adze, new and improved fish-hooks, a variety of weapons and ornaments, and musical instruments such as flutes and shell trumpets.
SUBSISTENCE
Compared with the tropical homeland, New Zealand must have seemed inhospitable in many ways but offered much also by way of compensation. Covering most of the country were forests teeming with edible bird life, and the coastal fishing resources were superb. The climate was colder but there was an apparently inexhaustible supply of wood for housing and for firewood, and the indigenous harakeke or flax plant (Phormium tenax) was available as a replacement for tropical barkcloth and pandanus to make clothing such as the rain-cape, dress cloaks, kilts and belts. Of the tropical food plants, coconut, breadfruit and bananas could not be grown in New Zealand, and taro and yams did not yield well in colder conditions. Their place was taken by fern-root which had the disadvantage of requiring pounding to be edible. It was also very hard on human teeth and during the Classic phase, when fern-root became an essential element of diet, most adults as a consequence lost teeth before they were 25 years old, eventually losing all or most by the age of 40, by which time a person was old. The one familiar crop which remained a staple in New Zealand was the kuumara. But even this did not grow everywhere and a storage-pit technology had to be developed so that it could be kept between growing seasons without spoiling. As a treasured food, the kuumara assumed extraordinary significance in myth, legend and song, and elaborate rituals were observed during its cultivation. A famous oriori (song addressed to a child)6 tells of its coming to New Zealand. In the opening lines the crying of a child motivates his father to return to the ancestralhomeland Hawaiki to fetch the precious food:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In New Zealand, although fish and forest birds were abundant, there were few other sources of protein. Pigs, a domestic animal everywhere else in Polynesia, were either not brought from the homeland or failed to survive. The moa was long gone by the time Europeans came. It must have been a bird which used its feet to defend itself, as one song (McL 832) has been recorded about a man who was kicked by a moa. The dog (kurii) and the rat (kiore) were both brought by the Maori to New Zealand and both were eaten. Additionally dog-skin was used for clothing. The introduction of the rat to New Zealand is credited in legend to the Horouta canoe, one of the ancestral canoes said to have returned to Hawaiki for the kuumara. A different story is told by the singer of McL 1227, a karakia (incantation) which refers in its first line to the rat. The song is said to have been composed by Ruaanui, the captain of the Maamari canoe which landed at Hokianga and, like the Horouta, is credited with bringing rats to New Zealand. The karakia was for calling the rats back after Ruaanui had let them go. The rats are described as running round the window of the meeting house, Ohaki, at Ahipara. When he called them they came 'slipping and sliding down the banks'.
Other than the rat and the dog, the only source of animal protein for the Maori was human. Buck states that slaves or other persons were killed and eaten on special occasions such as the tattooing of a high chief's daughter, a chiefly marriage, or the funeral of a high chief. And he points out that the frequent battles which took place in New Zealand provided a perennial supply of human flesh. It should not be inferred, however, that human flesh was a primary, or even especially important, item of diet. The principle motive for cannibalism was revenge against enemies. A song type referring explicitly to it is the kaioraora (see later). Other songs also occasionally refer to it. According to the singers, McL 636, for example, is a lament for Terama Apakura, a cannibal who hunted for men and eventually ate his own niece. This crime was avenged by Tuuhourangi who killed Apakura and took his body to a place called Motutawa 'where they had a feast of him'.
LIFE SPAN
In a study of skeletal remains from archaeological sites, Houghton provides objective evidence of Maori life span in pre-European times. The results by modern standards are startling. At Wairau Bar (the best-known Archaic site) the average adult age at death was 28 years for men and 29 for women; the oldest individual was only a little over 40. During the Classic period it would seem that life span was not much greater. Houghton estimates that agile old men commented upon by Cook would, in fact, have been in their forties. As Davidson points out, such individuals would be respected elders, acknowledged as tribal experts, by the time they were about 35. If, as this evidence suggests, the Maori population was predominantly young, its noteworthy vigour and spirited aggression at the time of European contact can be better understood.
MATERIAL CULTURE
Houses
The spectacular whare whakairo or carved meeting house present in such numbers today is a late development. Houses seen by Cook and others at the time of first contact were relatively small and used mostly for sleeping, though Banks saw one at Tolaga Bay which was 30 feet (9m) long. Davidson points out that settlements in the eighteenth century were mostly too impermanent to warrant investment of labour in a fully carved house; nor, it would seem, were meetings customarily held in such houses. The carved house of today, which is the focal point of marae (meeting place) ceremonies at which most musical activity takes place, is a nineteenth-century elaboration of the earlier chiefs' dwelling house.
