Easier Among Primitive Peoples

Te Ao Hou, June 1965, Page 8

Easier Among Primitive Peoples With more primitive peoples, the ways of coping with the period of adolescence were comparatively simple. For one thing, the group concept was developed to a very high order, for the sheer necessity to survive compelled them to band together in a group. In the group, the sense of kinship was the thread by which they maintained their identity, and for this purpose certain techniques were developed—hence the significance of the flawless ability found in the recitation of geneo-logical tables, regarded as a very accomplished art carrying with it a highly envied status. In this type of society the role of the individual was well defined, as was also the role of each of the sub-groups. Only the children were free of responsibility to the group. As soon as the child reached the age of adolescence he was taken over and absorbed into the tribal pattern. He would accompany the young men on all the peacetime forages and expeditions, learning by precept and example his responsibility to provide and to share. There was a sort of curriculum for adolescence, and the goal toward maturity was clearly marked by certain tests of accomplishment and bravery which defined for the adolescent the state of manhood. In the Maori world a great deal of influence from these primitive elements persisted in their changing patterns up until just before World War Two. Until then the Maori community was still fairly compact, and Maori social patterns were still centred around the marae, the hui and the tangi. But with the coming of a national crisis and the need to direct labour to the essential industries, the last bulwark of Maori society fell to the devastating onslaught of western civilisation and culture. With the calamity of World War Two, the Maori community became dispersed — his institutions redundant, and the pattern of tribal cohesion lost. Most tragic of all, the system of patriarchal leadership and authority was left without a constitution.