Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatuanuku) - in the mythology of the Polynesian Maori people, the father-heaven and mother-earth, mentioned in the legend of the creation of the world.
Origin
There are many versions of the legends that tell about the origin and life of Rangi and Papa. According to the legend of the Ngai-tahu tribe of the South Island, Rangi is the son of Maku and his wife Ma-hora-nui-a-tea. Subsequently, Rangi, who had several wives, fathered many offspring, most of whom were deities. One of his consorts was Papa, the runaway wife of the sea god Tangaroa, who, angry at Rangi, wounded him in the thigh with a spear (Dixon 1971:11).
According to the second version, Rangi-potiki (probably meaning Rangi) was the son of Maku and Mahora-nui-a-rangi. Taking Papa as his wife, Rangi-potiki became the father of numerous deities. The Pope herself emerged from the primeval sea.
In other legends, there is no description of the origin of Rangi and Papa at all (Dixon 1971:12), but a detailed description is given of all Rangi's wives, of which there were six: Poko-ha-rua-te-po (Maori Poko-ha-rua-te- po; her children were Ha-nui-o-rangi, Ta-firi-ma-tea and a whole series of winds, rituals, spells, each of which was personified), Papa-tu-a-nu-ku (Maori Papa-tu -a-nu-ku; mother of Rehua, Tane, Paia, Tu, Rongo, Ru and other minor deities), Heke-heke-i-papa (Maori Heke-heke-i-papa; mother of Tama-nui-a-rangi and a number of other deities), Hotu-papa (Maori Hotu-papa) and two more wives.
Although the legends claim the existence of several wives, it was the Pope, mother earth, who played the primary role among the Maori.
Separation Rangi and Papa
Information about the creation of the world in Maori mythology was preserved in local prayers, or karakia (Maori karakia), which were passed down orally from generation to generation. According to them, before there was light, there was only night (Te Po Maori), before which, in turn, there was nothing but emptiness (Te Kore Maori). The night was infinitely long and infinitely dark:
The first light that existed was no more than a streak of light resembling a worm, and when the sun and moon were created there were no eyes and nothing to see them, not even kaitiaki (Maori kaitiaki) or patrons. . The beginning was created from nothing.
According to one of the Maori versions, Rangi (Maori Rangi), or father sky, and Papa (Maori Papa), or mother earth, were created from night and emptiness that existed in the darkness of chaos. Rangi, having fallen in love with Papa, descended to her from heaven, decorating her naked body with numerous plants and trees and creating various insects, fish and other living beings. Rangi then lay down on Papa, hugging her tightly. In the darkness between the bodies of Rangi and Papa, their male offspring subsequently settled, including numerous gods (Dixon 1971:36). The sky still lay on the ground, and no light penetrated between them. There were 12 heavens, and the lowest layer of them lay on the earth, making it barren. The land was covered with climbing plants and small weeds, and in the sea there was only black water, languid as night. The time when these things existed seemed endless.
Over time, the children of Rangi and Papa, exhausted by the ongoing darkness and confinement, came together to decide what needs to be done with their parents in order to be free. "Should we kill them, butcher them, or separate our father and mother?" they asked each other for a long time. In the end, Tumatauenga (Maori Tūmatauenga), the most violent of the offspring, the patron of war, said: “Good. Let's kill them."
But Tane (Maori Tāne), patron of the forest, replied: “No. It's better to separate them, and make it so that the Sky is high above us, and the Earth lies down here. Let's make Heaven alien to us, but let Earth stay close to us like our caring mother."
Many sons, including Tumatauenga, saw justice and wisdom in this decision and agreed with Tane. But the rest did not agree, including the patron of winds and storms, Tafirimatea (Maori Tawhirimatea), who was afraid that if his parents were separated, then his kingdom would be overthrown. So, at the time when all the sons gave their consent, Tafirimatea was silent and held his breath. The brothers discussed their decision for a long time. Towards the end of a period of time beyond the control of human consciousness, they decided that Papa and Rangi should be separated, and in turn they set about doing their work.
