Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Dance Essay: What are the gender roles in Poi and Haka and how do these reflect the values of that specific society?

Millennia ago, there existed a group of people known as the Māori. The practices of males and females differed significantly depending on their role in society. Much like any other tribe, the Māori women dedicated their lives to the upbringing of their children[1]. Being the backbone of a family involves many other responsibilities, too, such as cooking, sewing, and other household chores. The men, on the other hand, were committed to protecting their people. They safeguarded the women[2] and often travelled in large groups known as war parties to fight other groups. The Māori took their duties to society very seriously. In order to improve their techniques, they often honed them through dance. Women developed their hand coordination through the creative dance of Poi, whilst Māori men strengthened their mind, bodies, and image using the fierce warrior dance Haka.

In Māori legend, the sky and the earth were both assigned a gender[3]. The sky god was known as the Sky Father; Ranginui. The earth god was known as the Earth Mother; Papatuanuku. When the couple was separated, mortal life on earth began. Before the couple was separated, they gave birth to 70 sons, all separate gods. The gods noticed something was missing. Tane-Mahuta, the god of Man, created the female. Thus, Māori lore encourages male dominance over females. The male sky god is in a position of power in terms of height over the female earth god. Also, the female was created by the male. Therefore, it is also the protectorate of the female.

Whilst men were busy protecting the people, the women tended to equally as important passive duties. Many of these duties involved crafty handwork. To the Māori, ritual and dance carried much significance, so the Poi dance was created to improve the hand coordination of women[4]. Poi involves swinging two kis. A ki is a plaited flax rope, each with a woven flax basket containing a moa (egg of a now extinct bird) on the end. However, as the benefits of Poi dance became apparent to men, they realised that Poi could be used for honing weaponry skills and for hunting as well. For this the moa was replaced with large rocks and only one ki was used. Therefore, the Māori society was fairly male dominant, but they were prepared to share roles.

A male role in society is to defend their people. Before entering into battle the Māori men would perform the Haka dance[5]. There are two forms of the dance. The first is with weapons; the peruperu. This dance was said to invoke Tumatauenga, the god of war, one of the 70 sons. The other form of the dance is without weapons, haka taparahi, and usually accompanies cultural performances still today. For example, sports matches. However, only men’s teams practice this dance. But in the past, some war parties contained women, making the Haka a non-exclusive dance, like Poi.

The Māori people, as a society, practiced separate male and female dances. The dances were separate because their roles in society differed also. However, adaptions were made to the dances so they could be performed and used by the opposite sex. For example, Poi was adapted to work with weapons, and the Haka was preformed with women as they too become part of war parties. Therefore, as a society, the Māori people are very accepting of genders as well as adaptable and this value is underlined when observing their dances Poi and Haka.


[1] Mary-Kim, Arnold. "Kerewin's Character and the Cult of Domesticity." Kerewin's Character and the Cult of Domesticity. 15 Mar 2002 . Scholars.nus.edu.sg. 21 Jan 2008 <http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/nz/nzgender3.html>.
[2] Mary-Kim, “Mateship and The Family Man”
[3] Whitmore, Robbie. "Māori legends and myths." New Zealand in History. 02 May 2004 . New Zealand in History. 22 Jan 2008 <http://www.history-nz.org/maori9.html#creation>.
[4] Whitmore, "The History of Poi Toa."
[5] Whitmore, "Māori and Warfare."

Bibliography:

- Mary-Kim, Arnold. "Kerewin's Character and the Cult of Domesticity." Kerewin's Character and the Cult of Domesticity. 15 Mar 2002 . Scholars.nus.edu.sg. 21 Jan 2008 <http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/nz/nzgender3.html>.
- Mary-Kim, Arnold. "Mateship and the Family Man." Mateship and the Family Man. 15 Mar 2002 . Scholars.nus.edu.sg. 21 Jan 2008 < http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/nz/nzgender4.html>.
- Mary-Kim, Arnold. "New Zealand as a Gendered Culture." New Zealand as a Gendered Culture. 15 Mar 2002 . Scholars.nus.edu.sg. 21 Jan 2008 <http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/post/nz/nzgender1.html>.
- Whitmore, Robbie. "Māori legends and myths." New Zealand in History. 02 May 2004 . New Zealand in History. 22 Jan 2008 <http://www.history-nz.org/maori9.html#creation>.
- Whitmore, Robbie. "Māori and Warfare." New Zealand in History. 02 May 2004 . New Zealand in History. 22 Jan 2008 <http://history-nz.org/maori2.html>.
- Whitmore, Robbie. "The History of Poi Toa." New Zealand in History. 02 May 2004 . New Zealand in History. 22 Jan 2008 <http://history-nz.org/poi.html>.
- Whitmore, Robbie. "The Māori – Brief pre-history." New Zealand in History. 02 May 2004 . New Zealand in History. 22 Jan 2008 <http://history-nz.org/maori.html>.