Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T10:48:37.130Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mana, Tapu, Noa: Maori cultural constructs with medical and psycho-social relevance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Perminder S. Sachdev
Perminder S. Sachdev*
Affiliation:
Neuropsychiatric Institute, The Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia
*
1Address for correspondence. Dr P. S. Sachdev, Neuropsychiatric Institute. The Prince Henry Hospital. PO Box 233, Matraville. NSW 2036. Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This paper discusses three concepts, mana, tapu and noa, that lie at the heart of Maori culture. These concepts are inter-related and concern power and influence, with political (or secular) authority implicit in mana and ritual (or religious) authority determined by tapu and noa. The paper explores their importance for the understanding of the ethnic views on aetiology and management of illness, the mechanisms of social organization and control, and the behaviour of individuals. Although the belief in these concepts exists in only an attenuated form in modern Maori society, their importance becomes obvious to any psychiatrist or physician working with Maori patients.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , November 1989 , pp. 959 - 969
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, J. C. (1948). The Maori Tohunga and His Spiritual World. T. Avery & Sons: New Plymouth.Google Scholar
Beagley, M. J. (1984). Maori Health: Treatment of Maori Patients. Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago: Dunedin (unpublished).Google Scholar
Best, E. (1924). Maori Religion and Mythology. Dominion Museum Bulletin No 10. Government Printer: Wellington.Google Scholar
Best, E. (1930). Maori agriculture. Journal of the Polynesian Society 39, 346–380.Google Scholar
Blake-Palmer, G. (1946). Mana - Some Christian and Moslem parallels. Journal of the Polynesian Society 55, 263–276.Google Scholar
Bowden, R. (1979). Tapu and Mana: ritual authority and political power in traditional Maori society. The Journal of Pacific History 14, 50–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SirBuck, Peter (Te Rangi Hiroa) (1950). The Coming of the Maori. Maori Purposes Welfare Board: Wellington (latest printing, 1982)Google Scholar
Cawte, J. (1974). Medicine is the Law. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu.Google Scholar
Codrington, R. H. (1965). Mana. In Reader in Comparative Religion: An Anthropological Approach (ed, Lessa, W. A. and Vogt, E. Z.), pp. 255–257. Harper: New York.Google Scholar
Coomaraswamy, A. K. (1942). Spiritual Authority and Temporal Police in the Indian Theory of Government. Yale University Press: New HavenGoogle Scholar
Dansey, H. (1978). Maori Custom Today Shortland Publications: Auckland.Google Scholar
Dieffenbach, E (1843). Travels in New Zealand, 2 vols John Murray: London.Google Scholar
Durie, M H (1977) Maori attitudes to sickness, doctors and hospitals. New Zealand Medical Journal 86, 483–485.Google ScholarPubMed
Durie, M H (1985). A Maori perspective of health. Social Science and Medicine 20, 483–486CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Firth, R (1940). An analysis of mana: an empirical approach. Journal of the Polynesian Society 49, 483–510.Google Scholar
Firth, R (1959). Economics of the New Zealand Maori, 2nd edn.Government printer: Wellington.Google Scholar
Gudgeon, W. E. (1905). Mana tangata. Journal of the Polynesian Society 1, 49–66Google Scholar
Hanson, F A. & Hanson, L. (1983). Counterpoint in Maori Culture. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Hocart, A M (1914). Mana. Man 14, 97–101.Google Scholar
Hubert, H & Mauss, M. (1902). Théorie générale de la magie L'Année Soctologique (1902–1903). p 108 el sea.Google Scholar
Johansen, J. P (1954). The Maori and His Religion in Its Nan-Ritualistic Aspects Munksgaard: Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Mackay, P (1985) The Health of the Maori People: a Review. Northland Community College: Whangarei, NZ.Google Scholar
Mahuika, A (1981). Leadership: inherited and achieved. In Te Ao Hurihuri The World Moves On (ed. King, M.), pp. 62–85. Longman Paul: Auckland.Google Scholar
Maning, F. E (1973). Old New Zealand. Golden Press: Auckland (first published 1887).Google Scholar
Marsden, M (1981). God, man and universe: a Maori view. In Te Ao Hurihuri The World Moves On (ed. King, M.), pp. 143–164. Longman Paul: Auckland.Google Scholar
Marsden, M. (1986). Maori illness and healing. Seminar on Mental Health - A Case for Reform, pp. 1–21. Legal Research Foundation Seminar. Auckland, 09, 1986. (Reprints available from the Mental Health Foundation, Box 37438, Parnell, Auckland, New Zealand.)Google Scholar
Metge, J. (1976). The Maoris of New Zealand: Rautahi. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London.Google Scholar
Metge, J. (1986). In and Out of Touch: Whakamaa in Cross Cultural Context. Victoria University Press: Wellington.Google Scholar
Needham, R. (1973). Right and Leff Essays on Dual Symbolic Classification. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.Google Scholar
Roestenburg, M. (1981). Aspects of the Maori patient. New Zealand Journal of Physiotherapy 9, 7–9.Google Scholar
Sachdev, P. S. (1989). Maori Elder-patient relationship as a therapeutic paradigm. Psychiatry (in the press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmond, A. (1983). The study of traditional Maori society: the state of the art. Journal of the Polynesian Society 92, 309–333.Google Scholar
Shirres, O. P. (1982). Tapu. Journal of the Polynesian Society 91, 29–52.Google Scholar
Shortland, E. (1856). Traditions and Superstitions of New Zealanders. Longmans: London. (First edition 1854)Google Scholar
Smith, J (1981). Self and experience in Maori culture. In Indigenous Psychologies: The Anthropology of the Self (ed. Heelas, P. and Lock, A.), pp. 145–159. Academic Press: London.Google Scholar
Tipene-Leach, D. (1978). Maoris - their feelings about the medical profession. Community Forum (11 1978): Auckland.Google Scholar
Turner, V. W. (1964) A Ndembu doctor in practice. In Magic, Faith and Healing (ed. Kiev, A.), pp. 230–263. The Free Press: New York.Google Scholar
White, J. (1885) Lectures on Maori customs and superstition. In The History and Doings of the Maori (ed, Gudgeon, T. W.), pp. 217–222. Auckland.Google Scholar
Williams, H. W. (1975). A Dictionary of the Maori Language, 7th edn.Government Printer. Wellington.Google Scholar