16.14 From Myth to Prehistory
281
16.14 From Myth to Prehistory
The integration of the historical and mythological in the tales of Maui the Navigator
owes much to the suggestiveness and metaphorical power of the Maori language. It
also depends on a world view which finds richness and power in fusions of different levels of reality at significant moments in tribal history. Such fusions are seen
to draw and harness mana from the great deeds of ancestors and from the gods
and demigods themselves, whose power and mythical deeds the tribal heroes and
ancestors re-enact and re-create.
Reading oral traditions with cultural awareness takes us from myth to prehistory. In traditional histories historical information is not always obvious. It may
lie beneath the surface, encoded in myth, metaphor and in the roots of the Maori
language itself. The stories nevertheless provide a window on a past whose very
existence is denied by late settlement theorists or by those who dismiss all such
traditional tales as pure invention. For those who deny a factual basis for tradition,
there is no Maui angered by the stupidity of the people he fished up along with the
North Island. There is no chieftainess at Orokoroko; there are no dogs barking, no
children playing, no men fishing in the bay when Maui arrives. The people of Kui,
whom Maui left in the North Island to safeguard his land rights, were not found there
750 years later by Nukutawhiti as tradition claims; the 1,200-year-long sequence of
colonizing descendants of Maui cannot exist either. By denying tradition, history is
impoverished.
Archaeologists are concerned with material evidence, evidence that can be subjected to scientific analysis. They seek the hard core certainties of science. The kind
of evidence to be found in tradition is implicit and subtle. Its insights belong to
a different domain. Carefully stratified artefacts can open a window on a past but
not with the power and detail of traditional story, which can bring to life personalities dead for 2,000 years. The human focus of traditional history stands in marked
contrast to the artefactual focus of archaeology.
The traditional account of Maui’s voyage to New Zealand establishes that he
travelled by a known ocean road. It is clear that knowledge of the ocean road that
Maui followed to New Zealand had been preserved in his homeland over the 1,500
years that lie between his visit and the first settlement of New Zealand by the firstwave colonists of Lapita times.
The preservation of knowledge over long stretches of time – in this case the
preservation of knowledge of the current-driven migration route to New Zealand –
through cold periods lasting more than half a millennium during which that knowledge could not be used suggests the effectiveness of Polynesian oral tradition. It
suggests too a remarkable social and cultural stability, capable of supporting for
millennia social systems designed to ensure the passing on of knowledge from
adept to apprentice in every area of knowledge. Knowledge and opportunity belong
together. Opportunity increases the chances of tribal survival. Without the knowledge of ocean roads passed on systematically and securely, the opportunity for a
tribe to migrate safely in a time of crisis or defeat might be lost. At every level,
from making fire to obstetrics, from reading winds and swell at sea to knowing how
281
16.14 From Myth to Prehistory
The integration of the historical and mythological in the tales of Maui the Navigator
owes much to the suggestiveness and metaphorical power of the Maori language. It
also depends on a world view which finds richness and power in fusions of different levels of reality at significant moments in tribal history. Such fusions are seen
to draw and harness mana from the great deeds of ancestors and from the gods
and demigods themselves, whose power and mythical deeds the tribal heroes and
ancestors re-enact and re-create.
Reading oral traditions with cultural awareness takes us from myth to prehistory. In traditional histories historical information is not always obvious. It may
lie beneath the surface, encoded in myth, metaphor and in the roots of the Maori
language itself. The stories nevertheless provide a window on a past whose very
existence is denied by late settlement theorists or by those who dismiss all such
traditional tales as pure invention. For those who deny a factual basis for tradition,
there is no Maui angered by the stupidity of the people he fished up along with the
North Island. There is no chieftainess at Orokoroko; there are no dogs barking, no
children playing, no men fishing in the bay when Maui arrives. The people of Kui,
whom Maui left in the North Island to safeguard his land rights, were not found there
750 years later by Nukutawhiti as tradition claims; the 1,200-year-long sequence of
colonizing descendants of Maui cannot exist either. By denying tradition, history is
impoverished.
Archaeologists are concerned with material evidence, evidence that can be subjected to scientific analysis. They seek the hard core certainties of science. The kind
of evidence to be found in tradition is implicit and subtle. Its insights belong to
a different domain. Carefully stratified artefacts can open a window on a past but
not with the power and detail of traditional story, which can bring to life personalities dead for 2,000 years. The human focus of traditional history stands in marked
contrast to the artefactual focus of archaeology.
The traditional account of Maui’s voyage to New Zealand establishes that he
travelled by a known ocean road. It is clear that knowledge of the ocean road that
Maui followed to New Zealand had been preserved in his homeland over the 1,500
years that lie between his visit and the first settlement of New Zealand by the firstwave colonists of Lapita times.
The preservation of knowledge over long stretches of time – in this case the
preservation of knowledge of the current-driven migration route to New Zealand –
through cold periods lasting more than half a millennium during which that knowledge could not be used suggests the effectiveness of Polynesian oral tradition. It
suggests too a remarkable social and cultural stability, capable of supporting for
millennia social systems designed to ensure the passing on of knowledge from
adept to apprentice in every area of knowledge. Knowledge and opportunity belong
together. Opportunity increases the chances of tribal survival. Without the knowledge of ocean roads passed on systematically and securely, the opportunity for a
tribe to migrate safely in a time of crisis or defeat might be lost. At every level,
from making fire to obstetrics, from reading winds and swell at sea to knowing how