The first to start was Rongomatane (Maori Rongomatane), the patron saint of cultivated plants. He got up and tried to force the heavens and the earth apart. When Rongomatne did not succeed, Tangaroa (Maori Tangaroa), the patron of all the inhabitants of the sea, rose next. He also tried to separate his parents, but failed. Then he tried Haumia-tiketike (Maori Haumia-tiketike), the patron saint of all wild plants not cultivated by man, but also had no success. And then Tumatauenga (Maori Tūmatauenga), patron of war, jumped up. He made a notch in the tendon that binds heaven and earth, which caused bleeding. This is what gave life to the red soil of the sacred color. Nevertheless, even Tumatauenga, the most violent and ferocious of the brothers, with all his strength, could not separate his parents. And then came the turn of Tane (Maori Tane), the patron saint of forests. Slowly, slowly, like a kauri tree (New Zealand pine, up to 60 m long), Tane stood between heaven and earth. At first he tried to move them with his hands, but failed. And then he paused, and that pause lasted for an infinitely long time. After that, he leaned his shoulders on the Earth, and his feet on the Sky. And soon, although not quite soon, since the time was huge, Heaven and Earth began to recede from each other.
The children's parents screamed and asked them, "Why are you committing this crime, why do you want to kill your parents' love?"
Great Tane pushed with all the force, the one that was the force of growth. Far below him, he pressed the Earth. Far above him he pushed the Sky, and held it there. The tendon that connected them was severely stretched. Tumatauenga jumped up and hit the bonds that bound their parents, and blood gushed to the ground. Today it is kokowai (Maori kokowai), red ocher mixed with shark oil and used to paint the body and face, the sacred red earth that was created when the first blood was shed at the dawn of time.
When Rangi and Papa were separated, the space between them was filled with light, and various deities, people and other offspring were scattered all over the world, who had previously been in a dark space between their parents for a long time.
War between the gods
While most of Rangi's children and Papa agreed with the separation of their parents, Tafirimatea, the god of wind and storms, became very angry. He could not endure the crying of his parents, who were far from each other, so he promised his brothers that he would take revenge on them. For this, Tafirimatea flew to his father in order to raise his offspring in the sky: numerous winds. To fight his brothers, he gathered a whole army of his children, which included a variety of winds and clouds, including gusty winds, whirlwinds, dense clouds, hurricanes, storms, rain, haze and fog. When the winds show their strength, dust flies everywhere, and the trees of the god Tane break and fall to the ground.
When Tafirimatea attacks the oceans, huge waves and whirlpools form, and the sea god Tangaroa flees in panic. Punga (Maori Punga), the son of Tangaroa, has two sons: Ikatere (Maori Ikatere), father of fish, and Tu-te-wehiwehi (Maori Tu-te-wehiwehi), ancestor of reptiles. Fearing the attacks of Tafirimatea, fish seek shelter in the sea, and reptiles in the forest. Because of this, Tangaroa is very angry with the god Tane, who sheltered the runaway children. Now he takes revenge by capsizing the canoe and sinking houses, land and trees and taking them to the open ocean.
Tafirimatea then attacks his brothers Rongo and Haumia-tetekeke, the gods of cultivated and non-cultivated plants. But their father Papa hides his children from his angry brother in mother earth. Tumatauenga becomes the next victim of Tafirimatea, but the wind god is powerless before him. Tumatauenga also holds firm. The anger subsides and there is peace.
Tumatauenga was very offended by his brothers, who did not help him in the confrontation with Tafirimatea. In order to take revenge on them, he wove snares for catching birds, Tanya's children, who since then could not fly freely through the forest. Tumatauenga then made nets out of flax, which he threw into the ocean. Together with them, he pulled the children of Tangaroa ashore. Tumatauenga also made a hoe and wove a basket. Having dug up all the plants with edible roots from the ground, he put them in a basket, and then put them in the sun, where they all withered. The only brother he did not punish was Tafirimatea, whose storms and hurricanes still attack the human race.
Longing Rangi and Papa
After separating Rangi and Papa, Tane decided to decorate his father's nakedness with numerous stars. The sun and moon in Maori representations are the offspring of Rangi, which were subsequently placed in the sky.
However, the parents still continue to yearn for each other: Rangi cries, and his tears fall on Papa, showing that he still loves his wife. The mist that rises from the earth is the sighs of Papa.
