Academic literature on the topic 'Te Wai Pounamu'

In the northern South Island, the area northern Te Wai Pounamu (NTWP) is defined appropriate to a regional investigation of pre-European culture change. It is argued that the Maori sequence of this region is relevant to a range of interpretative problems in New Zealand�s archaeological past. Preparatory to this investigation, the international and New Zealand literature on culture change is reviewed. Two primary investigative foci of change are identified in NTWP; subsistence economy and stone tool manufacturing technology. A chronological scheme of Early, Middle and Late Periods based on firmly dated ecological events and/or independent radiocarbon ages is defined so as to order the archaeological data without recourse to unproven scenarios of cultural change and association. The Early Period subsistence economy is assessed in some detail. An Early Period settlement focus is documented along the eastern Tasman Bay coast in proximity to meta-argillite sources. Early Period midden remains suggest that several genera of seal and moa were exploited, and that people were fishing in eastern Tasman Bay during the warmer months of the year. From the Early Period fishhook assemblages of Tasman Bay, manufacturing change is inferred related to the increasing scarcity of moa bone over time. It is argued that lower Early Period settlement of the larger northern South Island was focused on the north-eastern coast to Rangitoto (D�Urville Island), while NTWP was characterized by smaller stone working communities operating in summer. In contrast, moa-free middens in Awaroa Inlet and Bark Bay of the western Tasman Bay granite coast present a physical dominance of Paphies australis, and finfish species suggesting, along with the dearth of Austrovenus stutchburyi, occupation outside of the warmer summer months. These middens also present an absence of seal and a paucity of bird bone, while sharing a robust 15th-16th centuries AD radiocarbon chronology. With the dearth of all bird species from granite coast middens in general, and evidence that the less preferred kokako (Callaeas c. cinerea) was caught during the occupation of Awaroa Inlet N26/214, it is suggested that cultural regulations beyond immediate subsistence needs were also operating at this time. From southern Tasman Bay, the archaeological investigation of the important Appleby site N27/118 suggests that the people associated with the extensive horticultural soils of Waimea West otherwise consumed finfish and estuarine shellfish in (non-summer) season, kiore (Rattus exulans), dog or kuri (Canis familiaris), and several small evidence of Maori tradition, archaeological charcoal, and the approximately 16th century radiocarbon chronology for N27/118 and the associated Appleby gravel borrow pit N27/122 places the advent of extensive Waimea horticulture within the post-moa, lower Middle Period Maori economy. The Haulashore Island archaeological assemblage of south-eastern Tasman Bay with a similar material culture to Appleby is also bereft of seal and any diagnostic moa bone. This Middle Period evidence is considered in a larger comparative perspective, where the absence of seal from 15th-16th centuries Tasman Bay middens is interpreted as a factor of human predation. A secure radiocarbon chronology suggests the convergence of this loss with the diminishment and loss of selected avifauna, and the subsequent advent of large horticultural complexes in the northern South Island compensated for the loss of faunal calories in a seasonally economy and a managed ecology. The evidence of stone tool use is also reviewed in some detail for NTWP, following the definition of an adze typology appropriate to the classification of meta-argillite tools. It is clear that meta-argillite is the dominant material of adze and (non-adze) flake tool manufacture throughout the Maori sequence of NTWP, while granite coast quartz remains generally subdominant. Beyound the apparent loss of the laterally-hafted adze, the evidence of adze change is generally subdominant. Beyond the apparent loss of the laterally-hafted adze, the evidence of adze change is generally reflected in shifting typological proportions, and in new manufacturing technologies and dressing techniques. Functional change may be inferred in the loss over time of large meta-argillite points and blade tools associated respectively with the manufacture of one-piece moa bone fishhooks and moa and seal butchery. The exclusive identification of hammer-dressed adzes with hump backs and steep bevels in Middle Period assemblages is related to the advent of horticultural intensification. More generally, adzes of the upper Early and Middle Periods are increasingly characterized by round sections, while hammer-dressing is employed more frequently and extensively reduced from riverine meta-argillite and recycled banks. Collectively, these changes reflect a developing emphasis on economy and opportunistic exploitation. From this interpretation, and evidence that meta-argillite adze length and the size of high quality Ohana source flakes diminish over time, it is suggested that accessible, high quality and appropriately shaped meta-argillite rock became increasingly scarce through intensive quarry manufacture. In conclusion, the coincidence of diminishing rock and faunal resources over time is related in a speculative anthropological model of culture change. It is proposed that the 14th-16th centuries Maori economy of NTWP, and by implication and inference, many other regions of New Zealand, was characterized by a resource crisis which either precipitated or reinforced a broader trajectory of culture change. It is suggested that influential leadears perceived a linkage in the loss of high quality rock and important subsistence fauna at this time, and that distinctive technologies, institutions and ideologies of Middle Period Maori society were influenced by, and/or developed from, this perception. Finally, it is recommended that the data of an archaeological Maori culture sequence be ordered and tested within a radiocarbon based chronological scheme, rather than the still generally used model of �Archaic� and �Classic� cultural periods. It is also suggested that New Zealand archaeologists should look beyond the functional-ecological imperative to consider more holistic anthropological explanations of change in the pre-European Maori past, with a focus on integrated regional sequences.

