Culture and Religion- Western Ignorance

The notion that the Māori engaged in cannibalistic behavior because of some cultural belief akin to the law of sympathetic magic seems like a stretch. I'm only now understanding the real difficulties of an anthropologist. Our cultural perspective is ingrained into us in a way that is almost hard to fathom.

Many of the European explorers like Tasman and Cook had terrible misunderstandings with the Māori that led to brutal acts of cannibalism. The most notorious example would be the French explorer Marion De Fresne whose crew became quite friendly with the Māori they encountered until a few of the crew members were invited to a meeting with the tribe where they were treacherously slaughtered and eaten. From a European perspective this does indeed seem like treachery. They had good relations and traded often and as far as Fresne's crew was concerned they had done nothing to instigate the attack. That's the problem-- The Europeans were completely ignorant of Māori cultural beliefs and at that time had no way of really finding anything out because of language barriers. These barriers are what led to cannibalistic behavior between the two groups.

The Māori have a much different notion of space than the Europeans. It is Māori tradition to have some sort of religious or cultural justification or connotation for territorial claims (including those within the tribe, like the chiefs living space). The space is referred to as being either Tapu or Noa. Something that is tapu is restricted because it is sacred. The Māori believe that the world is full of mana, or spritual essence, and that certain places and people have more of it. Only people of high rank (or no one at all) can access these places. If a place is noa it is common. If tapu places are polluted they can become noa and for that reason noa often has a negative connotation. The European's notion of space is very individualistic and based on legal laws--similar to laws of tapu in the way that they organize the land into different parts that different people can access but different in the rationale behind it. A violation of tapu is the main reason for conflict in Māori culture and is reprimanded in various ways, the most extreme punishment being cannibalism! In order to maintain a balance in such a delicate system, the tribes developed a debit and credit system of utu-- the balance or conservation of mana-- which from a European perspective would look more like revenge. If a tribe violates another tribes tapu they might respond by eating the individual who violated tapu. The tribe the individual belonged to, depending on his status in the tribe and actions, would either see the killing as a violation of tapu and respond in kind or see it as a just kill that caused balance. The anger associated with the Western equivalent of utu, revenge, is not necessarily present when a tribe cannibalizes.

It turns out that Fresne's crew had chopped down trees from a forest that was tapu to the Māori which is why they resorted to cannibalism. It might have seemed like treachery because the crew members were led to believe everything was alright, but in the Māori's mind everything was alright. They were simply fulfilling their duties to balance the situation. Both the Europeans and the Māori suffered from this misunderstanding.