After people settled on the North Island, Maui brought them a fire on which people could cook their own food and exterminated all the monsters. And Maui dies because of another bird, a funny wagtail, while trying to destroy the goddess of death Hine and thereby grant immortality to people.
read a story about Maui
Exterminating the monsters, Maui definitely overdid it, because the kiwi bird remained the largest land creature on the islands. And from the "monsters" the flightless moa bird and the giant eagle that hunted it, the largest of the feathered predators in the world (weight up to 14 kg, wingspan up to 2.6 m), became the victims of the first people.
moa reenactment
Before the arrival of man, New Zealand was the kingdom of birds, mammals did not exist here at all, with the exception of a few species. bats. The queen of this feathered state was a huge flightless bird moa. The largest representatives (females) reached a height of 3.6 meters and weighed about 250 kg. The moa did not even have rudimentary wings, the rudiments of the forelimbs were absorbed even before hatching from the egg - a unique phenomenon among birds. There were 10 types of moa, but by the beginning of the 16th century, they were all eaten without a trace. Giant flightless birds were too easy prey for the first hunters and their dogs. So pretty soon there was a shortage of meat, and there was nothing for the natives to eat - only roots, fish, dogs and each other.
Maui as a cultural hero belongs to Polynesian mythology, because it was the Polynesian navigator Kupe who first sailed here on a light catamaran at the end of the 10th century, opening the way for future settlers.
video installation of the journey of the first Maori, Te Papa Museum
But the bulk of the settlers arrived in New Zealand during the Great Migration from Hawaiki, which can be dated to around 1350. Most likely, it was associated with internal conflicts, due to which some of the tribes that lost in the struggle were forced to leave their homeland.
Geographically, Hawaii is not the Hawaiian Islands at all, but the island of Raiatea, which belongs to the Tahiti archipelago. Here the appearance of the Polynesian culture proper was formed and the religion and mythology of the Polynesians were formed, from here the colonization of other islands of Polynesia, including the western ones - Samoa, Tonga and others, proceeded in all directions.
The culture of the Polynesians is far from being as primitive as some scientists previously thought. Indeed, the Polynesians did not know metals, pottery and weaving, did not use bows and arrows, and walked half-naked. But, on the other hand, they were skilled farmers, using artificial irrigation and fertilizers on some islands. Excavations show that the Polynesians were also excellent architects: their stone architecture is monumental and impressive. Bold and experienced seafarers, the Polynesians were also virtuoso shipbuilders. Each of their seafaring boats was a true work of art, although it was made with stone axes, and parts of its hull were fastened with vegetable fiber cords. It is not surprising that the legends of the Polynesians keep not only the names of outstanding leaders and helmsmen, but also the names of boats and even the proper names of steering oars and sails.
According to legend, the exiles went to the shores of the new land on 7 large boats - "Arava", "Tainui", "Mataatua", "Kurahaupo", "Tokomarou", "Takimutu" and "Aotea", whose names passed to the Maori tribes. The Polynesians do not build such ships now, but the earliest reports of the South Sea islands contain descriptions of ships that may have looked like the Polynesians' "Ocean Ships". For example, Captain Cook drew attention to a double canoe, which the Tahitians called pai, with a large matting sail, designed for long voyages. Its length exceeded fifty feet.
One of these ships, serving for trips from Tonga to Fiji, was depicted by the artist of the Cook expedition, James Weber. In his drawing - a wide double canoe with one large triangular sail. Weber himself tried to swim in one of these canoes. Its speed reached about seven knots, which made it possible for the Maori to cover the distance between Raiatea and North Island in about a month.
Sailing to the islands, the future Maori saw white clouds stretched over the coastal hills. This may have been the origin of the name Aotearoa, "Land of the Long White Cloud" (ao = cloud, tea = white, roa = long), which later became the common Maori name for the entire country.
It is interesting to study the migration routes of ancient people based on the plants they cultivated. So, the history of the distribution of sweet potato is very curious.
Sweet potato is a herbaceous vine with long creeping stems. The lateral roots of sweet potatoes thicken greatly and form tubers with edible pulp. The second name for sweet potato is sweet potato, but don't let that fool you. Potatoes and sweet potatoes are very distant relatives: the former belongs to the nightshade family, and sweet potato is a member of the bindweed family.