Tools and implements
Bone was used for fish-hooks, harpoon-heads and spear-heads as well as a variety of needles, pickers, awls, chisels and other implements. Chisels (whao) were mostly hafted and struck with wooden mallets. Cord drills (tuuwiri, porotiti) were used to drill holes in stone, bone and shell. Ground was loosened for cultivation with the digging stick (koo) and the hafted stone adze was the all important tool for tree felling and carpentry. Hand nets and seine nets (kupenga) for fishing were made from flax.
Weapons
All of the weapons used in Polynesia were present also in New Zealand except for the sling and the bow and arrow. The forms taken in New Zealand were, however, distinctive. Spears were not part of the Classic inventory but long stabbing spears (huata) and short throwing spears (tarerarera) are both said to have been used by the first settlers. The general name for a short club in New Zealand was patu or, if made from greenstone, mere. The patu was used primarily for thrusting. It was reportedly well adapted to striking under the angle of the jaw or between the ribs, for smashing in a temple or splitting off the top of a skull. Long clubs or wooden staff forms of weapon, principally the taiaha, tewhatewha and pouwhenua, had in common a combination of a blade for striking and a proximal point for stabbing. The operator could thrust with them as a spear and deliver a hefty blow with the butt in the fashion of a quarterstaff. The taiaha, with its elaborated carving, dog-hair and parrot-feather decoration and stylised out-thrust tongue expressive of defiance served also a ceremonial purpose as a status symbol for chiefs. Besides being used in battle, weapons were an essential adjunct to several forms of war dance (see later).
Food utensils
The New Zealand Maori had no tradition of pottery and, because neither the coconut nor bamboo grew in New Zealand, was forced to do without these as materials for use as kitchen utensils. Moreover, the absence of such tropical staples as coconut cream and taro-pudding rendered unnecessary specialised utensils such as graters, strainers, pounders and pounding tables. Wooden beaters and perhaps a water-worn rock as an anvil served for beating fern-root; gourds were used as containers; bowls were laboriously hewn from blocks of wood; and, according to Best, a few stone bowls were also fashioned. Stones for use in the earth oven (umu) were also part of the kitchen equipment, as good stones were kept and reused. For the remainder, says Best: 'A flake of obsidian or other stone served as a knife; a shell served as a fish-scaler; while the ever present [flax] basket served as a dish and a plate.' Food-bearing songs (hari kai or heriheri kai), performed while food was carried from its cooking place, are referred to later.
Canoes
In New Zealand, as in Polynesia at large, both rafts and canoes were used for transport. To cross lakes or for short journeys on safe inland waters, rafts were sometimes manufactured from raupoo bundles or from logs lashed together. For most journeys, however, canoes were usual. The type used was the single dugout, without outrigger. Dispensing with the outrigger was possible in New Zealand because of the availability of large trees which provided hulls wide enough for the canoe not to capsize. Types of Maori canoe, classified by size, are described briefly in the section on paddling songs.
PERSONAL DECORATION
Many early descriptions of the Maori haka or posture dance include information about the appearance of the performers. The men are often reported as wearing face or body paint of red ochre (kookoowai), either dry or mixed with oil. But it was not confined to the war dance or even to men, as women appear also to have used it routinely as a facial decoration. Banks complained in his journal of the results after a salutation or 'kiss from one of these fair savages' as 'wrote in most legible Characters on our noses'. Before conversion to Christianity, Maori men followed the Polynesian custom of wearing their hair long and tying it into a large topknot. Feathers were stuck into the topknot by their quills and a variety of wooden combs were also used for decoration. Other ornaments used by the Maori were ear pendants, the most favoured of which were either sharks' teeth or made from greenstone; cloak pins made from ivory, bone and sometimes shell or greenstone; and breast ornaments or pendants. Whales' teeth and sharks' teeth were used as pendants by both Archaic and Classic Maori, and the characteristic heitiki (greenstone pendant) came into use in the latter period. Both Cook and Banks saw them worn, and many were made from obsolete greenstone adzes after the introduction of metal tools in the nineteenth century. As will be seen, kooauau and nguru flutes were also customarily worn as a neck ornament.
