Tapu and Mana: Ritual Authority and Political Power in Traditional Maori Society

Author(s): Ross Bowden

Source: The Journal of Pacific History, Vol. 14, No. 1, Islands Leadership [Part 1] (1979),
pp. 50-61
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
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 Tapir and Mana: ritual authority and political
power in traditional Maori society
ROSS BOWDEN

They choose their kings by birth, their commanders for merit.

These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the
commanders do more by example than authority ...
Tacitus, Germania

LEADERSHIP IN MAORI SOCIETY WAS NOT A SINGLE OR UNITARY PHENOMENON

but was composed of two complementary yet quite distinct aspects?ritual

or religious authority on the one hand and political power on the other.
Ritual authority, such as the authority to perform and determine when
life-cycle and other rites were to be held, was directly correlated with
rank genealogically defined. Ritual authority, moreover, was inherited
(ideally patrilineally and by primogeniture) and it was inalienable. The
exercise of political power operated along very different lines. Persons
of high rank (ariki and rangatira) were not ipso facto leaders in the
wider political sphere but only acquired and retained leadership if they
demonstrated the personal skills required of a leader. Persons of high
rank, furthermore, could lose effective leadership (in non-ritual matters)
as the result of personal incompetence, and persons of low rank could, and
probably fairly frequently did, rise to positions of political power. Hier
archy in Maori society, therefore, did not necessarily entail graduated
political power, but only graduated ritual authority, and was primarily
ritualistic or religious in nature. Ritual authority and political power were
conceptualized and defined quite differently in terms of the concepts of
tapu and mana respectively. It is only when a distinction is drawn between
these two complementary but fundamentally separate aspects of leadership
that the celebrated and problematic concepts of tapu and mana can be
properly understood.
Maori society before the mid-19th century was made up of some 50 politi
cally autonomous territorially discrete tribes (iwi), the members of most
of which traced descent from the occupants of the canoes which allegedly
brought the ancestors of the Maori to New Zealand from Hawaiki, i.e.
Raiatea.1 Tribes descended from the occupants of a single canoe formed a
l See E. Best, The Maori (Wellington 1924), I, 20-56; J. Metge, The Maoris of New
Zealand (London 1976; 1st ed. 1967), Ch. 1; R. Firth, Economics of the New Zealand Maori

5?

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 Tapu and mana 51
loose political confederation known as a waka ('canoe').2 Tribes comprising
a waka recognized some obligation to assist in time of war against mutual
enemies, but fighting between them was common and they were non
cohesive in times of peace. Tribes were descent groups in the broadest
sense since membership was based on descent (traced bilaterally) from the
tribe's founding ancestor. They were reported to have varied in size from
a few to many thousand members.3 A tribe was usually named after its
founding ancestor, the founder's name being prefixed by a term (Ngati-,
Ati- Ngai- etc.) which meant 'descendants of.
Tribes in turn were composed of a number of genealogically related
and ranked units known as hapuu4 the members of which traced descent
bilaterally from the hapuu s founding ancestor. The hapuu rather than the
tribe, it seems, was the basic social and political unit in Maori society.5
Hapuu operated as a group on many more occasions than the tribe,
especially with regard to land use, the production and use of capital assets
such as large canoes and meeting houses, and the entertainment of visitors.*
Most of a hapuu s members lived on hapuu territory, forming, with slaves
and in-marrying spouses, one or two local communities (kaainga). In con
versation and speech-making the community was identified with hapuu
and by its name. In-marrying spouses (male and female) were not recognized
as members of the hapuu but were assimilated to it as an operational group
and given rights of use over its resources so long as they lived on its terri
tory. Members of a hapuu who left its territory did not forfeit membership,
and could pass on a claim to membership to their heirs, but they were not
reckoned as part of its effective strength unless they returned. Most mar
riages took place at the intra-hapuu level. Hapuu size varied greatly but
most comprised several hundred members.
The concrete focus of Maori social and domestic life, however, was the
whaanau, 'extended family'.7 Occupying a single dwelling a whaanau
usually consisted of a senior male member (the kaumaatua), his wife or