Sweet potatoes are native to Peru and Colombia (Andes), where local tribes cultivated it 6-8 thousand years ago. However, even before the time of Columbus, sweet potato was distributed throughout Oceania, hitting the West Indies, southern and eastern Polynesia, Easter Island and New Zealand.
How the sweet potato spread over such long distances is still the subject of scientific debate. The hypothesis that the tubers were dispersed by ocean currents was ruled out because they deteriorate in sea water. Philologists point to the similarity of sweet potato names in unrelated languages: kuumala and derivatives from it - in Polynesia; kumara, cumar, cumal - in the Quechua language of the Indians South America.
This can only be explained in this way: either the Indians of South America brought the sweet potato, first populating Polynesia; or the Polynesians, being originally from Asia, themselves sailed to the Indians.
The reality of the first version was brilliantly proved by the famous Norwegian ethnographer and traveler Thor Heyerdahl. In 1947, he and five other travelers sailed on the Kon-Tiki raft they built from balsa wood. In 101 days they sailed from the Peruvian coast to the Tuamotu Islands in eastern Polynesia. Sailing on the Kon-Tiki demonstrated that a primitive raft, using the Humboldt current and favourable wind, really could relatively easily and safely cross the Pacific Ocean in a westerly direction.
Examples of the reverse influence include the Peruvian mummy in the Bolton Museum; it was established that the resin of a coniferous tree, which grows only in Oceania, was used for its embalming. The date of embalming is around 1200 AD.
One way or another, the fact of the existence of ancient Polynesian-American ties can be considered basically proven. Also the last genetic research sweet potatoes support the theory that the sweet potato made its way to Oceania several times, first from South America, and then, beginning in the sixteenth century, Europeans (Spanish and Portuguese) introduced cultivars from the West Indies there.
As for the New Zealand yam, a fun fact is associated with it: the South American variety, grown by the Maori, was supplanted by the yam, which sailed in 1850 on an American whaling ship.
Wellington is home to the largest National Museum New Zealand Te Papa. AT modern form it was opened to the public only in 1998. The museum is definitely worth a visit, especially if you are traveling with children - there are many interactive exhibits showing the structure of the earth, simulating earthquakes, the work of shark jaws and the human heart. Also there you can get acquainted with the Maori culture.
The literal translation of the self-name māori means "ordinary" ("natural", "normal"). This concept was used by the ancient people to distinguish people from gods and spirits.
In the photo above - a mask-copy of the face of Taupua Te Whanoa, the leader of the Ngati Whakaue tribe, (1854). On it we can see all his tattoos - moko. The presence of moko has long been considered a sign of social status, so members of the lower stratum of society were not allowed to get a tattoo on their faces. But they were allowed to have tattoo elements on their bodies. For women, tattooing on the cheeks and lips was considered traditional, and for men - on the face, thighs and buttocks. The tattoo inflicted on men and women on the rest of the body was of much lesser importance.
painting by G.F.Goldie "Widow".
Te Papa Museum, Wellington.
A woman holds a jade figurine of Hei Tiki in her hands. Jade (maor. "pounamu") is a beloved and sacred stone for Maori, it is found in reservoirs and fjords of the South Island. The color of the stone is very similar to the color of water in lakes and mountain rivers, so another name for the South Island of Te Wai Pounamu is "Land of Jade Water".
Tiki is the first man, the ancestor of people on Earth. The image of Tiki accompanied and still accompanies the Maori at almost every step. A huge wooden Tiki decorates the entrance to the village, a small one, but also wooden, guards the sacred places.
From the trunks of relatively small century-old kauri, the Maori made war canoes. One of the main problems was to fell such a massive tree - the Maori did not have the tools for this. The mighty trunk was slowly burnt out and gradually cut down over many months. When the tree finally fell, the process of subsequent processing was ritualized and surrounded by many taboos. For example, the manufacture of canoes was not supposed to be seen by women (under pain of death). A solid kauri canoe was the greatest wealth and had its own name.
The photo below shows a pataka - a storehouse / storage of valuables, weapons or food important to the survival of the tribe.
