166
10 Studying the History of Spice Island Migration Through Cultural Diffusion
the indigenous cultural patterns and those imported from Eastern Polynesia is
perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the story of Tamatea-ariki-nui, Captain of
the Takitimu canoe. This canoe belonged to the last migration fleet to reach New
Zealand. There were no women aboard this sacred canoe, whose role was to bring an
ark of spiritual resources to New Zealand, both in the sacred objects and god-sticks
carried aboard and in the persons of the three powerful priests chosen as navigators
for the voyage and entrusted with the task of setting up three whare wananga, or
schools of learning, in the new land, to ensure the handing on of traditional knowledge to their descendants. With women forbidden a place on this sacred canoe, the
men aboard the Takitimu had no alternative but to choose wives from amongst the
indigenous peoples.
The Captain, Tamatea-ariki-nui, familiar with the old matrilineal and matrilocal
patterns, effectively superseded in Tahiti, appropriately married a chieftainess, the
leader of her tribe, seeking through marriage to her to secure her mana and land
rights for his children. What followed for Tamatea was a form of personal disintegration. He could not survive the loss of role, rights and status he had held as
a male chief in Tahiti. He found he had moved into a world where he felt there
was no place for him, no role as husband to the chieftainess that was comparable in status or power with the role he had held as a chief in Tahiti. His loss of
mana induced what might be described as a psychosomatic suicide. He stayed alive
just long enough to see his son born, his line secured through his wife’s mana,
and then died.
10.3 Studying Prehistory when there is a Paucity or Absence
of Material Evidence
In places such as New Zealand and Hawaii, where tectonic activity, recurrent
tsunamis and erosion can so readily destroy or bury early material evidence, study
of non-material evidence may well be the most reliable way of documenting prehistory. The lack of material evidence, especially for the very early settlements of
both New Zealand and Hawaii, recorded in traditional histories, is a problem. But
the lack of material evidence, in fact, poses problems for most of Polynesia. Patrick
Kirch and Roger Green note that “it is sobering to know that fully 80 percent of
the reconstructed Ancestral Polynesian artifact array is missing from our archaeological assemblages” [4]. In Part II we seek new ways of uncovering the long
prehistory we claim for New Zealand. We undertake a long and complex study
of New Zealand’s early prehistory and palaeodemography using new approaches
to the study of existing material evidence and non-material evidence. To suggest
the possibilities inherent in these new approaches, we make Hawaii our focus in
the remaining part of this chapter and suggest ways of seeking evidence from both
material and non-material sources for both the first- and second-wave Spice Island
colonizations of Hawaii recorded in oral tradition.
10 Studying the History of Spice Island Migration Through Cultural Diffusion
the indigenous cultural patterns and those imported from Eastern Polynesia is
perhaps nowhere more obvious than in the story of Tamatea-ariki-nui, Captain of
the Takitimu canoe. This canoe belonged to the last migration fleet to reach New
Zealand. There were no women aboard this sacred canoe, whose role was to bring an
ark of spiritual resources to New Zealand, both in the sacred objects and god-sticks
carried aboard and in the persons of the three powerful priests chosen as navigators
for the voyage and entrusted with the task of setting up three whare wananga, or
schools of learning, in the new land, to ensure the handing on of traditional knowledge to their descendants. With women forbidden a place on this sacred canoe, the
men aboard the Takitimu had no alternative but to choose wives from amongst the
indigenous peoples.
The Captain, Tamatea-ariki-nui, familiar with the old matrilineal and matrilocal
patterns, effectively superseded in Tahiti, appropriately married a chieftainess, the
leader of her tribe, seeking through marriage to her to secure her mana and land
rights for his children. What followed for Tamatea was a form of personal disintegration. He could not survive the loss of role, rights and status he had held as
a male chief in Tahiti. He found he had moved into a world where he felt there
was no place for him, no role as husband to the chieftainess that was comparable in status or power with the role he had held as a chief in Tahiti. His loss of
mana induced what might be described as a psychosomatic suicide. He stayed alive
just long enough to see his son born, his line secured through his wife’s mana,
and then died.
10.3 Studying Prehistory when there is a Paucity or Absence
of Material Evidence
In places such as New Zealand and Hawaii, where tectonic activity, recurrent
tsunamis and erosion can so readily destroy or bury early material evidence, study
of non-material evidence may well be the most reliable way of documenting prehistory. The lack of material evidence, especially for the very early settlements of
both New Zealand and Hawaii, recorded in traditional histories, is a problem. But
the lack of material evidence, in fact, poses problems for most of Polynesia. Patrick
Kirch and Roger Green note that “it is sobering to know that fully 80 percent of
the reconstructed Ancestral Polynesian artifact array is missing from our archaeological assemblages” [4]. In Part II we seek new ways of uncovering the long
prehistory we claim for New Zealand. We undertake a long and complex study
of New Zealand’s early prehistory and palaeodemography using new approaches
to the study of existing material evidence and non-material evidence. To suggest
the possibilities inherent in these new approaches, we make Hawaii our focus in
the remaining part of this chapter and suggest ways of seeking evidence from both
material and non-material sources for both the first- and second-wave Spice Island
colonizations of Hawaii recorded in oral tradition.