(Wellington 1972; 1st ed. 1929), 115 passim; D. M. Stafford, Te Arawa: a history of the Arawa
people (Wellington 1967), App. 1; M. Orbell, 'The religious significance of Maori migration
traditions', lournal of the Polynesian Society (hereinafter IPS), LXXXIV (1975), 341-7.
2 Best, op. cit., 340, 341.
3 Metge, op. cit., 6.
4 Long vowels in Maori words are doubled.
5 See N. K. Hopa, 'The rangatira: chieftainship in traditional Maori society', [Link] thesis,
University of Oxford (Oxford 1966), 61 passim.
6 Metge, op. cit., 7.
T Firth, op. cit., 111. For a recent discussion of hapuu and whaanau see S. Webster, 'Cog
natic descent groups and the contemporary Maori: a preliminary reassessment', IPS, LXXXIV
(1975), 121-52.

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 52 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

wives, unmarried children, married children (usually sons) and their wives
and children, and occasionally slaves. The whaanau functioned as an inde
pendent unit for all ordinary social and economic purposes. It was fairly
self reliant except in matters affected by village or tribe policy,8 such as
the disposal of land to other groups and the formation of political alliances
in war.
The senior genealogically defined members of a hapuu and tribe were
known as rangatira. These were the persons who could trace descent back
to the eponymous founding ancestors of hapuu and tribe through elder
and preferably male siblings in each generation. Descendants of junior
lines were known at tuutuuaa or ware.9 As Metge notes, however, inasmuch
as all persons were related to a chief by descent from a common ancestor
and often also by marriage, any person could claim to be rangatira. Best in
fact reports that he never met a Maori who admitted to being a member
of the 'commoner' class. Each hapuu had a recognized 'chief (rangatira).
The chief of the senior hapuu in a tribe was known as the ariki (a term that
is commonly translated as 'paramount chief').10
Personal status in Maori society was determined on the basis of both sex
and genealogically defined rank. Differences in status were expressed in
terms of the opposed concepts of tapu and noa,11 commonly translated as
'sacred' and 'profane' or 'sacred' and 'common' respectively.12
In Maori society the male was intrinsically tapu and superior in status
to the female who was intrinsically noa or devoid of [Link] The intrinsi
cally tapu nature of all males and the intrinsically noa nature of all females,
however, was modified by rank genealogically defined. An elder sibling
was inherently more tapu than, and superior in status to, a younger sibling,
and the descendants of an elder sibling were inherently more tapu than,
and superior in status to, the descendants of a younger sibling. Defined in

8 Firth, op. cit., 111; see also Best, op. cit., 343.
& Metge, op. cit., 9-10; Best, op. cit., 3458?.
10 Best and others report that a tribe might contain a number of persons entitled 'ariki'
since the term, in Best's view, simply meant 'a first-born male or female of a leading family
of a tribe'. In these cases the various ariki would be ranked and distinguished by additional
titles. Best, op. cit., 345ff; see also I. Goldman, Ancient Polynesian society (Chicago 1970), 35,
42; M. Winiata, 'Leadership in pre-European Maori society', JPS, XLV (1956), 212-31.
11 See R. Bowden, 'The concepts of tapu and noa as an expression of hierarchy in Maori
society', [Link] thesis, University of Oxford (Oxford 1971).
12 See, e.g., H. W. Williams, A dictionary of the Maori language (Wellington 1971; 1st ed.
1844)* 385> 222.
13 The belief that males were intrinsically tapu and females intriniscally noa was based on
the dogma that males were descended from the tapu upperworld through Rangi and the Sky
Father while females were descended from the noa mundane world through Papa the Earth
Mother. See Best, op. cit., 299, 404-6.