This extraordinarily large and elaborate pataca is a symbol of the wealth and power of the Ngati Pikiao tribe. It has its own name - Te Takinga, after the name of the warrior, the ancestor of the tribe. Te Takinga is depicted on top of the pediment of the structure, and below are his three wives.
In the museum, you can go to the current marae - the sacred meeting place of the Maori.
Marae is a kind of symbol of national identity for the Maori. It is believed that strong mana is concentrated in marai. It is quite difficult to translate this word literally, mana for Maori is power (including magic), power and prestige at the same time.
These houses were considered living beings. Their interior was called the stomach, the beams were called the spine, and the mask above the crest of the roof was called the head. These houses were decorated with carvings depicting gods, leaders and events of the past.
When visiting marae, it is customary to adhere to traditional forms of etiquette.
It all starts with "pōwhiri" - a formal greeting to the guest and "wero" - meeting the guest. First, the sentry in the marai sings, notifying fellow tribesmen that he is vigilant and ready, if necessary, to repulse the enemy. Then the warrior, threateningly waving a drop of tai-aha, approaches the guests and throws a twig or leaf at their feet. If the guest raises them, then he came in peace. And in this case, the guard calmly turns his back to the guests and leads them to the marai, where the further reception will take place.
After the completion of the wero ritual, the Maori women perform the karanga, a sort of welcome roll call. Well, the women who came with a group of guests must answer and, in turn, also perform karanga after the women from the marae of the hosts. Only after the performance of karanga do guests enter the marai. You must take off your shoes before entering.
Then, when the guests enter the meeting house, the next stage begins - greetings (mihimihi) and welcoming speeches (whaikorero). The oldest man of the host's tribe begins to speak first, then in response to him, the oldest of their arriving guests should speak. Women are not allowed to speak. Sometimes waiata, greeting songs, are also sung along with the welcome speeches.
After the official part of the welcome ritual is over, the host greets the guest with hongi, a traditional Maori greeting, which is the contact of noses (in our country, hongi is sometimes also called "Maori kiss").
Interestingly, a similar tradition exists in Eskimo culture. "Eskimo Kiss" kunic- a form of expression of affection, usually between members of the same family or lovers. One of the participants presses his nose and upper lip to the skin (usually the forehead or cheeks) of the second and inhales the air. There is a misconception that this tradition arose among the Eskimos due to the fact that their lips freeze to each other in severe frost during ordinary kisses. In fact, this action does not have an erotic meaning, but is a form of friendly greeting between close people who, when meeting, often have only their nose and eyes bare with clothes.
Another important element of Maori culture is the Kapa Haka dance system, which includes several directions at once. Firstly, this is a male haka dance, known all over the world thanks to the All Blacks national rugby team of New Zealand, one of the strongest in the world, whose players traditionally perform haka before the start of the match. Initially, this dance was performed to call on the spirits of nature or before entering into battle. Distinctive features khaki - protruding tongue and brutal facial expression to intimidate the enemy.
And also a description with gestures of what they will do with this enemy :)
Secondly, this female dance poi, today more commonly known as a form of juggling with balls on strings.
By the way, New Zealand in 1893 became the first country in the world to give women equal voting rights.
Maori were fierce warriors and did not like strangers. When, in 1642, Captain Abel Tasman of the Dutch East India Company tried to land on an uncharted coast, the Maori attacked a detachment of Europeans and killed several sailors. Frustrated, Tasman called this place Killer Bay (now Golden Bay near the Abel Tasman National Park) and sailed away.
Tasman marked the new open land on the map as "Staten Landt". But the Dutch cartographers changed the name to Nova Zeelandia, in honor of one of the provinces of the Netherlands - Zeeland (Dutch Zeeland). And they forgot about it for more than a century - no one had either the need or the desire to sail so far.
Until James Cook appeared on the horizon.
(to be continued)
The collection includes myths, tales and legends of Maori - the indigenous people of New Zealand, telling about their customs, customs, beliefs, gods and heroes. The texts are taken from the books of the famous New Zealand folklorist writer A. Reid, collector and popularizer folk art Maori.
Tales and legends of Maori
Kondratov A.M.
