The Ancient History of the Maori, his Mythology and Traditions

Published 1887–90, this six-volume compilation of Maori oral literature, with English translations, contains traditions about deities, origins and warfare.

John White (Author)

9781108039611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2011

484 pages, 10 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.61 kg

First published between 1887 and 1890, this six-volume work, containing Maori texts with English translations and commentary, and engraved illustrations, was one of the first printed records of the oral traditions of the Maori. The project was commissioned by the New Zealand government in 1879 when it was observed that, due to the introduction of European culture and education, indigenous traditions were in danger of dying out. The material was collected by John White (1826–91), an ethnographer, public servant and writer who had arrived in New Zealand as a boy and first began documenting Maori poetry in the 1840s. Volume 3, published in 1887, includes myths of the rainbow god Uenuku, canoe migrations, and legends of the South Island Maori, many of them relating to ancestry, feuds and warfare.

Preface
1. Ue-nuku and Whena
2. Ue-nuku
3. Pou-heni and Hine-kau-i-rangi
4. Tama-tea and Rongo-kako
5. Rongo-i-tua and Kahui-tupua
6. Tara-ki-uta and Tara-ki-tai
7. Nga-ti-ira
8. Rau-rika
9. Kui, Tutu-mai-ao, and Turehu
10. Pa o Nga-toko-ono (The Pa of the Six)
11. The acts of Te-wera
12. Last migration from Ha-taitai
13. Tama-i-hara-nui
14. Nga-ti-mamoe and South Island history.

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