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 Tapu and mana 53
terms of both sex and genealogical position, therefore, all persons in hapuu
and tribe, except slaves,14 possessed different amounts of tapu. The person
of highest status and the possessor of the greatest amount of personal tapu
in hapuu and tribe was the ariki, the senior male member of the senior
line descended from Rangi the Sky Father.
Differences in status, defined in terms of the relative possession of tapu,
were expressed and institutionalized by rules relating to physical contact,
commensality, and connubium.15 The basic idea underlying these very
elaborate rules was that tapu and noa persons and things should, as far as
possible, be kept separate. Unregulated contact between tapu and noa
resulted in 'pollution' (taapohe or taamaoa) of tapu and danger, social
and/or supernatural, to the polluting agent. However, it is in the context
of the relationship between status, defined in terms of tapu, and the priest
hood that the ritualistic or religious nature of status in Maori society is
most clearly brought out.
All ritual or 'esoteric' knowledge (waananga) was taught in various rank
ed schools.16 The most important and tapu ritual knowledge was taught
in the school referred to as the whare waananga, access to which was restrict
ed to the highest ranking male members of a tribe?the son(s) of an ariki
and the eldest sons of other high ranking male members of the 'rangatira
class'. Second sons were sometimes admitted if they showed outstanding
promise.17 Specialized ritual knowledge of a less tapu nature (relating to
such matters as agriculture) was also taught in other 'schools' to larger
audiences of males of all rank. 'Low class' magic such as 'witchcraft'
(maakutu) was again taught to males of all rank but generally not 'in any
building wherein high-class matters were dealt with, because tohunga of
the superior grade objected to it'.18 The acquisition of specialized ritual
knowledge, therefore, was conditional upon rank, only the highest rank
ing males having a right to acquire knowledge of the most important and
tapu ritual lore. The whare waananga and everything associated with it
was intensely tapu and 'there was much highly tapu ritual pertaining to
the methods and conduct of these teachings'.19 Persons who passed through
14 For comments on the position of slaves in the Maori status system see Best, op. cit., I,
345ff, II, 299; Metge, op. cit., 10.
15 For a detailed discussion of tapu and noa in these contexts see Bowden, op. cit., 87-118.
16 Best, op. cit., I, 7off; see also E. Best, The Maori school of learning, Dominion Museum
Monograph No. 6 (Wellington 1923); Firth, op. cit., 27iff; S. Percy Smith, 'On the tohunga
Maori', Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, XXXII (1899), 253-70;
Metge, op. cit., 29-31; J. White, The ancient history of the Maori (Wellington 1887), I, 8-16.
17 White, ibid., 2.
18 Best, The Maori, I, 69.
i? Ibid.

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 54 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

this school represented the 'highest' class of priests known as tohunga

ahurewa, tohunga taua or tohunga tuuaahu. The term 'tohunga' in fact
means 'specialist'; the qualifying terms refer to the areas of specialization.
'Ahurewa', according to Best, referred to the base of the post (pou-toko
maanawa) supporting the ridgepole in the whare waananga, the most tapu
part of this building and at which all ceremonial in the whare would be
conducted.20 Consequently he defines the tohunga ahurewa as the 'priestly
experts of the whare waananga'.21 'Tuuaahu' is the name of the tapu site
outside a Maori village at which most rituals were performed. 'Taua', on
the other hand, means 'war party', so that a tohunga taua was a specialist
in ritual relating to war.
These tohunga were 'the most important', the priests of highest rank
whose duty it was to perform the most important rites.22 Firth lists the
functions of a high ranking tohunga as follows:

By reason of his knowledge of spells and magical technique, and also of his
general command of practical subjects, he was continually requisitioned to
officiate at the crises of life, such as birth, marriage, and death, on occasions
of baptism, war, illness, loss of property by theft, attempts to gain someone's
affections or to lay a curse on an enemy. In major economic affairs, also the
tohunga took a leading part.28
Best claims that a 'high-class' tohunga often had the last word in tribal
disputes, received guests on his marae, conducted all the more important
rituals such as offering tapu objects and the firstfruits of birds, fish, cultivat
ed and uncultivated foods to the gods, and carried out ceremonies pertain
ing to war, sickness, and 'all tapu things'. This was to ensure the favour
of the gods in any enterprise, however trivial.24
The tribal ariki was invariably the highest ranking tohunga in the com
munity and as such was known as the tohunga ariki. By virtue of his status
and personal tapu} the ariki held supreme authority in all ritual matters.
This followed from the fact that the ariki was thought of as 'the "human
resting place" of the gods ... In the case of such a person, there was, to
the native mind, but a narrow gulf between humanity and divinity, and
such a person as this ariki might also term himself an atua [god] . . . This

20 ibid., 70; also Firth, op. cit., 101.

21 Best, op. cit., 78; cf. Williams, op. cit., 4.
22 E. Best, Tuhoe: the children of the mist (New Plymouth 1925), I, 1078.
23 Firth, op. cit., 30.
24 E. Best, Maori religion and mythology, Dominion Museum Bulletin No. 10 (Wellington
1924), 167, 163.

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 Tapu and mana 55
would be a natural sequence when men were believed to be descended from
the gods-,25
Although the ariki held supreme authority in all ritual matters he
could, and probably often did, delegate ritual authority to a lower ranking
tohunga in specialized ritual contexts. Some months prior to the opening
of the bird-snaring season, for instance, a raahui (prohibition) would be
placed on the areas of forest where birds were to be hunted.26 The impos
ing of the raahui would be accompanied by the whakaono ritual designed
to 'reinvigorate' the mauri of the forest.27 Again, on the first day of the
bird-snaring season proper a ceremony would be performed to ward off ill
luck, and this would be followed by a complex ceremony (the whakanoa
rite) designed to remove the tapu from the forest and enable all members
of the community to begin bird-snaring. If an ariki was not as personally
skilled in all aspects of bird-snaring as a lower ranking tohunga the latter
could take responsibility for performing much of the ritual involved. The
ariki, however, retained ultimate ritual authority in the matters at hand
since only he, by virtue of his status and personal tapu, had the authority
to impose or lift the tapu from the forest. The ariki 'had magical and reli
gious powers of a peculiar kind, of such nature that he and he alone, was
qualified to perform certain economic functions. Even though he might be
lacking in practical ability . . . yet would he be called upon from time to
time to use his peculiar powers in the economic interests of the people.'28
In Maori society, the ultimate authority to impose or lift tabus was
exclusively the privilege of an ariki. Persons of low rank who rose to
positions of great political influence never acquired this right.
The special position of the chief as a leader in the widest sense was
seen in, among other things, the weight of his opinion at public gather
ings, his trained proficiency as an orator, his knowledge of genealogies,
proverbs and sayings, and his assumption of leaderhip in war and large
scale economic undertakings. Practical qualities such as decisiveness of
character, foresight, initiative, and personal ability were needed as well.29
25 Best, Tuhoe . . . , I, 1066.
26 This commonly involved the setting up of a post (the pou raahui) on which some tapu
article such as a lock of hair belonging to the person imposing the prohibition was deposited.
Whatever had been made raahui in this way was placed under an embargo and protected both
supernaturally and socially. Firth notes that disregard of a raahui prohibition was an 'insult'
to the person imposing the tapu and a common cause of inter-hapuu and inter-tribal warfare.
Firth, op. cit., 258-62.
27 Firth describes the mauri of the forest as the 'magical talisman' which guarded the hau
of the forest and preserved its fertility and the abundance of its birds. Ibid., 152.
28 Ibid., 237-8.
29 Ibid., 107.

