Description

A vivid, early English-language portrait of Maori life and the wider Pacific. History leaps from every page. Richard Taylor's Te Ika A Maui is both eyewitness report and learned survey, a work of victorian era travel and nineteenth-century ethnography that addresses maori culture history, maori customs and traditions, and polynesian mythology book traditions with measured curiosity. It ranges from language notes that still interest polynesian language studies to field observations that speak to the natural history of new zealand and the geology and productions of the islands. Taylor gathers songs, proverbs and fables alongside botanical and zoological notes, producing a compendium that serves indigenous new zealand studies and offers the immediacy of a traveller's log. Readers drawn to oceanic narratives of pacific islands exploration will find the book's scope unusual: part travel account, part lexicon, part hymn of praise and record of rites and songs. Casual readers will appreciate the immediacy of its detail, while scholars and collectors will value it as a cultural anthropology resource and as an academic research collection. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. Historically significant as an early printed witness to contact-era encounters, Taylor's account helped frame anglophone perceptions of Maori society and Polynesian traditions; students of indigenous new zealand studies, of polynesian language studies and of the history of anthropology will consult it for context. For classic-literature collectors and those who treasure victorian era travel narratives, the book sits comfortably between readable narrative and rigorous source material; collectors of james cowan maori material and anyone tracing the genealogy of Pacific scholarship will find it a rewarding companion, both evocative and instructive. Its perspectives prompt reflection today.