Sacrifices to Ensure Fertility

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 44

Sacrifices to Ensure Fertility In primitive society it was regarded as essential that the fertility of the earth and of the next year's seed should be preserved and strengthened. This was done by means of religious ceremonies which sometimes involved human sacrifice. The earth must be fertile, or the world would perish, and even the gods would not receive their food. (In the Greek story of Demeter, she forces the god of the underworld to return her daughter by inflicting barrenness on the world). The gods have to be honoured with worship and to be fed with good, nourishing food, so that they are willing and able to ensure the fertility of the earth. They must receive the most precious of gifts: and often, these gifts took the form of human flesh and blood. There are many myths describing human sacrifices made at the time of the planting of crops. In James Frazer's ‘The Golden Bough’ several volumes are devoted to a discussion of this very wide-spread custom, and the beliefs which underlie it. It has been said above that in the myth the first person who goes down under the earth represents the seed which has been planted in the ground. The second person, who pursues the first in order to bring him or her up to the surface, represents the sacrificial victim whose death helps to ensure the growth and abundance of the new crop. Often, the first person in the myth runs away because he or she has been offended by the second person. Frazer associates this with the fact that it was often felt that the act of reaping and thrashing was likely to offend the spirit of the grain. It was partly for this reason that a sacrifice was felt to be necessary at the time of the planting of the new crops. Furthermore the tears shed by the offended person were identified with the rain necessary to make the new crop grow. In the two Maori myths discussed here, it is Hutu and Mataora who go under the earth to bring back to this world Pare and Niwareka, the woman whom they love and have lost. The names Hutu and Mataora both appear to be derived from Sanskrit words connected with sacrifice.3. Since initiation ceremonies marked the arrival of puberty; and the tapu areas tattooed were chiefly the face and thighs, it seems possible that although the word ‘Mataora’ appears to be derived from the Sanskrit words ‘MeAdha’ and ‘urja’, there may also have been a secondary underlying association with ‘MeAdhra’, the word for the male organ. The importance of the pun in mythology and psychology has been widely recognized. Maori : Hutu Sanskrit : Huta meaning : a sacrifice or offering Maori : Mata-ora Sanskrit : Medha meaning : a sacrificial victim; sap: a nourishing drink; marrow (especially of the sacrificial victim). Sanskrit : urja meaning : life, breath In both myths there are certain features which require further discussion, though this can only be done very briefly here.

In the much fuller version of the story of Niwareka and Mataora given by Percy Smith,4. S. Percy Smith, ‘The Lore of the Whare Wananga’, vol. III pp. 67 and 82 ff. The translation of the passage describing the dance is by the present writer. Mataora is visited by a party of turehu (female supernatural beings) who have come from the underworld. They perform a dance: ‘And then the company of turehu stood up to perform a haka before Mataora. As they danced, one of them came to the front, while the others danced backwards and forwards, chanting, “Thus goes Niwareka”. All of the turehu chanted this. As they danced they held hands, skipping. Some of them held up their joined hands as an archway, while others passed beneath them, still chanting, “Niwareka, Niwareka”.’ Since this is not like any known Maori dance, it seems that the description must refer to a dance, probably a ritual one, carried from an older culture. One is reminded of the ancient Mediterranean dance sometimes known as ‘the game of Troy’ which was danced in the labyrinth at Crete by the young men and women who were about to be sacrificed, and which appears in differing forms in fertility rituals in many cultures.