Abstract
In common with other oral societies, New Zealand Maori constructed mental maps by means of which they made sense of their phenomenological world. Their cognitive template, called whakapapa, consists of a genealogical framework upon which spiritual, spatial, temporal and biophysical information about a particular place is located. These many-layered cosmoscapes performed various roles in traditional society. Analysis of several whakapapa of plants and of lizards suggest that these include a folk taxonomy of the culturally important biota in a particular place; spatial delineation of environmental realms or territories that describe key ecosystems or habitats and their functional inter-relationships; the cosmogonical origins and history of the phenomena in that whakapapa; moral instruction; and provision of a useful mnemonic facilitating retention and recall. In common with other indigenous cultures, whakapapa can also be described as performance cartography in that they are dependent on oral transmission involving narrative, song, and other physical activities whereby the knowledge specific to a place comes to be known.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, J. C. (2000). Maori place names (2nd ed.). Christchurch, NZ: Cadsonbury Publications.
Atran, S. (1993). Cognitive foundations of natural history: Towards an anthropology of science. 1st paperback edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barton, P. L. (1998). Maori cartography and the European encounter. In D. Woodward & G. M. Lewis (Eds.), The History of Cartography: traditional cartography in African, American, Arctic, Australian and Pacific Societies, vol. 2, Book 3 (pp. 493–532). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Basso, K. H. (1996). Wisdom sits in places. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Berlin, B. (1992). Ethnobiological classification. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Best, E. (1972). Tuhoe: The children of the mist (2nd ed., Vol. 1). Wellington, NZ: A. H.& A. W.Reed Ltd.
Best, E. (1982). Maori religion and mythology. Part II. Wellington, NZ: Government Printer.
Bulmer, R. (1970). Which came first: The chicken or the egg-head? In J. Pouillon & P. Maranda (Eds.), Exchanges et communications: mélanges offerts à Claude Lévi-Strauss (pp. 1069–1091). The Hague: Mouton.
Davis, Te Aue., O’Regan, T., & Wilson, J. (1990). The survey pegs of the past: Understanding Maori place names. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Geographic Board.
Feinberg, R., Dymon, U. T., Paiaki, P., Rangituteki, P., Nukuriaki, P., & Rollins, M. (2003). ‘Drawing the coral heads’: Mental mapping and its physical representation in a Polynesian community. The Cartographic Journal, 40(3), 243–253.
Finney, B. (1998). Nautical cartography and traditional navigation in Oceania. In D. Woodward & G. M. Lewis (Eds.), The history of cartography: Traditional cartography in African, American, Arctic, Australian and Pacific Societies, Vol. 2, Book 3 (pp. 443–492). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Graham, G. (1881–1995). MS 120, M 54, 1. The origin and meanings of place names. Auckland, NZ: Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Howe, K. R. (2003). The quest for origins. Auckland, NZ: Penguin Books.
Hunn, E. S. (1982). The utilitarian factor in folk biological classification. American Anthropologist, 84, 830–847.
Kelly, J. (1995). Tuki’s map of New Zealand. The New Zealand Map Society Journal, 9, 11–18.
Kelly, J. (1999). Maori maps. Cartographica, 36(2), 1–30.
Lewis, G. M. (1993). Metrics, geometries, signs, and language: Sources of cartographic miscommunication between native and Euro-American cultures in North America. Cartographica, 30(1), 98–106.
Lewthwaite, G. R. (1966). Tupaia’s map: The horizons of a Polynesian geographer. Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 28, 41–43.
Louis, R. P. (2007). Hawaiian place names: Storied symbols in Hawaiian performance cartographies. Ph.D. diss. (Geography), University of Hawaii.
Meyer, A., & Zardoya, R. (2003). Recent advances in the (molecular) phylogeny of the vertebrates. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 34, 311–338.
Orbell, M. (1995). The illustrated encylopedia of Maori Myth and legend. Christchurch, NZ: Canterbury University Press.
Reed, A. W. (1963). Treasury of Maori folklore. Wellington: A. H. & A. W. Reed.
Reichel, E. (2005). Cosmology. In B. R. Taylor (Ed.), The encyclopedia of religion and nature (pp. 420–425). New York: Thoemmes Continuum.
Roberts, R. M., Haami, B., Benton, R., Satterfield, T., Finucane, M. L., & Henare, M. (2004). Whakapapa as a mental construct of Mäori, and its implications for genetic engineering. The Contemporary Pacific, 16(1), 1–28.
Roberts, M., & Wills, P. (1998). Understanding Maori epistemology-a scientific perspective. In H. Wautischer (Ed.), Tribal epistemologies: Essays in the philosophy of anthropology (pp. 43–77). Avebury: Ashgate.
Rundstrom, R. A. (1990). A cultural interpretation of Inuit map accuracy. Geographical Review, 20, 155–168.
Rundstrom, R. A. (1993). The role of ethics, mapping, and the meaning of place in relations between Indians and Whites in the United States. Cartographica, 30(1), 21–28.
Salmond, A. (1982). Theoretical landscapes: on cross-cultural conceptions of knowledge. In D. Parkin (Ed.), Semantic anthropology (pp. 65–87). London: Academic Press.
Skinner, H. D. (1964). Crocodile and lizard in New Zealand myth and material culture. Records of the Otago Museum, Anthropology, 1, 1–43. Dunedin, Otago Museum Trust Board.
Stimson, J. F. (1933). Tuamotuan religion. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 103. Honolulu: Hawaii, B. P. Bishop Museum, 1971 N.Y. Klaus Reprint Co (Reprinted 1971).
Tau, H. R. (1993). Footsteps within the land and sea. New Zealand Map Society Journal, 7, 30–40.
Tregear, E. (2001). The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary (2nd ed.). Christchurch, NZ: Cadsonbury Publications.
Turnbull, D. (1991). Mapping the world in the mind: an investigation of the unwritten knowledge of the Micronesian navigators. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Turnbull, D. (1993). Maps are territories. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Whitt, L. A., Roberts, M., Norman, W., & Grieves, V. (2001). Indigenous perspectives. In D. Jamieson (Ed.), A companion to environmental philosophy (pp. 3–20). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Wilson, J. (Ed.). (1990). Place names of the ancestors: A Maori oral history atlas. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Geographic Board.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Roberts, M. Mind maps of the Maori. GeoJournal 77, 741–751 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9383-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-010-9383-5