The New New Zealand

Today’s New Zealand is an emerging paradigm for successful cultural relations. Although the nation’s Māori (indigenous Polynesian) and Pākehā (colonial European) populations of the 19th century were dramatically different and often at odds, they are today co-contributors to a vibrant society. For more than a century they have been working out the kind of nation that engenders respect and well-being; and their interaction, though often riddled with confrontation, is finally bearing bicultural fruit. By their model, the encounter of diverse cultures does not require the surrender of one to the other; rather, it entails each expanding its own cultural categories in the light of the other.
The time is ripe to explore modern New Zealand’s cultural dynamics for what we can learn about getting along. The present anthropological work focuses on religion and related symbols, forms of reciprocity, the operation of power and the concept of culture in modern New Zealand society.

William Edward Moneyhun is a researcher in symbolic and interpretive anthropology. He lives in Kennett, Missouri.

William Edward Moneyhun
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 251
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7700-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3834-8
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vi
A Brief Guide to Pronouncing Māori Words 1
Preface 3
Pivotal visits    3
Mining the resources    5
The chapters    8
Introduction 9
A synergistic synthesis of cultures    9
Hiwi Tauroa’s musing    10
The emerging paradigm    11
Chapter One. Aotearoa/New Zealand 13
Before you begin, consider…    13
Some notes on the name    13
A peek at the population    15
A review of the religion    18
A glimpse at the government    24
A look at the languages    27
A handle on the history    30
Chapter Two. Understanding Symbols 38
A world of symbols    38
The birth of a symbol    43
The whare tipuna as a symbol    48
The whare karakia as a symbol    55
Whare meets whare    60
Chapter Three. Reciprocity 67
Western reciprocity    67
The economic bias    72
Māori utu    74
Utu and the West    77
The complexity of Pākehā reciprocity    78
A social uncertainty principle    80
The reinterpretation of culture    82
Chapter Four. Power 84
The elements of specific power    84
The terms of general power    85
Power-dependence and the process of secularization    89
The spiritualized Māori    90
The secularized Pākehā    96
Synergistic potential    99
Chapter Five. Culture and Religion 101
The way we are    101
Culture    104
Religion    106
The complementarity of culture and religion    111
Māori culture and religion    112
Pākehā culture and religion    118
­  Religio-cultural synergy    120
Chapter Six. Some Principles of Cultural Interchange 122
A time to reflect    122
The dynamic encounter of meaning systems    123
Cultural complexity and abstractness    125
The beginning of cultural dialogue    128
The terms of cultural reconceptualization    130
The nature of cultural reconceptualization    133
Reification and cultural authenticity    136
Chapter Seven. Io 139
Here an Io, there an Io    139
The telltale twitch    141
The Polynesian Society and the search for “the historical Io”    143
A matter of interpretation    150
The higher critical school and “the Io of faith”    153
“The Io of culture”    156
Is Io really God?    160
Chapter Eight. The Up Over of the Down Under 165
Cultural authenticity: A necessary reprise    165
The cognitive function and the address to education    170
The moral function and the address to injustice    175
The aesthetic function and the address to endurance    179
The religious dimension    184
Postscript 186
Appendix A: Maps for Aotearoa/New Zealand’s World Location 189
Appendix B: A ­Present-Day Marae 192
Appendix C: New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 195
Chapter Notes 209
Bibliography 223
Index 235

“Well-researched…meticulously outlines many of the central features of New Zealand’s bicultural past, much of his book consists of a dense, theoretical analysis of symbolism, culture and religion, the nature of power and reciprocity, and the principles of cultural exchange. …recommended”—Choice