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 56 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

To exercise effective leadership, Best reports, a person required the follow

ing eight 'qualities' or puu manawa: industry in obtaining food and culti
vating it; ability in settling disputes; bravery; good leadership in war and
'ability as a general'; skill in carving, tattooing and ornamental weaving;
hospitality; skill at building houses or pa and in canoe making; and a good
knowledge of tribal boundaries.30
Political power in Maori society did not entail supernaturally or socially
sanctioned coercive authority. Early observers such as Marsden were at
pains to point out that 'chiefs' had little, if any, power to command except
over slaves. Marsden reports that were a chief to call on any free (non
slave) people within his jurisdiction to labour, they would pay little atten
tion to his commands. He had no authority over them in this respect, nor
the means to enforce their obedience.31 This absence of coercive authority
led other early writers such as Earle to attribute to the Maori a need for
'regular government'.32 Shortland, for similar reasons, described Maori
society as a 'democracy limited by a certain amount of patriarchal
influence'.33 Again, in war, as Thomson notes, fighting men were 'led'
rather than 'ordered'.34 Pare Hopa, a Maori anthropologist, similarly
observes that 'chiefs were essentially leaders, and not political functionaries
invested with the power to command their people ... a chief had very little
social power'. In a more general vein the same writer points out that junior
chiefs (rangatira) had little regard for the authority (in non-ritual contexts)
of paramount chiefs (ariki) and that 'political relationships between local
groups [hapuu] and therefore their chiefs, within the same tribe, were
characterized by attitudes of actual and potential hostility, expressed in
the institutions of warfare, blood vengeance and plunder'.35
John White, one of the best 19th century observers of the Maori,
similarly stressed the absence of coercive authority. 'The word "chief", as
understood by Europeans, leads to false conclusions . . . there is not any
chief or ariki of a tribe, or even all the chiefs and arikis of any iwi together,
who can collectively give a guarantee that they will make iwi, or any hapuu

30 E. Best, 'Omens and superstitious beliefs of the Maori', JPS, VII (1898), 242. See also
Firth, op. cit., 107. It is worth noting here that none of Best's puu manawa refer to genealogi
cally defined rank as such.
31 Marsden's first New Zealand Journal, in J. R. Elder, Letters and journals of Samuel
Marsden (Dunedin 1932), 118.
32 A. Earle, Narrative of a nine months* residence in New Zealand in 1827 (London 1932),
67.
33 E. Shortland, Traditions and superstitions of the New Zealanders (London 1856; 1st ed.
1854), 227.
34 A. S. Thomson, Story of New Zealand (London 1859), I, 125.
35 Hopa, op. cit., 57, 58, 56.

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 Tapu and mana 57
in it, act up to any terms they (the chiefs) may agree to'. White also observes
that 'any influence that may be exercised by an ariki or chief is allowed
by the people and not assumed by right of birth'.36
To the extent that persons (i.e. males)37 did exercise political influence,
differences in political power were defined exclusively in terms of the
differential possession of mana. The Maori concept of mana has been gloss
ed in a variety of ways. Williams translates it in part as 'influence, prestige,
power'.38 Tregear gives 'authority'; 'having authority, influence, prestige'
as well as 'supernatural power; divine authority; having qualities which
ordinary persons or things do not possess' (e.g. 'He taiaha whaimana = A
wooden sword, which has done deeds so wonderful as to possess a sanctity
and power of its own').39 Shortland has suggested 'genius and energy', White
'influence' and 'fame'; Donne 'prestige', 'influence, personality, power', and
Maning 'prestige, authority, good fortune, influence, sanctity, luck'. Metge
translates mana as 'power of supernatural origin; authority, influence, pres
tige; ability to get things done successfully'. Buck suggests 'power and
prestige' and Firth has defined it as 'some extra efficiency or virtue with a
supernormal tinge'.40 The important point here is that mana, unlike tapu,
is a success or achievement oriented concept. According to the. Maori
anthropologist, Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), for instance, 'The mana of a
chief . . . was not a mysterious indefinable quality flowing from super
natural sources; it was basically the result of successive and successful
human achievement'.41 T. W. Gudgeon goes even further and states that
'Chieftainship [i.e. effective political power and mana] is merely a prestige
ascribed by a tribe to individuals which gave its possessors an influence or
control in proportion to the chicanery, gift of oratory or respect they could
command'.42

