Iwi

In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe", or confederation of tribes, however "peoples" is considered a "better gloss" because "it avoids the structural connotations" of the tribal terms. Anthropological research identifies the "lack of precision" nineteenth-century Europeans had when defining communities new to them resulting in "confusion about Māori social structure" (p. 56). Further, the author indicates that most Māori in pre-European times gave their primary allegiance to relatively small groups such as hapū ("clans") and whānau ("extended families").