page_title: Māori culture
section_title: Archaic period c.1300 AD
hierarchical_section_title: Māori culture / Change and adaptation over time / Archaic period c.1300 AD
caption_attribution_description: Early Maori objects from Wairau Bar
context_page_description: Māori culture involves the customs, cultural practices, and beliefs of the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand. It originated from, and is still part of, Eastern Polynesian culture. Māori culture also forms a distinctive part of New Zealand culture and, due to a large diaspora and the incorporation of Māori motifs into popular culture, is found throughout the world. Within Māoridom, and to a lesser extent throughout New Zealand as a whole, the word Māoritanga is often used as an approximate synonym for Māori culture, the Māori-language suffix -tanga being roughly equivalent to the qualitative noun-ending -ness in English. Māoritanga has also been translated as "[a] Māori way of life."
  Four distinct but overlapping cultural eras have contributed historically to Māori culture:
  before Māori culture had differentiated itself from other Polynesian cultures
  before widespread European contact
  the 19th century, in which Māori began interacting more intensively with European visitors and settlers
  the modern era since the beginning of the twentieth century
context_section_description: Researchers often label the time from about 1280 to about 1450 the Archaic period or "Moa-hunter period" – after the moa, the large flightless bird that formed a large part of the diet of the early settlers. During this period Māori adapted to their new environment, but culturally they changed little from the tropical Pacific peoples they were derived from. Many edible plants were brought from the home islands and of these kūmara (sweet potato) was to become the most important. In the far South, however, it was too cold to grow any of these crops. Large quantities of tī tubers were eaten that were slow-cooked in large umu or hāngi (earth ovens) to get rid of the poison and to produce a slightly sweet pulp. Shellfish, fish, sharks and seals were also common foods. Native dogs (kurī) and rats were brought from the Pacific Islands. The introduction of rats undoubtedly had more impact on New Zealand wildlife than any other organism apart from humans. The dogs were used for hunting but also as food.
  The new environment offered challenges to the settlers. Its cold climate meant that tropical staple crops needed careful cultivation to survive, and some failed to grow locally. Kūmara was an important crop that arrived with the Polynesian settlers. Much of the activity to produce kūmara became ritualised – it was even associated with Rongomātāne (Rongo), a high-ranking atua (god). Kūmara featured in some whakataukī (proverbs): "Kaore te kūmara e kōrero mo tōna māngaro" (the kūmara does not speak of its own sweetness) encouraged people to be modest.
  Seasonal activities included gardening, fishing and the hunting of birds. Main tasks were segregated for men and women, but there were also a lot of group activities involving food gathering and food cultivation.
  These early colonists explored New Zealand to find suitable stones for tool-making. The main stone source areas included Mayor Island, Taupo and Kerikeri for obsidian (volcanic glass); prospectors soon found pounamu (greenstone or jade) and pakohe (argillite) resources in the South Island in the Reefton and Nelson areas. Basalt was later also found which is prospected to have a use in construction. Stone served in all aspects of Polynesian life: from chopping wood to cutting and slicing food, as anchors for waka (canoes) and fishing nets, for retaining the heat in a hāngi, as drills using chert, and for stone clubs. These practices, well preserved at the Wairau Bar archeological site, were typical of East Polynesian culture at the same time.
  Two Polynesian artifacts link early settlers to Polynesia. One, a turret shell only found in the South Pacific islands, most notably in the Society Islands, has been reworked into a small chisel found at Wairau Bar and dated to about 1300. The other is a 6 cm long Polynesian pearl fishing lure found at Tairua in 1962. This lure has been reliably dated to the early- to mid-14th century. It was found at a typical small coastal moa-hunters' site which has been interpreted as an itinerant hunting camp (whakaruruhau). The discovery of Mayor Island obsidian on the Kermadec Islands, halfway between New Zealand and Polynesia, strongly suggests return journeys were made.
  The new land also provided new opportunities Māori learned to use local resources like pounamu, native timber, harakeke and the abundant birdlife, producing practical tools or food, as well as beautiful ornaments and items of clothing. It was this adaptation to the opportunities and challenges of the new environment that lead to the development of the Classic Māori culture.
caption: Early Māori objects similar to Polynesian forms (Wairau Bar, Marlborough), note the volcanic glass from the North Island (top left)
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 500D", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:07:24 09:10:16", "Image ExifOffset": "208", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "798", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9185", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "250", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:01:26 23:16:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:01:26 23:16:30", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "790241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "361471/100000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "39", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "39", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "792000/149", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "3168000/593", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2250762923", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[18, 55, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6"}