16.10 Evidence for an Early First Settlement
277
16.10 Evidence for an Early First Settlement from Technological
Impoverishment and Divergence
The 1,500 years between a Lapita first settlement and Maui’s visit would not only
be adequate to account for linguistic divergence, but also be long enough to bring
about the technological impoverishment of the descendants of first Lapita colonists
in New Zealand that aroused Maui’s anger. Technologies are rapidly lost when their
usefulness declines and they become irrelevant in new conditions. For example,
the Chatham Islanders lost the art of cloth-making when they adopted sealskins
for clothing. Lapita-age colonists in New Zealand would have had to assume a
settled hunter/gatherer mode of existence early in their history, given the sudden
descent, 400 years after first settlement, of the coldest period in 6,000 years. The
Japanese taro, pre-adapted to higher latitudes, seems to have survived the cold but
it is unlikely that any tropical plants they may have brought with them would have
survived. Because so few traditional foods could be translocated to New Zealand,
Lapita colonists would have been unable to rely on an agricultural base as tropical
island colonists could. Their hunter/gatherer way of life might well have seemed
primitive to Maui, the New Zealand settlers little better than “wild men of the
woods”.
A second similarity in the account of Toi’s and Maui’s visits lies in the claims
by Toi’s descendants that the indigenous peoples he encountered were technologically backward and culturally inferior. Again the perceived divergences in cultural
practices and prerogatives in New Zealand mark a long previous history for the
indigenous tribes of New Zealand and a long isolation cutting them off from cultural
and technological developments that had occurred in tropical Polynesia.
Yet, as a counter to the recorded view of Toi and his men about the cultural
and racial inferiority of the indigenous peoples, it is noteworthy that one of the
first moves of Toi was to build a pa, Kapu-te-rangi, in imitation of the indigenous
defensive structures. This step was militarily vital given the small number of the
newly arrived immigrants who had moved into an already well-populated land. Pa
existed in Vitu Levu in Fiji and a few stone-walled defensive structures have been
found in Rapa, but they are said to have been unknown in Eastern Polynesia at the
time of Toi.
Not only did Toi adopt the local practice of building a pa, but he immediately
adopted some of the local weapons used for attacking and defending pa. Elsdon
Best comments:
It is distinctly stated in Maori tradition that the huata, the hoeroa, and the kurutai were
Maruiwi [indigenous] weapons, and that they were adopted by the Maori. The first of these
is a very long spear, in some cases 20 ft. in length, pointed at one end and having a knob at
the other. It was used principally in defending and attacking fortified places. The hoeroais
the curiously curved weapon made from whale’s bone that is said to have been sometimes
thrown at an adversary and recovered by means of a cord. It is also known as a tatu paraoa
and paraoa-roa. The kurutai is a short striking-weapon of stone, in form something like
a wahaika, and of which specimens are seen in the Dominion Museum. These weapons
appear to have been found at the Chatham Islands, and some are reported from the South
Island. . .Maruiwi are also said to have used throwing-spears, a form of fighting-implement
277
16.10 Evidence for an Early First Settlement from Technological
Impoverishment and Divergence
The 1,500 years between a Lapita first settlement and Maui’s visit would not only
be adequate to account for linguistic divergence, but also be long enough to bring
about the technological impoverishment of the descendants of first Lapita colonists
in New Zealand that aroused Maui’s anger. Technologies are rapidly lost when their
usefulness declines and they become irrelevant in new conditions. For example,
the Chatham Islanders lost the art of cloth-making when they adopted sealskins
for clothing. Lapita-age colonists in New Zealand would have had to assume a
settled hunter/gatherer mode of existence early in their history, given the sudden
descent, 400 years after first settlement, of the coldest period in 6,000 years. The
Japanese taro, pre-adapted to higher latitudes, seems to have survived the cold but
it is unlikely that any tropical plants they may have brought with them would have
survived. Because so few traditional foods could be translocated to New Zealand,
Lapita colonists would have been unable to rely on an agricultural base as tropical
island colonists could. Their hunter/gatherer way of life might well have seemed
primitive to Maui, the New Zealand settlers little better than “wild men of the
woods”.
A second similarity in the account of Toi’s and Maui’s visits lies in the claims
by Toi’s descendants that the indigenous peoples he encountered were technologically backward and culturally inferior. Again the perceived divergences in cultural
practices and prerogatives in New Zealand mark a long previous history for the
indigenous tribes of New Zealand and a long isolation cutting them off from cultural
and technological developments that had occurred in tropical Polynesia.
Yet, as a counter to the recorded view of Toi and his men about the cultural
and racial inferiority of the indigenous peoples, it is noteworthy that one of the
first moves of Toi was to build a pa, Kapu-te-rangi, in imitation of the indigenous
defensive structures. This step was militarily vital given the small number of the
newly arrived immigrants who had moved into an already well-populated land. Pa
existed in Vitu Levu in Fiji and a few stone-walled defensive structures have been
found in Rapa, but they are said to have been unknown in Eastern Polynesia at the
time of Toi.
Not only did Toi adopt the local practice of building a pa, but he immediately
adopted some of the local weapons used for attacking and defending pa. Elsdon
Best comments:
It is distinctly stated in Maori tradition that the huata, the hoeroa, and the kurutai were
Maruiwi [indigenous] weapons, and that they were adopted by the Maori. The first of these
is a very long spear, in some cases 20 ft. in length, pointed at one end and having a knob at
the other. It was used principally in defending and attacking fortified places. The hoeroais
the curiously curved weapon made from whale’s bone that is said to have been sometimes
thrown at an adversary and recovered by means of a cord. It is also known as a tatu paraoa
and paraoa-roa. The kurutai is a short striking-weapon of stone, in form something like
a wahaika, and of which specimens are seen in the Dominion Museum. These weapons
appear to have been found at the Chatham Islands, and some are reported from the South
Island. . .Maruiwi are also said to have used throwing-spears, a form of fighting-implement