Case Study: The Maori of New Zealand
Allan Hanson proposed that several aspects of Maori culture had been invented by European scholars who were accustomed to analytical frameworks focused on long-distance migration and diffusion. Because of this, he believed that European scholars constructed the notion that a "Great Fleet" headed by a man named Kupe from a neighboring island was responsible for the initial discovery and peopling of New Zealand. Although Maori ancestors most likely did arrive in canoes coming from nearby islands, Hanson believed that the account of the Great Fleet was created in order to simplify various Maori traditions into a single tradition. Additionally, in order to make the Maoris seem more elevated in European eyes, scholars may have invented a cult to a god named Io. Io was thought to be a supreme being that controlled all the other gods in the Maori pantheon. The story of Io creating the world is very similar to that of the Book of Genesis in the Bible, so similar that it is believed to be of European invention. Hanson asserted that these and other elements of Maori tradition were incorporated and taken to be true by the Maoris, and that they have been passed down through generations by way of oral tradition. According to Hanson, "Io and the Great Fleet have been incorporated into Maori lore and are passed down from elders to juniors in storytelling, oratory, and other Maori contexts."
Read more about this topic: Cultural Invention
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