How did Maori catch their food?

How did Maori catch their food?

Māori were accomplished fishermen, using nets and traps as well as hooked lines to catch fish.

What weapons did Maoris use?

Long-handled weapons

• Taiaha (fighting staff) One of the most well-known Māori weapons is the taiaha.
• Pouwhenua (pointed fighting staff)
• Tewhatewha (axe-like fighting staff)
• Hoeroa.
• Tao (short spear) and huata (long spear)
• Patu (club)
• Patu onewa.
• Mere pounamu.

What tools did Māori use?

In the 1300s, Māori were transporting both finished tools and selected raw materials around the country.

• Adzes and chisels. The most important tools were adzes (toki) and chisels (whao).
• Making an adze. Making a stone adze was a skilled job.
• Flake tools.
• Drills and files.

What is the deadliest weapon in the Māori Armoury?

Mere Pounamu Skilled Maori warriors would give horizontal thrusts to the temple, or target the ribs with an upward thrust. The mere pounamu was the most revered of all the Maori weapons, and some were even buried with the owner.

What is a Māori AXE called?

A tewhatewha is a long-handled Māori club weapon shaped like an axe. Designed to be held in two hands, the weapon comes to a mata (point) at one end and a rapa (broad, quarter-round head) at the other.

How did Māori use Obsidian?

Obsidian was widely utilized by pre-European Maori for cutting and scraping purposes, and flakes, cores and pieces of this material have been found in many archaeological sites in New Zealand.

Did Māori have metal?

Although Māori did not use metals, stone was widely used for tools, weapons and ornaments. Suitable local rocks were used in different areas, but some types of stone were widely traded or taken as spoils of war: pounamu (nephrite and bowenite), found mainly on the western side of the South Island near Hokitika.

What is tapu in Māori culture?

Tapu is the strongest force in Māori life. Tapu can be interpreted as ‘sacred’, or defined as ‘spiritual restriction’, containing a strong imposition of rules and prohibitions. A person, object or place that is tapu may not be touched or, in some cases, not even approached.

What did the Māori Hunt in New Zealand?

For food, the new settlers brought taro and yams, some of the traditional canoe plants of the Polynesians, along with rats and dogs for meat. But New Zealand proved to be fertile hunting grounds. In this early-20th-century illustration, Māori are inaccurately shown hunting moa with bows and arrows.

What did the Maori use for fishing tools?

Aka (supplejack) was used to make hīnaki (eel pots) and tāruke (crayfish pots). The bark of trees such as mānuka formed part of snares. Harakeke (flax) was used for bindings, and for ropes and cord for fishing lines and nets. Bird and whale bones were made into matau (fishhooks) and spear points.

How did Maori material culture evolve?

Maori material culture has evolved over two main periods of Polynesian settlement. The first is known as the Archaic or Moa Hunter period during which the Polynesians made their first contact with the moa, a large struthious bird which supplied them with abundant food.

How did the Māori deal with their dead Moa?

The enormous quantity of left-over bones buried in middens reveal key facts about how the Māori dealt with up to 500 pounds of dead moa. While smaller moa could be carried away whole, hunters dealt with larger ones, which were harder to heft, by cutting and carrying away only their meat-heavy legs.