Brendan Hokowhitu - The Death of Koro Paka: "Traditional" MÄori Patriarchy - The Contemporary Pacific 20:1 (original) (raw)
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The death of Koro Paka: "traditional" Maori patriarchy.(Report)
The Contemporary Pacific, 2008
Deconstruction does not say there is no subject, there is no truth, there is no history. It simply questions the privileging of identity so that someone is believed to have the truth. It is not the exposure of error. It is constantly and persistently looking into how truths are produced. (Spivak 1988, 28) This paper starts from the simple question of what knowledge is produced about Mäori men and why. In Nietzschean style, I am less concerned with the misrepresentation of truths than with how such truths have come to be privileged. I do not argue that tropes such as the Mäori sportsman, manual laborer, violent criminal, or especially the Mäori patriarch, are "false," for indeed there are many Mäori men who embody these categorizations. 1 To propose such tropes are false would suggest that other forms of Mäori masculinity are "truer," "more authentic" embodiments. Alternatively, I am stimulated to uncloak the processes that produce Mäori masculine subjectivities. Specifi cally, this article deconstructs the invention, authentication, and re-authentication of "traditional" Mäori patriarchy. Here, "invention" refers to the creation of a colonial hybrid. This is not to say, however, that colonization provided the environment for the genesis of Mäori patriarchy, for it is probable that modes of Mäori patriarchy existed prior to colonization (ie, patriarchy as constructed by Mäori tribal epistemologies, focused on notions such as whakapapa [genealogy] and mana [power/prestige/respect]).
The Death of Koro Paka: "Traditional" Māori Patriarchy
The Contemporary Pacific, 2007
Deconstruction does not say there is no subject, there is no truth, there is no history. It simply questions the privileging of identity so that someone is believed to have the truth. It is not the exposure of error. It is constantly and persistently looking into how truths are produced. (Spivak 1988, 28) This paper starts from the simple question of what knowledge is produced about M ori men and why. In Nietzschean style, I am less concerned with the misrepresentation of truths than with how such truths have come to be privileged. I do not argue that the tropes such as the M ori sportsman, manual laborer, violent criminal, or especially the M ori patriarch, are "false," for indeed there are many M ori men who embody these categorizations. 1 To propose such tropes are false would suggest that other forms of M ori masculinity are "truer," "more authentic" embodiments. Alternatively, I am stimulated to uncloak the processes that produce M ori masculine subjectivities. Specifically, this article deconstructs the invention, authentication, and re-authentication of "traditional" M ori patriarchy. Here, "invention" refers to the creation of a colonial hybrid. This is not to say, however, that colonization provided the environment for the genesis of M ori patriarchy, for it is probable that modes of M ori patriarchy existed prior to colonization (ie, patriarchy as constructed by M ori tribal epistemologies, focused on notions such as whakapapa [genealogy] and mana [power/prestige/respect]).
This article theorises Mäori masculinities in terms of the notion of " space ". I suggest that through colonial social construction, the notion of Mäori masculinity has been afforded a narrow space that, in part, has led to the extremely dysfunctional Mäori masculine archetype often performed in contemporary society. Historical and sociological analyses are provided, which deconstruct this limited space through the notions of " silence " and " communication ". Throughout these analyses, I pay particular attention to two constraining discourses surrounding Mäori masculinity: the " humble Mäoriman " and the " violent Mäori man ". I suggest that these two imaginary pillars have been central to the construction of the narrow space from which the diversity of Mäori masculinities has struggled to be liberated. In doing so, I provide the groundings for an understanding of a space where Mäori masculinities can " breathe " and find ...
This article theorises Mäori masculinities in terms of the notion of "space". I suggest that through colonial social construction, the notion of Mäori masculinity has been afforded a narrow space that, in part, has led to the extremely dysfunctional Mäori masculine archetype often performed in contemporary society. Historical and sociological analyses are provided, which deconstruct this limited space through the notions of "silence" and "communication". Throughout these analyses, I pay particular attention to two constraining discourses surrounding Mäori masculinity: the "humble Mäoriman" and the "violent Mäori man". I suggest that these two imaginary pillars have been central to the construction of the narrow space from which the diversity of Mäori masculinities has struggled to be liberated. In doing so, I provide the groundings for an understanding of a space where Mäori masculinities can "breathe" and find voices that lay beyond limited colonial constructions.
‘Aristocrats of Knowledge’: Māori Anthropologists and the Survival of the ‘Race’
2018
This chapter explores the significant role played by well-educated Māori politicians in the racial and bio-political debates of early twentieth-century New Zealand. Māori leaders such as Āpirana Ngata and Peter Buck contested the idea, promulgated by some colonial intellectuals and politicians, that the Māori race was doomed to disappear before the incoming Briton. They argued instead that government policy should enable Māori to flourish alongside settlers of British descent in a bi-racial society. They did, however, express concern about and opposition to reproductive relationships between Chinese men and Māori women, echoing the concerns of politicians such as William Pember Reeves.