VISUAL ART
In Polynesia, the principal forms of visual art were wood-carving, painting on tapa cloth and tattooing. New Zealand did not have tapa cloth, but in the Classic period painting was done on wood, mainly as rafter designs (koowhaiwhai). New Zealand also has a fine heritage of prehistoric rock drawings, found mostly in the limestone areas of Canterbury and North Otago in the South Island. The designs include dogs, birds (including moa), fish, human figures and mythical dragon-like creatures (taniwha). They are thought to have been drawn on hunting trips before the disappearance of the moa from these areas around AD 1200 to 1500.
A form of visual art without counterpart in Polynesia was a decorative style of upright lattice panel (tukutuku) used on the interior walls of meeting houses. Another local development was taaniko (finger weaving designs) on belts and the borders of clothing. Decorative designs were also worked into plaited baskets.
The pre-eminent Maori visual art in New Zealand was carving in wood on a huge variety of artefacts from canoes, ancestor figures and house structures to smaller objects such as ceremonial weapons, treasure boxes (waka huia) and flutes. An emphasis, unusual in Polynesia, on scroll and spiral ornamentation has led to speculation about connections between New Zealand and places as remote as China, South America and British Columbia. However, as both Buck and McEwen have pointed out, there are closer correspondences in the Marquesas Islands and Niue. Another perhaps more likely possibility is that the Maori emphasis on curvilinear patterns was a local development owing nothing to antecedents elsewhere.
Tattooing
Tattooing was a practically universal form of decoration in Polynesia, varying in degree from place to place. It is generally acknowledged to have reached a peak of development in the Marquesas Islands and in New Zealand where it was an emblem of chieftainship. In New Zealand, men were tattooed mostly on the face, buttocks and thighs and women on the lips and chin. Maori tattooing (moko) used a distinctive and very painful technique of chiselling the flesh with straight-edged blades; the pigment was either applied to the blade or afterwards rubbed into the cut. To distract the patient, songs called 'whakawai taanga moko' are said to have been sung, but unfortunately no eye-witness account has been found of them. Best glosses the term as 'beguiling' songs, and they are represented by Buddle and Colenso as sung by women. However, the one recorded song identified as a tattooing song (McL 368) is a form of karakia or incantation. The use of karakia is also attested by Tiripou Haerewa of Tuuhoe tribe, who recorded a number of songs (McL 773–82) in 1964 and was later photographed by Hastings photographer Allan Baldwin. She recalled her tattoo being done by the riverside, with her father chanting a karakia as the work was carried out. She told Baldwin that the pain was almost unbearable at times but subsided with her father's chanting.
In New Zealand the custom of tattooing men's faces led to the further custom of preserving the entire head of dead chiefs. Buck states that, because of the difficulty of transporting a whole body, chiefs who had died on campaign would have their heads brought home to be mourned over; conversely, the head of an enemy chief would be brought back so that he could be reviled in death by the widows and orphans he had created in life. Songs sung on these occasions would include kaioraora and tumoto (see later).
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Maori Music by Mervyn McLean. Copyright © 1996 Mervyn McLean. Excerpted by permission of Auckland University Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Title Page,Dedication,
Map,
Introduction,
BOOK 1: TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND DANCE,
SECTION 1: SONG AND DANCE STYLES,
Chapter 1: Song and dance in historical and social context,
Chapter 2: Recited song and dance styles,
Chapter 3: Sung song and dance styles,
Chapter 4: Game songs,
SECTION 2: MUSIC ETHNOGRAPHY,
Chapter 5: Musical instruments,
Chapter 6: Performance,
Chapter 7: Composition,
Chapter 8: Ownership,
Chapter 9: Learning and instruction,
SECTION 3: MUSIC STRUCTURE,
Chapter 10: Manner of singing,
Chapter 11: Scales,
Chapter 12: Melodic intervals,
Chapter 13: Rhythm, metre and tempo,
Chapter 14: Form,
Chapter 15: Song/text relationships,
Chapter 16: Summary of styles,
BOOK 2: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN MUSIC,
Chapter 17: Types of influence and change,
Chapter 18: Song loss,
Chapter 19: Hymnody,
Chapter 20: The modern genres,
Chapter 21: Cultural renaissance and neo-waiata style,
Appendices,
Notes,
References,
Index,
Copyright,