Why did women need a beard, and why was it considered beautiful in the Maori tribe.
If you look at the photographs of the New Zealand Maori people, taken in the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries, it would seem that almost all women are … bearded! However, after looking closely, it becomes clear: the beards of Maori beauties do not grow, and skilfully made tattoos adorn the collections and lips. Where did this unusual tradition come from? And why, for the Maori, a woman’s beard is not at all an anomaly, but a sign of real beauty and a noble family? We will tell you in this article.
History of the Maori tribe
A beautiful legend tells that once upon a time the Maori settled in the uninhabited lands of New Zealand, arriving there by seven canoes. This happened, according to the calculations of modern scientists, around 1280 AD. The ancestral home of the Maori and all Polynesians is the island of Taiwan near mainland China. And the source of the special beauty of Maori women is called the mixing of races – Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Australoid.
However, relations with the Europeans did not work out at first. When the ships of the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman arrived in New Zealand in 1942, the Maori attacked his sailors, several were killed and eaten. Cannibalism in this tribe was in the order of things. While travelers were shocked by this behavior, Tasman christened the ominous place Assassin’s Cove. More than 120 years passed before the Europeans ventured here again. In 1769, James Cook and his companions landed on the New Zealand coast. How he managed to negotiate with the local population is unknown, but the Maori did not eat him. This was done later by the Hawaiians – other Polynesian aborigines.
Maori princess, photo 1880
English colonization began with Cook’s expedition. And if by 1830 there were about 100 thousand Maori and 2 thousand Europeans in New Zealand, then by the end of the 10th century no more than 30% of the indigenous population remained. Moreover, the best lands were taken away from them or bought for a pittance. In the XNUMXs of the XX century, they even began to take special measures to save the disappearing nation: Maori families were given a cash allowance upon the birth of a child.
Nowadays, about 600 thousand Maori live in New Zealand – more precisely, according to the 2013 census, there were 598,6 thousand people. Another 126 thousand live in Australia, and about 8 thousand Maori are residents of the UK. Of this total, 50 thousand people speak their native language, and about 100 thousand understand the Maori language, but cannot speak it.
Once they chose the definition of “ordinary, natural” – this is how the name Maori itself is translated. And in ancient Maori myths, mortal people opposed to deities and spirits were designated this way. But it would be strange to call them ordinary. The Maori are one of the few peoples on earth that have retained their identity. Perhaps this is due to their bloodthirsty attitude and isolation. One way or another, their culture fascinates and attracts.
The meaning of Maori women tattoos
In our time, tattoos in the spirit of the Maori – the so-called ta-moco or simply moco – are in vogue in our time. They are made all over the body, and at Instargarm you can find the face of a modern girl with a tattoo on her chin – just like the beard of Maori women.
The Maori themselves are extremely frowned upon this fashion. For them, tattoos are not just pictures. Ta-mokos have the status of sacred, magical images, and it is a sin to use them thoughtlessly from the Maori point of view. They even coined the term “kirituhi” – just drawings on the skin. Do you want beautiful pictures? Well … Just don’t call ta-moco!
Many ancient Maori were decorated with patterns from head to toe, and each curl had a different meaning. James Cook, as early as 1769, described signs that “are basically spirals, made with great precision and even elegance, one side matches the other.” He also noted that out of a hundred Maori there are not two with the same tattoos.
Tattoos on the face were especially important, since the climate did not allow walking naked all year round, and the face was always open. And this is the case when all the most important things are written on a man’s face. Barely glancing at a new acquaintance, it was possible to determine what he was doing, how many times he was married, how many battles he participated in and how many enemies he killed. And also ta-moco emphasized high social status. Not every Maori was allowed to apply them, only the noble and noble. Therefore, not all men have painted faces, and not all women have beards.
Why did women get tattoos only on certain parts of their faces? Simply because there was less information needed. What do you need to know about a woman? What kind she is and who is she married to. She does not participate in battles, does not kill rivals, which means that there is no point in “writing down” battle trophies on her face. Everything you need fits in the chin and lip area. And it helps, among other things, to attract the attention of men. By the way, with regard to tattoos on the body, there was no such inequality – women could get them in the same places as men. And these images could already be just for beauty.
The process of making tattoos
Now imagine what such beauty cost to Maori women. They had no choice, of course. The tattoos were also part of the initiation ceremony, which meant that the girl became an adult. But you need to understand what exactly were the archaic tattoos, or rather, the process of their application.
The drawings were not made with needles. The skin was dissected with a special chisel-like instrument made of albatross bone. They beat him with a hammer, stuffing the desired sequence of wounds. And it hurt terribly. It is not surprising that the tattoo artists of the Tohunga-ta-moco (and it could be both men and women) were considered almost saints. They have immunity – taboo status.
After the procedure, the face could swell so much that the tattooed person was fed through special funnels.
And one more touch to the portrait of women of the warlike, fearlessly guarding their traditions of the Maori tribe. This nation has developed a surprisingly gentle, trusting tradition of greeting each other – they touch and rub their noses when they meet. This greeting, which goes back to ancient beliefs, symbolizes the introduction to ha – “the breath of life.”
Maori noses greeting
- Photo Shoot:
- age footstock / Getty Images