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Māori culture (Māori: Māoritanga) is the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture and, due to a large diaspora and the incorporation of Māori motifs into popular culture ...
It is the most famous atua kumara (agricultural god) and was traditionally involved in rituals connected to the sowing of the annual kumara (sweet potato) crop. The sculpture has a male figure carved on each side, one representing Matuatonga, god of growth, and the other Matuatehe, god of decay.
Māori followed certain practices that relate to traditional concepts like tapu.Certain people and objects contain mana – spiritual power or essence. In earlier times, tribal members of a higher rank would not touch objects which belonged to members of a lower rank – to do so would constitute "pollution"; and persons of a lower rank could not touch the belongings of a highborn person ...
The Pūkaea is a traditional Maori trumpet made of wood. There are several differing designs and lengths within the Pūkaea genre. Pūkaea were used to announce relay signals at times of conflict and were also used to announce the rituals associated with the planting of kumara (sweet potato) and other crops.
Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern tales of supernatural events relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pre-European Māori, often involving gods and demigods.
Māori concepts of design involve an active relationship between traditional and contemporary practices. Pre-European Māori had no written language so tribal history and beliefs were kept in the form of objects ranging from woven baskets to complex carvings in wood, bone, shell and greenstone.
The hongi (Māori pronunciation:) is a traditional Māori greeting performed by two people pressing their noses together, often including the touching of the foreheads. [1] The greeting is used at traditional meetings among Māori people, [2] and at major ceremonies, such as a pōwhiri. [3] It may be followed by a handshake. [3]
The word karakia, which we use for prayer, formerly meant a spell, charm, or incantation [...] [Maori] have spells suited for all circumstances – to conquer enemies, catch fish, trap rats, and snare birds, to make their kumara grow, and even to bind the obstinate will of woman; to find anything lost; to discover a stray dog; a concealed enemy ...