286
17 The Mythological Context
Tree worship is known to have been practised in Lapita colonies in Island Melanesia
and Western Polynesia, the distribution of the sacred Benjamin fig, the focus for tree
worship in these colonies, matching the distribution of Lapita pottery [1].
The oral traditions that tell of the coming of the kumara (sweet potato) to New
Zealand embody concepts whose roots can be traced to the Lapita homeland. The
story has two parts. The first describes the voyage of the Tahitian brothers, Hoaki
and Taukata, to visit their sister Kanioro in New Zealand. It describes how they introduced the kumara to the indigenous tribe of Te Haapu-one-one, the tribe into which
Kanioro had married. The brothers had carried kumara with them in dried form as
food for their voyage. The instant enthusiasm of the chief, Tama-ki-Hikurangi, keen
to obtain this new food for his tribe, was such that he persuaded Taukata to help
him build a canoe and to act as its navigator on a trip to Hawaiki to fetch kumara
tubers. The building and naming of the canoe and the listing of its crew belong to
this part of the story, which is concerned with physically bringing the kumara to
New Zealand.
The second part of the story, of equal or greater importance for Maori, describes
how the spirit of the kumara was compelled to stay in New Zealand instead of returning to Hawaiki (the homeland). This part of the story tells how Hoaki remained in
New Zealand at his brother’s insistence and of Taukata’s instruction to the returning
chief, upon reaching Hawaiki, that on arriving back in New Zealand he must sacrifice Hoaki and plant his body in the kumara field. His sacrificial death, Taukata
explained, was needed to ensure the spiritual acclimatization of the kumara to
the new land. Tradition notes that every year thereafter at planting time, Hoaki’s
skull was carried to the kumara plantation to ensure fertility and to ensure that the
kumara’s spirit stayed in New Zealand.
The use of human sacrifice to ensure the fertility of the land and the success of
crops is as old as agriculture and, worldwide, often at the heart of the religious practices of early agricultural communities. Human sacrifices to ensure fertility were
widespread in Eastern Indonesia till quite recent times and often associated with
tree worship. The same association of human sacrifice with tree worship occurred
in Europe also.
That tree worship should arise in Eastern Indonesia is not surprising given the
dependence there on tree foods – coconut, bananas and especially sago and breadfruit. Oppenheimer shows that the diffusion of tree worship from the Spice Islands
to Europe followed ancient paths for land migration that are flagged with genetic as
well as cultural markers [2].
17.2 The People-Creating Tree or Tree of Life
The ancient totemic Creation myths from the Spice Islands of the people-creating
tree, the Tree of Life, can be seen as ancestral to European tree worship. They can
also be seen as an origin for worship of the sacred banyan tree in India and of the
Benjamin fig in Indonesia and Island Melanesia. Oppenheimer [3] shows the myth
17 The Mythological Context
Tree worship is known to have been practised in Lapita colonies in Island Melanesia
and Western Polynesia, the distribution of the sacred Benjamin fig, the focus for tree
worship in these colonies, matching the distribution of Lapita pottery [1].
The oral traditions that tell of the coming of the kumara (sweet potato) to New
Zealand embody concepts whose roots can be traced to the Lapita homeland. The
story has two parts. The first describes the voyage of the Tahitian brothers, Hoaki
and Taukata, to visit their sister Kanioro in New Zealand. It describes how they introduced the kumara to the indigenous tribe of Te Haapu-one-one, the tribe into which
Kanioro had married. The brothers had carried kumara with them in dried form as
food for their voyage. The instant enthusiasm of the chief, Tama-ki-Hikurangi, keen
to obtain this new food for his tribe, was such that he persuaded Taukata to help
him build a canoe and to act as its navigator on a trip to Hawaiki to fetch kumara
tubers. The building and naming of the canoe and the listing of its crew belong to
this part of the story, which is concerned with physically bringing the kumara to
New Zealand.
The second part of the story, of equal or greater importance for Maori, describes
how the spirit of the kumara was compelled to stay in New Zealand instead of returning to Hawaiki (the homeland). This part of the story tells how Hoaki remained in
New Zealand at his brother’s insistence and of Taukata’s instruction to the returning
chief, upon reaching Hawaiki, that on arriving back in New Zealand he must sacrifice Hoaki and plant his body in the kumara field. His sacrificial death, Taukata
explained, was needed to ensure the spiritual acclimatization of the kumara to
the new land. Tradition notes that every year thereafter at planting time, Hoaki’s
skull was carried to the kumara plantation to ensure fertility and to ensure that the
kumara’s spirit stayed in New Zealand.
The use of human sacrifice to ensure the fertility of the land and the success of
crops is as old as agriculture and, worldwide, often at the heart of the religious practices of early agricultural communities. Human sacrifices to ensure fertility were
widespread in Eastern Indonesia till quite recent times and often associated with
tree worship. The same association of human sacrifice with tree worship occurred
in Europe also.
That tree worship should arise in Eastern Indonesia is not surprising given the
dependence there on tree foods – coconut, bananas and especially sago and breadfruit. Oppenheimer shows that the diffusion of tree worship from the Spice Islands
to Europe followed ancient paths for land migration that are flagged with genetic as
well as cultural markers [2].
17.2 The People-Creating Tree or Tree of Life
The ancient totemic Creation myths from the Spice Islands of the people-creating
tree, the Tree of Life, can be seen as ancestral to European tree worship. They can
also be seen as an origin for worship of the sacred banyan tree in India and of the
Benjamin fig in Indonesia and Island Melanesia. Oppenheimer [3] shows the myth