Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ausjulius · 23rd July 2014, 04:29 AM

thanks i was born in northland near dargaville in n.z.
when we were kids wed play games like maoris and rangers hahaha ive never heard of other n.z. kids playing such a game it was always cowboys and indians or cops and robbers ect at my cousins place.. when wed play we'd have some rhymes like -
"im the ghost of hongi heke one more step and ill bite your teke" teke implying something phallic , then make some crazy war dance.
use flax flower stems and muskets and taiaha ..

wed use the wooden play equipment at school or a tree house as a pa (fortress) guys who captured by the maoris got eaten haha

it always interested me as to why the maori didnt have bows while most of Polynesia did.
my father had some place very small stone tips like arrow heads from the south island, but they were presumed to be whipping dart heads. long darts throw with a line or cord.
although im not sure they were awfully small.

the mere were close combat and dueling weapons. used like a meat cleaver or a dagger almost. lots of jabs to the face and neck.
in pictures the maori always have them out in hand and in paintings they are show stuck in the belt, but i find this hard to believe they were very valuable and fragile i sounder how they were carried when in use as the maori warrior would carry many weapons . adze, several clubs, axe, spear , taiaha ect.. when you see videos of melinesians i tribal fights they seem to stick all the weapons down the back of their laplap or loincloth wrapping but moris i just can imagine doing this with something valuable. .

in the past maori used long lances 15-20 feet long or more and javalins as their main weapons in massed combat, good for defending and attacking pa fortifications..
but most of these things became obsolescent before europeans arrived . as soon as one guy got a gun ... boom.. i believe that maori warfare became very ritualized with rules and rituals some decades prior to the arrival of europeans, things were getting very tribalism big tribes splitting into smaller and smaller ones each chief having a fortified village, instead of big confederations or kingdoms like hawaii, tonga or fiji... and so these types of weapons became more and more... unsporting.. and the close in dueling weapons and the fighting styles that go with them became more common. if you had a chief in the other village who you hated youd want to beat him in personal combat for everyone to see not see him stuck with a dart form some commoner..

that why the long maori weapons are so very rare today, while the short weapons are rather common..

23rd July 2014, 04:29 AM	#22
ausjulius Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: musorian territory Posts: 415	thanks i was born in northland near dargaville in n.z. when we were kids wed play games like maoris and rangers hahaha ive never heard of other n.z. kids playing such a game it was always cowboys and indians or cops and robbers ect at my cousins place.. when wed play we'd have some rhymes like - "im the ghost of hongi heke one more step and ill bite your teke" teke implying something phallic , then make some crazy war dance. use flax flower stems and muskets and taiaha .. wed use the wooden play equipment at school or a tree house as a pa (fortress) guys who captured by the maoris got eaten haha it always interested me as to why the maori didnt have bows while most of Polynesia did. my father had some place very small stone tips like arrow heads from the south island, but they were presumed to be whipping dart heads. long darts throw with a line or cord. although im not sure they were awfully small. the mere were close combat and dueling weapons. used like a meat cleaver or a dagger almost. lots of jabs to the face and neck. in pictures the maori always have them out in hand and in paintings they are show stuck in the belt, but i find this hard to believe they were very valuable and fragile i sounder how they were carried when in use as the maori warrior would carry many weapons . adze, several clubs, axe, spear , taiaha ect.. when you see videos of melinesians i tribal fights they seem to stick all the weapons down the back of their laplap or loincloth wrapping but moris i just can imagine doing this with something valuable. . in the past maori used long lances 15-20 feet long or more and javalins as their main weapons in massed combat, good for defending and attacking pa fortifications.. but most of these things became obsolescent before europeans arrived . as soon as one guy got a gun ... boom.. i believe that maori warfare became very ritualized with rules and rituals some decades prior to the arrival of europeans, things were getting very tribalism big tribes splitting into smaller and smaller ones each chief having a fortified village, instead of big confederations or kingdoms like hawaii, tonga or fiji... and so these types of weapons became more and more... unsporting.. and the close in dueling weapons and the fighting styles that go with them became more common. if you had a chief in the other village who you hated youd want to beat him in personal combat for everyone to see not see him stuck with a dart form some commoner.. that why the long maori weapons are so very rare today, while the short weapons are rather common..