10.2 The Preservation of Matrilineal Structures in New Zealand
165
and sister’s child that are absent in Eastern Polynesia, though they have survived
in the Lapita colonies of Western Polynesia. Burrows’ list of the cultural traits that
New Zealand shared with Western Polynesia is scarcely surprising if New Zealand,
like Western Polynesia, was settled directly from the Spice Islands before 1000 BC.
By contrast, in the light of a claimed late settlement for New Zealand from Eastern
Polynesia, this list of shared cultural traits appears anomalous.
For a maritime trading people, to defend such a rich possession as the Spice
Islands must have posed enormous problems and goes far to explain why the ancestral Spice Island culture was matrilineal and matrilocal. Traders would be away
for long periods at sea. Jealous neighbours must have attempted to seize the Spice
Islands many times in the 500 years from the first archaeological evidence we have
of cloves being traded internationally from the Spice Islands to Terqa, nearly 4,000
years ago, to the possibly forced migrations of the so-called Lapita peoples into the
Bismarcks and Solomons 200 years later.
If New Zealand was a Lapita-age colony, it is not surprising that, as we shall see
in Chapter 16, Maui the Navigator found a chieftainess at Orokoroko, Palliser Bay
in the North Island of New Zealand, for Per Hage suggests that Lapita society was
matrilineal: “We conclude, on the basis of historical-linguistic, ethnographic and
cross-cultural evidence, that descent in Proto Oceanic society was matrilineal and
residence matrilocal or matri-avunculocal” [3].
There is indeed strong evidence for the persistence of these Lapita social structures in New Zealand 1,300 years after Maui’s visit. It could be claimed that the
social history of prehistoric New Zealand was shaped by the premise that, although
chiefly power might be passed from father to son, land rights were by matrilineal
descent. Men arriving in New Zealand in migrating canoes sought tangata whenua
(indigenous) wives, not just because there were fewer women than men on migration canoes, and not merely to protect themselves against attack and extinction
when their numbers were small, through forming tribal alliances through marriage.
Arriving in small numbers, migrants were unable to seize land by conquest. With
land rights in New Zealand based on matrilineal descent, the only way for them
to ensure the land rights of their descendants was through taking preferably highstatus indigenous wives and securing the future of their line through their wife’s
mana (prestige).
Per Hage, studying the Austronesian matrilineal heritage of Polynesians, shows
how over time the ancient pattern of matrilineal land inheritance in tropical
Polynesia was overlaid by a new emphasis on warrior status and conquest of
land through warfare. This seems especially to have been the case during the
long period of conflict over land and resources during and after the Medieval
Climatic Optimum. But even in tropical Polynesia the pattern of marriage alliances
between the conquerors and high status women amongst the defeated suggests
both the matrilineal origins of tropical Polynesian societies and the persisting influence of the matrilineal social structure when it came to confirming the land rights
of conquerors.
Late Eastern Polynesian migrants brought the changing emphasis on warrior status and land rights by conquest with them to New Zealand. The clash between
165
and sister’s child that are absent in Eastern Polynesia, though they have survived
in the Lapita colonies of Western Polynesia. Burrows’ list of the cultural traits that
New Zealand shared with Western Polynesia is scarcely surprising if New Zealand,
like Western Polynesia, was settled directly from the Spice Islands before 1000 BC.
By contrast, in the light of a claimed late settlement for New Zealand from Eastern
Polynesia, this list of shared cultural traits appears anomalous.
For a maritime trading people, to defend such a rich possession as the Spice
Islands must have posed enormous problems and goes far to explain why the ancestral Spice Island culture was matrilineal and matrilocal. Traders would be away
for long periods at sea. Jealous neighbours must have attempted to seize the Spice
Islands many times in the 500 years from the first archaeological evidence we have
of cloves being traded internationally from the Spice Islands to Terqa, nearly 4,000
years ago, to the possibly forced migrations of the so-called Lapita peoples into the
Bismarcks and Solomons 200 years later.
If New Zealand was a Lapita-age colony, it is not surprising that, as we shall see
in Chapter 16, Maui the Navigator found a chieftainess at Orokoroko, Palliser Bay
in the North Island of New Zealand, for Per Hage suggests that Lapita society was
matrilineal: “We conclude, on the basis of historical-linguistic, ethnographic and
cross-cultural evidence, that descent in Proto Oceanic society was matrilineal and
residence matrilocal or matri-avunculocal” [3].
There is indeed strong evidence for the persistence of these Lapita social structures in New Zealand 1,300 years after Maui’s visit. It could be claimed that the
social history of prehistoric New Zealand was shaped by the premise that, although
chiefly power might be passed from father to son, land rights were by matrilineal
descent. Men arriving in New Zealand in migrating canoes sought tangata whenua
(indigenous) wives, not just because there were fewer women than men on migration canoes, and not merely to protect themselves against attack and extinction
when their numbers were small, through forming tribal alliances through marriage.
Arriving in small numbers, migrants were unable to seize land by conquest. With
land rights in New Zealand based on matrilineal descent, the only way for them
to ensure the land rights of their descendants was through taking preferably highstatus indigenous wives and securing the future of their line through their wife’s
mana (prestige).
Per Hage, studying the Austronesian matrilineal heritage of Polynesians, shows
how over time the ancient pattern of matrilineal land inheritance in tropical
Polynesia was overlaid by a new emphasis on warrior status and conquest of
land through warfare. This seems especially to have been the case during the
long period of conflict over land and resources during and after the Medieval
Climatic Optimum. But even in tropical Polynesia the pattern of marriage alliances
between the conquerors and high status women amongst the defeated suggests
both the matrilineal origins of tropical Polynesian societies and the persisting influence of the matrilineal social structure when it came to confirming the land rights
of conquerors.
Late Eastern Polynesian migrants brought the changing emphasis on warrior status and land rights by conquest with them to New Zealand. The clash between