Century of Changes 4


 * Century of Changes 4
 * by Jonathan I. Edelstein
 * 22 January 2002

Aotearoa ... Unseen by the rest of the world, and somewhat earlier, Aotearoa suffered its own Great Dying. In Aotearoa, the killer was not the bubonic plague but diseases brought by visiting Western sailors during the 250s -- epidemics that are ironically the strongest historical proof that Benjamin of Tudela in fact encountered the Maori. The death rate from these epidemics was similar to, if not greater than, the toll taken by the Black Death in Africa and Asia; it is estimated that, between 255 and 310 [1027-1082 CE], the Maori population declined by half.

The effect of the plagues on the nascent Maori society was devastating. Some iwi were entirely wiped out; others fled Aotearoa and returned to Havaiki, bringing the epidemics with them. War also came to Aotearoa, as enterprising chiefs from Havaiki and the surrounding islands decided that the weakened Maori were ripe for the plucking.

At the same time, the Maori fell into civil strife over differing religious explanations of the epidemics. All agreed that the plagues had been sent to punish the Maori, but there was no consensus as to the source of the punishment or the transgression being punished. The tribes of eastern Aotearoa believed that the epidemics were caused by gods indigenous to the land who had not been sufficiently propitiated. In the west, the memory of the sailors' visit metamorphosed into the legend of the "Plague Gods." Recalling that some of the Plague Gods had spoken against human sacrifice, the western Maori determined that this was why they had been condemned. The warfare between the west and east was bitter, with easterners sacrificing prisoners to appease the gods of the land and westerners executing captured enemies as bringers of plague. In the end, the western Maori won out, although the land gods of the east continued to play a significant part in Maori religion.

The civil warfare, and the need to repel periodic invasions from Havaiki, caused the Maori tribes to build fortified towns and coalesce into kingdoms. By 330 [1102 CE], the northern island was divided into four proto-states which shared a common social structure and form of government. The king of each of these states reigned but did not rule; he led the kingdom's warriors in battle and performed rituals to placate the land gods but held no land himself. In theory, the king's word was law, but day-to-day decisions were in the hands of a council of iwi chiefs, and an elaborate web of ceremony prevented the king from exercising any real power...

... The success of the Maori in defeating the Havaiki invaders was due in part to another legacy of the sailors' visit: metalworking. The sailors' hosts had watched them make nails and copper fittings for their damaged ship and had received African steel swords as gifts. There was little iron on Aotearoa other than meteorites, but there were copper deposits on the outlying islands; by 275 [1047 CE], copper daggers and spear points were common, and the metal had become a valuable commodity in inter-tribal trade. During the early fourth century, gold and silver jewelry and ceremonial ornaments also began to appear along the Coromandel coast. The steel blades given by the sailors, which were finer and deadlier than anything the Maori could make, were prized as gifts of the gods themselves, and were thought to be efficacious in warding off disease...

... It was difficult to reconcile the Plague Gods' gift of metalworking with the devastating diseases they had brought. In time, however, the Plague Gods came to be seen almost as benevolent figures who had brought the Maori a great treasure, but who left the plagues on Aotearoa to remind its people that the gods give nothing for free. In time, the legend of the Plague Gods evolved still further, to one in which they brought new tools of warfare but caused the epidemics to remind the Maori of the value of human life. By the late fourth century, Maori religion had become remarkably life-affirming. Maori sometimes sacrificed themselves voluntarily in moments of great crisis, but priests were otherwise forbidden to kill, and they received training in medicine prior to being consecrated.

This benign religion, however, did not quench the Maori thirst for warfare, nor did it curb their desire to expand. Inevitably, some of them remembered the sailors' tales of land to the west. In the spring of 383 [1155 CE], two iwi of Maori set out across the western ocean...

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