36 j. White, 'Lectures on Maori customs and superstitions', in T. W. Gudgeon, The history

and doings of the Maoris (Auckland 1885), 224, 221.
37 Hopa notes that females, including those of the highest rank, were generally excluded
from positions of leadership in 'secular and ritual affairs'. The only significant role women
played politically, Hopa reports, was as wives in inter-hapuu and inter-tribal marriage alliances.
Hopa, op. cit., 84.
38 Williams, op. cit., 172.
39 E. Tregear, The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary (Wellington 1891), 203.
40 Shortland, op. cit., 85; White, The ancient history . . ., Ill, 76, 316; T. E. Donne, The
Maori, past and present (London 1927), 95, 281; A Pakeha Maori [F. E. Maning], Old New
Zealand (Auckland 1922; 1st ed. 1863), 240; Metge, op. cit., 339; P. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa),
The coming of the Maori (Wellington 1949), 346; Firth, op. cit., 391.
41 Buck, op. cit., 346.
42 Gudgeon, op. cit., 10. It is beyond the scope of this essay to comment on attempts to
find analogies of mana (and tapu) outside the Pacific. It is worth mentioning, however, that a
striking analogy of mana is found in the Homeric concept of kudos, a term which nowadays
signifies 'prestige', 'glory', 'renown'. The French Iranianist Emile Benveniste has demonstrated

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 58 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

Mana, unlike tapu or ritual authority, could both be lost by a person

of high rank (genealogically defined) through lack of personal ability in the
political arena, and acquired by a person of low rank solely on the basis of
personal achievement. Persons of high rank, it seems, were, by virtue of their
position, endowed with a certain amount of mana (such as the 'mana ariki').
Thus Makerati states that an ariki 'if he was descended . . . through various
lines from noted ancestors was a tino ariki mana nui, a great ariki who had
great mana'.4* But the mana of an ariki (or lower ranking rangatira) was only
retained so long as the person concerned demonstrated that he possessed
the kinds of personal qualities that commanded respect. John White
remarks 'Although the natives allow a great influence, and even pay a great
respect to the offspring of their aristocracy, yet if this power is unaccom
panied by intellect and bravery, the ariki of a tribe or chief of a hapuu
may be supplanted by an inferior chief. According to Firth, 'The Maori,
despite his reverence for primogeniture, has a sane outlook in such matters;
he does not blindly allow the fortunes of the tribe to be sacrificed to the
lack of ability of the lineal chieftain'.44
White lists a number of ways in which an ariki could lose all personal
influence in social affairs. If an ariki, for instance, was to exercise his right
to impose a tapatapa prohibition on some object (such as a canoe) by
naming it after himself and thus restrict the use of it to himself by making
it tapu, but did not compensate the owner with a gift, he would give
offence to the people and lose any personal influence he might have. An
ariki could also lose personal influence through covetousness, neglect to
entertain visitors, too much austerity towards slaves, bad memory in respect
to past history and mythology or as the result of a loquacious or bombastic
manner. Again, 'want of intellect' 'inevitably excludes an ariki from any
power over his people*. Theft similarly resulted in complete loss of mana.45

that kudos, normally translated as 'glory', primarily signified 'magical power' and that kudos
was a substance/quality of ultimately supernatural origin which the gods selectively imparted
to men, such as warriors, to enable them to achieve outstanding feats. (Benveniste relates
kudos etymologically to the Slavonic concept cudo, 'miracle'.) Mana, similarly, signified both
magical power and prestige; like kudos it was a substance/quality of supernatural origin which
accounted for, and was attributed to persons on the basis of, outstanding personal achieve
ment in any field (military, ritual and so on). See E. Benveniste, Le vocahulaire des institutions
indo-europeennes (Paris 1969), II, 57-69. I am not arguing that mana exclusively signified
political power, but only that political power was conceptualized and defined in terms of mana
(rather than tapu).
43 Makereti, The old time Maori, ed. T. K. Penniman (London 1938), 155. See also Buck,
op. cit., 346; Metge, op. cit., 8.
44 White, 'Lectures . . . ', 223; Firth, op. cit., 132, 108.
45 White, op. cit., 220.

