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The earliest period of Māori settlement is known as the "Archaic", "Moahunter" or "Colonisation" period. The eastern Polynesian ancestors of the Māori arrived in a forested land with abundant birdlife, including several now extinct moa species weighing between 20 kilograms (44 lb) and 250 kg (550 lb) each.
Starting in the 1920s, H. D. Skinner and others overturned the hypothesis about a pre-Māori people by showing the continuation and adaptation of the 'Archaic' Māori culture into the 'Classic' Māori culture. This negated the need for pre-Māori settlement in models of prehistoric New Zealand.
Māori culture has been in constant adaptation to New Zealand's changing environment. From the late 1950s onward the terms "Archaic" and "Classic" culture have been used to describe the early and late phases of pre-contact Māori, [ 3 ] with "Archaic" replacing the older term "moa hunter" as the hunter-gatherer society lasted beyond the ...
Before European contact Māori did not have a written language and "important information such as whakapapa was memorised and passed down verbally through the generations". [161] Māori were familiar with the concept of maps and when interacting with missionaries in 1815 could draw accurate maps of their rohe ( iwi boundaries), onto paper, that ...
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 ...
The culture of New Zealand is a synthesis of indigenous Māori, colonial British, and other cultural influences. The country's earliest inhabitants brought with them customs and language from Polynesia , and during the centuries of isolation, developed their own Māori and Moriori cultures.
Before British colonisation of New Zealand, the Indigenous architecture of Māori was an 'elaborate tradition of timber architecture'. [1] Māori constructed rectangular buildings (whare) with a 'small door, an extension of the roof and walls to form a porch, and an interior with hearths along the centre and sleeping places along the walls' for protection against the cold.
Māori culture had meanwhile undergone a renaissance thanks in part to politician Āpirana Ngata. [181] By the 1980s 80% of the Māori population was urban, in contrast to only 20% before the Second World War. The migration led to better pay, higher standards of living and longer schooling, but also exposed problems of racism and discrimination.