MAORI AND PAKEHA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 6, 22 January 1937, Page 6

MAORI AND PAKEHA

Scientific Analysis of The Early Conflicts CLASH OF CULTURES Some of the atrange occurrences in the early struggles between Maori ai d European — as, for example, the rise of new native religious cults, the Ning raovement and the significance attached to flags— were explained in terms of social anthropology by Dr. W. S. Uale, of Auckland, in a paper read at the recent science congress at a session devoted by the anthropology seddon to Maori subjects. Culture, said Dr. Dale, was to a community whai personality was tcf a people. It was a term which covered art, science, philosophy and formal law. !u fact, society existed only because of the transmission and diffusion of culture. When au existing culture had to accommodate itself to an intruding one, many cross-currents were set up, and the minority group might be thrown into a state of grave mental apprehension, leading to restless agitation and aetivity. Tbe greatest changes in Maori social life were wrought by the missionaries. The o'.d religious life of the people, :0r example, made for a dofinite organisation of life along lines oi rank, age and sez. Functions of individuals wera highly specialised, and a most elaborate system of tapu had been developed. into this mise-en-scene came the missionary, anxious to make some eifort in the process of implanting European culture. To show how different the new pattern of life was from the old, Dr. Dale produced a formidable table, setting out the many points at which the missionaries' code of life cut across tho social organisation of the native people and attacked, on the. basis of ethical standards, law, ceremonial^ religion. instruction and social status. In attempting to Christianise the Maori, he said, the missionary impinged on fields that had hitherto been entirely unrelated to religion. He was, in fact, endeavouring to bring about an integration of life mainly on a basis of Ghristian ethics. It was therefore not remarkable that in the earliest stages the number of converts was very small. Not unnaturally, the result was acute unrest. The native felt that he was losing possession of his institutions, by which he controlled his environment. Minor prophets, modifying the culture brought by the Church, ar'ose in various areas. Among them were the HauHau leaders, Te Kooti, and, in modern times, Ratana. The - same tendency appeared in the wars' over land and m the King movement, the underlying factor in which, Dr. Dale believod, was not the conservation of tribal lands, bub the mental conflict he had mentioned. How much the whole movement was charged with symbolism might be iudged from the inordinate importance placed upon flags by the leaders of religious cults and political factions. The speaker gave a ■ long Iist of examples covering many years and including Hbne Heke's attacks on the flagstaff at Kororareka. The early clashes, he said, arose because neither missionary nor legislator appreciated • the complexity of native culture. The fundaraental error was to assume that the actions of people of lowly culture were determined by the vague and lawless motives ascribed by many to the thought of savage man.