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Over time, in isolation the Polynesian settlers developed a distinct Māori culture. Early Māori history is often divided into two periods: the Archaic period (c. 1300 – c. 1500) and the Classic period (c. 1500 – c. 1769). Archaeological sites such as Wairau Bar show evidence of early life in Polynesian settlements in New Zealand. Many of ...
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 ...
Traditional Māori culture has enjoyed a significant revival, which was further bolstered by a Māori protest movement that emerged in the 1960s. However, disproportionate numbers of Māori face significant economic and social obstacles, and generally have lower life expectancies and incomes than other New Zealand ethnic groups.
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.
Haka is a form of indigenous dance that encompasses multiple ceremonial purposes in Māori culture. As Nathan Matthew explains, "it is a posture dance accompanied by chanted or shouted song... One of the main characteristics of haka are that actions involving all parts of the body are used to emphasise the words." [17]
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.
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.
Māoriness is the state or quality of being Māori, or of embodying Māori characteristics.It comprises the qualities that distinguish Māori and form the basis of their peoplehood and identity, and the expressions of Māori culture — such as habits, behaviours, or symbols — that have a common, familiar or iconic quality readily identifiable with the Māori people.