Title: The Maori Race

Author: Edward Tregear

Publication details: Archibald Dudingston Willis, 1904, Wanganui

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

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page 383

Genealogies.

Remark has been already made several times in this volume as to the absolute faithfulness with which legends, incantations, etc., had to be recited. This applies also to genealogies, for several reasons. The recital of a pedigree was a part of many different ceremonials, such as the naming or baptism of a child, or in a difficult case of parturition, etc. It had, however, also its intensely practical side. Not only in regard to succession to family honours and possessions, but in matters of precedence and social custom it was very necessary that the superiority or inferiority of certain persons should have public acknowledgment. Among a people so punctilious and so jealous of personal honour as the Maori gentleman or lady it was imperative that no mistake should be made in the recital of lines of descent. From the remotest ancestors all the offshoots and scions of the family tree had to be carefully memorized, even to the far-away growths of the most distant branches. Uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins to the twentieth remove, all had to be retained on the family register, with their battles, deeds, possessions, etc., noted, lest some unwary remark, some wrongly placed position in the order of calling out names at the distribution of food or allotment of seats, might imply a slight and provoke retaliation. The knowledge of these delicate historical or legendary archives (if the term may be permitted) was not confined entirely to any one class, although priests were often page 384 specially trained as genealogists. Each chief and free man was supposed to know his own lines of descent at least, and such an accomplishment was as necessary to his safety as it was a finish to his education. On victorious combats and on approved occupations of lands by his ancestors and his relatives his title to his own possessions rested. The enumeration of successful expeditions and the recital of boundaries in a land where every hill and beach and river-bend was named required thorough genealogical study before personal connection with such events or delimitations could be publicly proven. Such a task might generally be left for the council-chamber of the tribe, but now and then imminent peril might demand that a chief should know every individual of his clan. This was in case of a sudden call to war, and then the most distant relative to whom kinship could be traced might have to be summoned in haste to swell the numbers of the tribal gathering. Of course, inter - marriage and tracing pedigree down through a hundred different lines, diverging, interlacing, and diverging again, complicated matters sometimes so greatly that it was difficult for a chief to decide hurriedly to which party his allegiance belonged, but the practice (spoken of at length elsewhere) which frowned on all marriage across the tribal boundary, except under rare conditions, simplified much the intricate and involved position.

The recital of genealogies (whaka papa) was sometimes assisted by the use of a notched or carved piece of wood (rakau whakapapa), each page 385 notch representing a generation, and so helping the memory of the speaker. Some of these genealogical staves were elaborately carved and ornamented.¹

There are many published genealogies in existence, and they are fully available for the students of the subject.² As a single specimen, a pedigree, that of the late Major Kemp—Te Rangi hiwi nui—a distinguished soldier, is subjoined.

The Maori would not pronounce certain sacred names, such as those of great gods, except in some hallowed place. Similarly, he considered it offensive if one of his ancestor's names was pronounced when eating was going on.