Mythology maori

The ethnolinguistic New Zealand one generally distinguishes in the oral corpus maori two types of accounts: accounts concerned with the myth and crowned and those concerning the tradition, first putting in scene the atua (Term generally translated by " dieux"), others the tupuna (ancestors). This caesura is not however always as clear as it does not appear to with it. When they settled in New Zealand, Maori brought various islands in which they were originating, a certain number of accounts which they adapted to their new environment and developed. By this skew, those will undergo what we could called a process of " mythologisation" , process related to the flexibility which orality allows.

Sources of the 19th century

Missionaries

Very few writings concerning the oral literature maori were consigned in the first years following the arrival Europeans. The missionaries on the occasion to obtain a great number of information but failed to seize the range of it, in particular because of their weak knowledge of the language maori. The majority of the missionaries who had a command of the language were moreover sometimes intolerant towards these beliefs than they qualified " puériles" or d'" work of Malin". Richard Taylor in the neighborhoods of the rivers Taranaki and Wanganui, J.F. Wohlers on the island of the south and William Colenso, who lived in bay of the Islands and bay of Hawke, were the rare exceptions which did not share this point of view. " The writings of these men are among the best sources on the legends of the areas in which they have travaillé".

Other collectors

During years 1840, Edward Shortland, Sir George Grey and other people not missionaries started to collect information on the myths and the traditions. At that time, much of Maori were well-read men and the collected data were in general consigned by the maori themselves in desz handwritten books. The novel methods do not seem to have had impact significant on the style and the contents of the stories. The genealogies, the songs and the narrations were written in integrality as if they were simply recited or sung. Several of these manuscripts were published and the scholars have access to a great quantity of references. They contain multiple versions of mythological major cycle known in the remainder of Polynesia. Most of best given is in two works: Nga Mahi has nga Tupuna (" Exploits of the ancêtres"), collected by Sir George Grey under the name of Polynesian Mythology ; and Old story of Maori in six volumes, published by John White.

Various forms of legends

There exist three dominant forms of expression in the literature oral examination of Maori and the Polynesians: prose, poetry and the genealogical account.

The genealogical account

The recitation of genealogies ( whakapapa ) was particularly well developed in the oral literature of Maori, where it fulfilled various functions the traditional accounts. First of all, it was used to provide a kind of temporal scale which unified all the myths, the traditions and the history maori. That connected the people to the gods and to the legendary heroes. By quoting the adapted genealogical line, the narrator underlined his connection with the characters whose exploits were told. It is this connection which gave to the narrator his legitimacy with speaking as of its famous ancestors. " In the genealogies of the cosmogenèse, which will be described later, the genealogical account proves to be a genuine literary form. What seems to be only one simple enumeration of names, being is makes of it an encrypted report of the evolution of Univers".

Collection of the myths

According to Biggs, the principal body of Maori mythology develops according to three units or cycles, which are:

  • cosmogony, reporting the origins of the gods and the men
    • Rangi and Papa
    • Hine-ui-you-pō
  • the whole of the myths Māui
    • Māui
    • Irawaru
    • Tinirau and Kae
  • the whole of the myths Tāwhaki
    • Tāwhaki
    • Wahieroa
    • Rātā
    • Matuku-tangotango
    • Tūwhakararo
    • Whakatau

Traditions

Collection of the traditions

Traditions of discovered and the origins