Ngā Tikanga Māori & Colonization, whenua and capitalism (Exam Readings)

What is the focus of the reading?

Traditional social structures and mechanisms of social control

What role does Whanau play in this reading?

Is the basic social unit, spans three generations, and is headed by the kaumatua and kuia (male and female elders)

The Kauta (Cooking shed)

Cooking and eating were done outdoors at a kauta because bringing food into the sleeping house (wharepuni) was a strict violation of tapu

The Hapu

The primary political and economic unit, as well as the main land-holding and territory-defending group led by a rangatira

Iwi

Largest social grouping, acting as a loose coalition of hapu that traditionally came together primarily for large-scale warfare or common defense under an ariki

What are the three dimensions of Tapu?

Sacredness, prohibition, and uncleanliness

Prohibited Sense

Applies to pursuits like carving (whakairo) where women and children were barred from approaching working tohunga

Unclean sense

Applies to blood. For example a tohunga ta moko was tapu in the unclean sense due to flowing blood; because of this, they were forbidden from touching food and had to be fed by an attendant

Tohunga Makutu

Being feared for casting deadly spells, tohunga makutu were tolerated as a “necessary evil” because they acted as a powerful mechanism for controlling human behavior

Twahaki Myth

Laid down the foundational axiom that the injunctions of superiors must be obeyed under pain of death. and that the penalty for breaking the law of tapu is death

Indigenous view

Whenua is viewed as a living ancestor, and uncommodified provider, and a core anchor of collective identity and living memory

Capitalism as a Tool of Colonization

Colonial project was not merely a physical theft of land but a systemic imposition of a Western capitalist framework that explicitly sought to transform whenua from a source of collective life into a market commodity to be individualistically owned, partitioned, bought, and sold for private profit.

Targeting Collective Ownership

Capitalism requires individual asset ownership, so colonial laws deliberately worked to dismantle the cooperative, collective economic strength of the hapū and iwi.

Individualization of Title

The individualization of land titles (primarily driven historically by the Native Land Court) replaced traditional collective custody with individual shares, making it vastly easier for settlers to buy out individuals and fracture tribal land bases.

Challenging Western Definitions

Importance of Māori reclaiming the right to self-definition and rejecting colonial definitions that confine indigenous knowledge to a subordinate place.

Legal Personhood of the Environment

Examples include granting legal personhood to geographic entities like Te Urewera, the Whanganui River, and Mount Taranaki. This shifts the law away from seeing nature as property/resources and back toward an indigenous relational cosmology.