This work is an excellent introduction to the history of Maori and their myths and legends. It contains some of the best-drawn art inspired by Maori legend and tradition, and the illustrations are so impactful that they stay with you forever. Te Tohunga in Maori means a talented practitioner of any craft or art, religious or otherwise. Hamburg-born artist, Wilhelm Dittmer, has described the art with great detail and precision. The language remains easy to comprehend throughout the book. He includes descriptions of famous Maori art pieces titled: Tiki—the Ancestor of Mankind; The Creation of Hawaiki; The Battle of the Giants; The Death of Maui; The Fight of Night and Day, and many more. Maori Art is a traditional New Zealand art that consists of the art of the Maori people, who initially settled the island between 1250–1300 CE. Maori graphic art comprises mainly of four forms: carving, tattooing, weaving, and painting. Traditional Maori art was favorably spiritual and told details about their ancestry and other culturally essential topics. The dominant colors in the art were black, white, and red dominated.

A comprehensive study of the Maori in New Zealand, this book covers Maori history and culture, language and art and includes chapters on the following: · Basic concepts in Maori culture · Land · Kinship · Education · Association · Leadership & social control · The Marae · Hui · Maori and Pakeha · Maori spelling and pronunciation There is an extensive glossary, bibliography and index. First published in 1967. This edition reprints the revised edition of 1976.

This is a study of the Young Maori Party, led by Peter Buck, Apirana Ngata, and Maui Pomare and its remarkable success in halting the decline of the Maori population and improving Maori health at grass roots level.

"This is the final work in the trilogy dealing with the great Tuhoe tohunga Hohepa Kereopa. After spending five years working with Hohepa, Paul Moon's extraordinary concluding volume is a powerful, moving work, evoking the majesty of the Ureweras, delving into the metaphysical realm of one of Maoridom's most renowned tohunga and traversing a remarkable period of New Zealand history"--Back cover.

A guide to worldwide shamanism and shamanistic practices, emphasizing historical and current cultural adaptations. This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices. What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.