Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 49

Maori Gods and Legends

The Maori are the Polynesians who settled New Zealand.  Today's post shows Maori carvings in the Te Parapara Garden in Hamilton, NZ.  This garden is all about the gardening practices of the Maori before the arrival of white Europeans in the 1700s.

The statue above represents Hoturoa, legendary captain of the Tainu waka, the first Polynesian ship to discover New Zealand after sailing over the wide Pacific, supposedly around the year 1300.  You might note that he's well hung.

The garden is divided into two parts: one about the wild native food that the Maori found in their new land, which is the realm of the god Haumia-tiketike, and one about the cultivated food that the Maori brought to New Zealand, which is the realm of the god Rongomatane.

The older section of native food is surrounded by a palisade with figures representing Maori ancestors who act as guardians, such as the one above.  Note that he has an erection.

The carving on the far post, Rangi-potiki, is a Maori god, one of the "props of heaven."  I couldn't identify Iranui, on the near post.  He might be a god or an ancestor.  Both of them have erections.  Unlike Greek and Roman statues, where only the fertility god Priapus was represented with an erection, erections were commonplace in Maori art as a sign of virility and strength. 

Here's the gate separating the two halves of the garden.  The carvings are based on an 1844 drawing of an elaborately carved house that was built for the first Maori King before he was crowned in 1858.  Supposedly the carvings tell the story of how cooked kumara (sweet potato, which the Maori brought to New Zealand) was used to ward off supernatural beings.

However, what I noticed about the carvings, aside from the guy with an erection at top left, is the guy at bottom left who is masturbating.  I don't know it he's a good guy or a bad guy in the story.

Of course the Maori didn't have refrigeration, but they were able to preserve their food supply (mainly kumara, or sweet potato) by drying it and storing it in these structures built on pillars to ward off rats.

Let's look at the statues that top the storage house.  The guy on top is masturbating.  Presumably he's a benevolent figure protecting the food.

Here's another food storage house on pillars.  And it's also overseen by a figure on top who is masturbating.

And if we look at the carvings that were in the shadow of the roof in the previous photo, we see – another guy masturbating.

I don't know whether there are Maori legends or myths involving masturbation.  But when Europeans arrived in New Zealand, it became clear that for the Maori, sex was considered normal and healthy, pre-marital sex was fine, and same-sex relationships were accepted with no problem.  Of course, all of this was a big problem for the Christian missionaries.

We end with a carving of a famous Maori chieftain, Taimanu-po.  He lived around 1600 and ruled the Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island, which included Hamilton, where this garden now exists.  He has an erection, and he's reaching down to grab it.  It looks to me like in these carvings, masturbation is not just tolerated, it's being celebrated.

Who knew that learning about other cultures could be this much fun?