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 Tapu and mana 59
Best succinctly sums up the matter by saying 'A rangatira, to preserve his
mana and position, must act in a rangatira like manner'.46 Persons of high
rank and office, therefore, were not necessarily leaders.
There are a number of examples of loss of chiefly mana as a result of
personal incompetence. Firth cites the case of Te Hira, by birth the here
ditary chief of the Te Taou hapuu of the Ngatiwhatua tribe. Neither Te
Hira nor his brother had forceful characters, 'Hence their father passed
his mana (authority) on to Paora Tuhaere, his nephew. To this man the
Ngatiwhatua of that hapuu looked for guidance, and he was their recog
nized political head . . . and conducted the affairs of the people to the time
of his death.'47
There are also a number of examples of the achievement of mana by
persons of low rank solely on the basis of personal ability. Both Firth and
White cite the case of Te Rauparaha. Te Rauparaha, popularly known
as the 'Napoleon of the South', was one of the most famous military and
political leaders in the early part of the 19th century whose political
suzerainty in the 1840s encompassed both sides of Cook Strait. From a base
on Kapiti Island Rauparaha undertook successful military forays down
both sides of the South Island at least as far as Banks Peninsula.48 Accord
ing to White Te Rauparaha was not a person of rank but was a descendant
of a junior branch of the ariki family of Tainui. As a result of 'inter
marriage of his projenitors with minor chiefs and women of other tribes,
he held no influence by birth'. Solely on the basis of his military abilities,
Te Rau acquired undisputed leadership of his own and a related tribe
(the Ngatitoa and Ngatiraukawa respectively).49
Although persons of high rank could lose effective political power
(defined in terms of mana), and persons of low rank could achieve hapuu

46 Best, The Maori, I, 347.

47 Firth, op. cit., 107-8. Firth reports that a chief commonly nominated his successor before
his death. The eldest son of the deceased chief, if a man of proved ability, might also assume
his father's place without formal acknowledgement. But, irrespective of the manner in which
the heir was chosen, 'the tacit acceptance of the people, as shown in their obedience to his
wishes was needed as an endorsement of his position and authority'. Firth, ibid., 109.
48 See W. T. L. Travers, Some chapters in the life and times of Te Rauparaha, chief of
the Ngatitoa (Christchurch 1872).
49 The manner in which Te Rau succeeded to the position of leader of the Ngatitoa is
described by Firth, op. cit., 108-9. In commenting on the cases of Paore Tuhaere and Te
Rauparaha Firth notes that a person who achieved tribal leadership on the basis of personal
abilities rather than birth was 'always recognised as holding his position in such a capacity'
and known as a rangatira paraparau. That is to say, persons who achieved tribal leadership
did not succeed to, and were not installed in the title and office of ariki unless they were of
the appropriate rank genealogically defined. The office of ariki was not primarily a political
one, for it did not automatically confer political power on the holder of the office.