Moscow: The main editorial office of oriental literature of the Nauka publishing house, 1981
Hare mai! (Foreword)
"Haere Mai!" - Maori greeting. "Haere mai, reader!" - so welcome you myths, legends, stories, fairy tales collected in this book that were born in New Zealand many centuries ago and whose creators were the indigenous inhabitants of this huge island - the Maori.
"There is no doubt that one should speak about the Maori in verse," once said English writer Anthony Trollope. The whole history of the Maori reads like a heroic poem. Its place of action is the boundless expanses of the Pacific Ocean. The duration of the action is from the beginning of the current millennium to the present day.
Tens of thousands of years ago, people began to populate their planet. Even in the ancient Stone Age, the Paleolithic, he settled Australia and New Guinea. Slowly but surely, the people of the Pacific Islands mastered, moving from west to east, towards rising sun. And New Zealand, perhaps, was the last of the lands discovered and developed by people of the Stone Age.
At the turn of the past and present millennia, the first people appeared on the land of New Zealand. Who they were, we do not know. Archaeological excavations have unearthed stone items, hunting tools designed for gigantic, elephant-sized, wingless moa birds. Moa birds died out - and the discoverers of New Zealand disappeared without a trace. And only in the Maori legends do we find mention of moa and tangata-fenua, "people of the earth" who lived on the island before the ancestors of the current Maori appeared here.
These ancestors lived in the country of Hawaii, legends tell. The country of Hawaii is both the legendary ancestral home of the Polynesians, and the mythical land where the spirits of ancestors live and where the souls of the dead go, and quite real Polynesian islands like the archipelago of Hawaii or the island of Savai (dialectal forms of the word "Hawaiki"). And the Hawaiians of the Maori legends are Central Polynesia, the Tahiti archipelago.
The fisherman Kupe, who lived in Gawaiki, is told by Maori legends, the leader of a flock of squid interfered: every day he stole the bait for the fish. And then Coupe decided to punish the robber. For many days the chase continued, the squid swam farther and farther south from Gawaiki. And then the land, unknown before, appeared, with high mountains shrouded in mist, with huge trees and innumerable flocks of birds. Ao-Tea-Roa - "Long White Cloud" - this is how Kupe called the land he discovered, and this poetic name has been preserved for New Zealand to this day.
And Kupe drove the squid leader into the Raukawa Strait, which separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand (now it is Cook Strait, but perhaps it would be more fair to call it Kupe Strait?), And there he killed the robber ...
Having defeated the monstrous squid, Kupe returned to Gawaiki and told about a beautiful distant country in the south, inhabited ... This is where the versions of the legends diverge. According to one of them, Ao-Tea-Roa was inhabited only by insects and birds. On the other hand, Coupe saw here "people of the earth", tall, with flat noses and dark skin.
Who were these people? Here the versions of scientists already diverge. Archaeologists call them "moa hunters". A number of ethnographers suggest that the first inhabitants of New Zealand were Melanesians. And other researchers believe that Ao-Tea-Roa was originally settled by Polynesians, but not those whose memory is preserved in legends, but an earlier wave (we find a similar picture in other regions of Polynesia - in the Marquesas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island).
Be that as it may, but in Central Polynesia they learned about the existence of a large land in the south. Several centuries passed after the discovery of Kupe - and in the middle of the XIV century, many boats from Gawaiki moved to Ao Tea Roa. There were hundreds of men in the boats, with wives and children, with pets; among other things, they carried seeds of cultivated plants with them. The great migration of Maori ancestors began. This was not only the most significant event in the history of New Zealand, whose area exceeds the area of \u200b\u200ball the other lands of Polynesia combined - it was perhaps the most heroic act in the history of the "South Sea Vikings" - the Polynesians.
The memory of the Maori has preserved the names of the boats on which their ancestors arrived from Hawaii. And not only boats, but also stern oars, which also had their own names. From generation to generation, the names of leaders - ariki, priests - tohung and skillful helmsmen, the names of ancestors from whom modern Maori trace their ancestry, were passed down. (When the Maori meet each other, it takes them almost a whole day to find out on which boat their great-great-great-great-grandfathers arrived - more than two dozen generations have changed since then, but the keepers of traditions cherish in memory of the names of all ancestors!)