Life was difficult in Te Wai Pounamu before European contact. Food collecting had to return more calories than were expended in the efforts of acquisition. Areas where food was available were conserved as well as enhanced and were exploited seasonally in such a way as to optimise each season's take. It is suggested that the absence of kumera cultivations south of the Opihi river, prior to the introduction of the potato towards the end of the 18th Century, was clearly reflected in Maori life-style and social structure. Hapu were resource based rather than regional, and the resources of various hapu might be intermingled over a wide area or indeed, in some cases, shared (see: Anderson, 1980). The "orthodox" view (Anderson, 1980, etc.) is one of "Hunters and Gatherers" who exploit available resources. I argue that the resources were, in fact, managed with a view to sustainable and optimal harvests in the future. I shall apply Harris' (1987:75) optimal foraging theory in an endeavour to show that there are signs of the quality of life as a result of a low per capita human energy input into food production. This is principally evidenced by the foods eaten just for pleasure (kai rehia) and the time available for optional activities. Accordingly, kai and the practices to control them differed from the often better documented food resources of more Northern parts of Te Wai Pounamu and Aotearoa. Nevertheless, the absence of horticulture in the south and the concomitant peripatetic life-style did not result in a lack of stewardship of resources. Based substantially on the analysis of a series of mahika kai lists, collected from elders early in the contact period, and details of traditional practices that have been handed down, this thesis argues that by 1780, when Captain Cook introduced European goods, southern Kai Tahu had in place effective procedures and practices for the sustainable use of renewable resources.

This thesis examines the interactions between the worlds of social classes and cultures for Maori and Europeans in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Te Wai Pounamu (New Zealand). The very early Maori-European transactions are interpreted in the light of archival reports of what happened and how people behaved, what role objects had in these transactions, and why so many of the transactions culminated in violence. In the archival record, it is clear that ordinary sailors and Maori commoners obviously experienced, participated and reported their observations differently than captains and chiefs, thus enabling their subaltern perspective to shed a different light upon the transactions. Details of the cosmological, epistemological and philosophical understandings of the world and the place of others in it, that each of these peoples brought to the encounters, and which underpinned their actions are described and used to explain some resulting misunderstandings about trade and exchange. The agency and polyvocality of objects and their role as cultural mediators, which spoke for the human participants when language and cultural understanding were deficient is also considered. The thesis argues for a multiperspectival approach to history and anthropology, a methodology incorporating insights from indigenous and European discourse, and the concept of using additionally, insights from the present to look at the past because they may shed some light upon each other hermeneutically- the past informing the present and vice versa. Archival material is used to argue that the success or otherwise of the outcomes of these intercultural encounters, and their consequential adaptive cultural and identity changes and hybridity, were as much facilitated by the contingent actions of subalterns as by those of higher rank, and as much by the ‘things’ they made, collected and exchanged as by the people themselves. A possible schema for the development and nature of intercultural hybridity is also suggested.

As human beings we are continually interacting with the landscape, and have been doing so throughout the entire course of our evolution. This thesis specifically investigates the way in which hunter-gatherers negotiate and interact with their landscapes, focusing on three patterns of behaviour: wayfinding, mapmaking and territoriality. An examination of the relevant international literature reveals that globally, hunter-gatherer groups both past and present share a number of similarities with regard to their wayfinding and mapmaking techniques, territorial behaviour. A case study of Maori interaction with the landscape of prehistoric and protohistoric Te Wai Pounamu [the South Island] provides further support for the central argument that hunter-gatherers collectively negotiate and interact with the landscape in distinctive ways. This is contrasted with the interaction of European explorers and travellers with the 19th century landscape of Te Wai Pounamu in Chapter 5. It is determined that hunter-gatherers use detailed cognitive or 'mental' maps to navigate their way through a range of landscape from dense forests to barren plains. These maps often consist of sequences of place names that represent trails. These cognitive maps are most commonly developed through direct interaction with the landscape, but can also be formed vicariously through ephemeral maps drawn with the purpose of communicating geographical knowledge. Prior to European contact, little importance seems to have been given to artefactual or 'permanent' maps within hunter-gatherer societies as the process of mapmaking was generally regarded as more significant than the actual product. Although the literature on hunter-gatherer territoriality is complex and in some cases conflicting, it is contended that among a number of hunter-gatherer groups, including prehistoric and protohistoric Maori in Te Wai Pounamu, interaction and negotiation with the landscape was/is not restricted to exclusive territories marked by rigidly defined boundaries. Among these groups, a specific method of territoriality known as 'social boundry defence' was/is employed. This involves controlling access to the social group inhabiting an area rather than access to the area itself, as with groups utilising the territorial method of 'perimeter defence'.

Abstract This chapter aims to problematize the notion that tourism and conservation are opposed to one another, by interrogating the expression of this in New Zealand's legislation which clearly states that tourism is allowed in the country's protected areas so long as it is 'not inconsistent' with the conservation of such sites. The central question guiding this chapter is how might novel nature-based experiences in New Zealand's protected areas enable a form of tourism which is not only consistent with, but also strengthens, conservation at these sites? In response to this question, three landscape design projects located at different national parks in Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand's South Island, are examined. These individual case studies have intentionally sought, through the use of design-directed research, to explore ways in which protected areas as key sites in the nature-tourism interface could be reimagined.

Abstract This chapter aims to problematize the notion that tourism and conservation are opposed to one another, by interrogating the expression of this in New Zealand's legislation which clearly states that tourism is allowed in the country's protected areas so long as it is 'not inconsistent' with the conservation of such sites. The central question guiding this chapter is how might novel nature-based experiences in New Zealand's protected areas enable a form of tourism which is not only consistent with, but also strengthens, conservation at these sites? In response to this question, three landscape design projects located at different national parks in Te Wai Pounamu, New Zealand's South Island, are examined. These individual case studies have intentionally sought, through the use of design-directed research, to explore ways in which protected areas as key sites in the nature-tourism interface could be reimagined.