Hawaiki: The Original Home of the Maori
With a Sketch of Polynesian History

An influential though now superseded 1898 book, reissued in its 1910 edition, presenting ethnological research on Maori and Polynesian origins.

S. Percy Smith (Author)

9781108039956, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 24 November 2011

312 pages, 1 map 1 table
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922) was a New Zealand ethnologist and surveyor. As a young man, he travelled six hundred miles exploring the volcanic interior of North Island, and had many interactions with the Maori population, whose language, history and traditions fascinated him throughout his career as a government surveyor. In 1892 he co-founded the Polynesian Society, in whose journal this study originally appeared. The first book edition was published in 1898, and this third, updated edition in 1910. Using indigenous sources gathered in Polynesia and New Zealand, Smith constructed an elaborate history of the Polynesians, and argued that they were ultimately descended from Aryan ancestors in India. His theory of Maori origins was accepted by several generations of scholars, but was eventually superseded by modern historical and archaeological research. However, his pioneering work, acclaimed in its day, still provides fascinating insights into both nineteenth-century Polynesian culture and colonial ethnography.

Preface
1. The Polynesian race and its traditions
2. Genealogical connections and chronology
3. Names of the traditional fatherland
4. The Polynesians originated in India
5. The 'log books' of the migrations
6. Sketch of the history of the race
7. Tahitian origin of the Maoris
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]