Waka is the name of the boat in the languages of the peoples of Polynesia. And in the Maori language, this word has another meaning: "a union of tribes." For from the crews of the boats that arrived from Gawaiki to Ao-Tea-Roa, various tribes of "iwi" originate. From each boat - from one to a dozen tribes. But, of course, while these tribes were formed, more than one century should have passed, and these centuries have passed - for almost half a thousand years, after the great migration from Gawaiki, the inhabitants of Ao-Tea-Roa found themselves in complete isolation from the rest of the world.
When the first settlers arrived on Ao Tea Roa, says one of the Maori legends, it was the time of flowering pohutukawa - trees from the myrtle family, covered with bright red flowers. Seeing them, the admiring leader of the settlers took off the headdress of feathers, a symbol of a noble family, and threw it into the sea with the words:
The color of the leaders of Gawaiki is cast aside for the color of the new land that welcomes us!
Indeed, over several centuries, the Maori created a culture that differed from the general Polynesian. The heritage from the country of their ancestors, Hawaiki, has turned into a distinct heritage of the Maori, for whom New Zealand has become new home. For here, on Ao Tea Roa, there was a completely different world than on other islands of Polynesia, lying in the tropics, whether they were coral atolls or volcanic islands.
The problem of land is one of the main problems for the inhabitants of Polynesia. It was the lack of land that forced the brave Polynesian sailors to embark on long voyages in search of new islands. There was plenty of land in Ao-Tea-Roa. Is it because the ancestors of the Maori remained isolated, having settled New Zealand, because they had no incentive for dangerous distant wanderings in the ocean?
New Zealand is a continental island, it is a kind of "microcontinent", a fragment of an ancient mainland. Fire-breathing mountains and dense forests, glaciers and geysers, wingless birds led by a giant moa, dinosaur relatives, the tuatara lizard, kauri pines, raising their peaks to a height of more than fifty meters and second only to American sequoias, landscapes reminiscent of that Caucasus with its snowy peaks, now Norway with its fjords, now Kamchatka with its volcanoes, now Scotland with its hills, bushes and lakes, now Iceland with its geysers - all this was not in Gawaiki, all this was completely unlike native Polynesia. More land, more dangers, more game, more cold, more forests, more natural disasters... In the struggle with nature, the character of the Maori was forged - truthful, courageous, brave and direct people. No wonder the Maori are referred to as the "Spartans of Polynesia"!
Rangi and Papa (or Ranginui and Papatuanuku) in the mythology of the Polynesian Maori people, father sky and mother earth, mentioned in the legend of the creation of the world. Contents 1 Origin 2 Separation Ranks and Pope ... Wikipedia
- (Greek mythología, from mýthos legend, legend and lógos word, story, teaching) a fantastic idea of the world, human primitive communal formation, as a rule, transmitted in the form of oral narratives of myths, and science ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Various traditions of the Maori people tell how their ancestors arrived in New Zealand from the mythical ancestral home on the great ocean canoes (Maori: Waka). Some of the legends call this ancestral home "Hawaiki". One of these legends is the story of Coupe, ... ... Wikipedia
Maui (Gav. and Maori Mauі) is one of the main characters of Polynesian mythology, a half-human half-god hero, a demiurge and a cultural hero, also a trickster. Image According to popular beliefs, Maui was born from an ordinary woman, and therefore ... Wikipedia
This term has other meanings, see Hina. "Mararu": Offerings to the Tahitian goddess Hina. Paul Gauguin (1894) ... Wikipedia
Polynesian mythology (P. m.), mythological representations of the indigenous inhabitants of Polynesia of the islands located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean. The ancestors of the Polynesians settled the islands, apparently coming from Southeast Asia, mainly ... ... Encyclopedia of mythology
Serpent (in mythology) A snake-like creature in a mythical or religious context. A serpent can be called a creature whose appearance is wholly or partly serpentine. Sometimes it combines the properties of a reptile and a person, ... ... Wikipedia
In Polynesian mythology, ghosts or spirits are often malevolent and malevolent. The word aitu is present in many languages of Eastern and Western Polynesia. Contents 1 Maori 2 Cook Islands 3 Samoa ... Wikipedia