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 60 THE JOURNAL OF PACIFIC HISTORY

or tribal leadership, ritual authority, defined in terms of tapu, could not

be lost through lack of personal ability and similarly could not be achieved.
In discussing the case of Te Hira cited above Firth points out that although
he lost political leadership of his hapuu through personal incompetence,
Te Hira nevertheless retained authority in all ritual matters:
In certain magical and ceremonial performances, he and he only could
officiate. Thus for the imposing and lifting of tapu, the carrying out of ritual
observances as at the birth of children, hair cutting, the fixing of boundary
marks, defining tribal territory, reciting of curative magic and the like none
else could take his place. The reception of visitors, speech-making on state
occasions, as for the tribe as a whole, the recital of genealogies and the giving
and receiving of presents were all the privileges of Te Hira . . . With him
rested the guardianship of the tribal taonga (heirlooms) and the mauri (talis
mans) of fisheries and forests. All this centered around him as ariki.50
White gives an even more striking example of the way in which ritual
authority was retained despite the loss of all mana in social and political
affairs. The ariki of the Ngatikaihoro tribe of the Ngaphui hapuu named
Manu was known as a thief, and as a result lost his influence over the
people in all except matters of tapu. His sister's son took over the leader
ship of the hapuu, but when a certain piece of land was needed by the
hapuu for cultivation this man was powerless to remove the tapu on it and
it could not be occupied. Manu, who was still the ariki, was persuaded to
remove the tapu by incantations, and the land was occupied by the people.
Te Rauparaha's superior intellect and prowess as a leader of a war party,
though it gave him a certain influence or mana, did not allow him to make
anything tapu: 'his mana only went so far as his protecting power and
counsel were required; the Ngatiraukawa ariki and the Ngatitoa ariki still
retained the power of making or taking the tapu off anything'.51

leadership in Maori society had two quite distinct manifestations in ritual

authority and political power. Ritual authority, defined in terms of tapu,
was socially ascribed on the basis of genealogically defined rank and sex,
and was inalienable. Political power, defined in terms of mana, was not
socially ascribed on the basis of rank or office but was achieved and retained
solely on the basis of demonstrated personal skills. Ritual authority was
not a necessary concomitant of political power nor was political power a
necessary concomitant of ritual authority. Hierarchy in Maori society did
not entail graduated political power, but only graduated ritual authority,
50 ibid., 108 (my ital.). Firth also notes that the son or grandson of an incompetent ariki
might again recover the political and social status of his less competent father or grandfather.
51 White, op. cit., 224, 223.

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 Tapu and mana 61
and was primarily ritualistic or religious in nature. It follows, therefore,
that the position of the ariki or 'chief was also primarily a priestly or
religious one. This in fact is the sense explicitly given to it by authorities
such as White and Tregear. As White puts it, the authority of the ariki
'only extends to those matters in which the interference of the gods may
be recognized'; in other matters a 'minor chief may set at defiance the
opinion of an ariki, and act as seems to his good'.52
Various studies have been made of the 'dual nature of sovereignty',
the complementary roles of priest and chief and the ordering of social life
by the dualistic notions of religious authority and secular power, in societies
elsewhere.53 Although Maori society is clearly very different from that of
the Meru of Kenya (the subject of Needham's study), or Coomaraswamy's
ancient India, Maori 'sovereignty' had two complementary but funda
mentally distinct aspects which could be compared to the complementary
and dualistic notions of religious authority and secular power underlying
leadership and patterns of authority in these societies. It remains to be seen
whether authority systems in other parts of the Pacific exhibit a similar dual
istic structure.

52 White, op. cit., 217, 221. See also E. Tregear, The Maori race (Wanganui 1904), 151-311.
53 R. Hertz, 'La preeminence de la main droite: etude sur la polarite religieuse', Revue
philosophique, LXVIII (1909), 553-80, repr. and trans, as 'The pre-eminence of the right hand:
a study in religious polarity', in R. Needham (ed.) Right and Left (Chicago 1973), 3-31; A. K.
Coomaraswamy, Spiritual authority and temporal power in the Indian theory of government
(New Haven 1942); G. Dumezil, Mitra-Varuna; essai sur deux representations indo-europiennes
de la souverainete (Paris 1948; 1st ed. 1940); R. Needham, 'The left hand of the Mugwe',
Africa, XXX (i960), 20-33 (reprinted in Needham, op. cit., 109-27).

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