OLD MAORI MARRIAGE CUSTOMS COME TO LIFE IN SCHOLARLY ESSAY

Te Ao Hou, December 1961, Page 55

OLD MAORI MARRIAGE CUSTOMS COME TO LIFE IN SCHOLARLY ESSAY Review by Jacqueline Sturm Maori Marriage, an essay in reconstruction, by Bruce Biggs. The Polynesian Society Incorporated. 21/-. Curiosity about the past can be satisfied up to a point by visits to libraries, picture galleries and museums. If you can spare the time, you may learn a little about “their” fish-hooks, weapons, tools, art, architecture, garments, ornaments, burial chests, and the long canoe riding at anchor in the sea of glass cases. But even then, you will be lucky if you can make more than a few wild guesses as to what “they” were really like in that time and place. Take for instance customs concerning birth, death, marriage. For information about such matters, we are dependent on the work of specialists like Dr Biggs, whose painstaking research and careful interpretations of available data are aimed at a reconstruction of the intangible past. It would be impossible within the scope of this review to discuss fully all the aspects of Maori marriage which Dr Biggs describes with his scholarly pen, but a glance at the chapter headings and sub-headings will give you an idea of how wide he has cast his net and how carefully he has sorted out the catch. He begins by examining Maori attitudes to sex in general. ‘Sex was not restricted to any one department of life but rather permeated all aspects of it. Sexual symbolism is common in the decorative art and the mythology divides all of nature into male and female … No premium was placed upon virginity …. Sexual intercourse was not a sin, though it was often a social offence when it occurred between the wrong persons.” Passing on to the range of marriage, Dr Biggs tells us that marriages within the hapu were the most favoured, that while most matches were arranged, “marriages stemming from tolerated liaisons were probably very common among those below the highest rank …. A usual way of announcing their intention to marry was for the young couple to remain sleeping late in some place where they would be sure to be discovered.' There seems to be considerable doubt about the practice of a marriage rite, but it was necessary for the whole community to be informed of a young couple's intention to form a permanent relationship, and to agree to the match. This was done by discussions preceding the marriage followed by a formal handing over of the bride, but in the case of an irregular marriage a satisfactory agreement was reached only after the aggrieved family, usually the girl's, had sent a taua muru (quarrelling party) against the other family, demanding compensation. “It is not as if a woman were a thing of small worth. Remember that food comes from the sea, sea-food from the net, and man from woman.” It was a decided asset for a wife to come of a wealthy family or hapu, especially if her husband's position demanded lavish entertaining and hospitality. What was hers was also his. “Chiefs of importance possessed more than one wife.” Dr Biggs quotes an early observer as saying, “the chiefs take them rather for their manual services than for the charms of their persons or the endearments of their society.” In the chapter, Marriage as a Procreative Institution, Dr Biggs gives us some extremely interesting accounts of the rites and ceremonies associated with conception, pregnancy, and birth, and it includes the author's translations of some of the spells used on such occasions. This is part of the Hine-te-iwaiwa spell for cases of difficult childbirth—

“A child of whom? A child of idle amusement. A child of whom? A child of adultery, of illicit liaison …” It was believed that difficult childbirth was due either to some breach of tapu or to adultery, and until the woman had confessed the name of the true father and his genealogy had been recited, the child would not come forth. It must have been a rather grim business for all concerned. Children were usually welcome and shown much affection and indulgence, a fact commented upon by some of the early missionaries whose memories of their own Victorian upbringing would no doubt be very different. Marriage could be dissolved by desertion, because of adultery, and of course by death. “It was not unusual for widows to commit suicide in their excessive grief … husbands might commit suicide on the death of a wife, but I have found no record of an instance.” Remarriage was expected of widows, and it was possible, too, for deserted or deserting wives, providing that they weathered the storm. Dr Biggs completes his study with an appendix in both English and Maori, written by Wiremu Maihi Te Rangi-Koheke of the Arawa tribe about 1850. It is a detailed account of courtship, liaison ending in an irregular marriage, a taua muru, pregnancy, birth, and the associated rites. Here at last is what we have been searching for, the lost