From Symmetry to Anthropophagy: The Cultural Context of Maori Art

Abstract

J. D. H. and Gabrielle Donnay have produced an instructive and fascinating analysis of Maori rafter designs. My task is to add a few thoughts from an anthropological perspective, to expand upon their insights by placing them in a broader perspective of Maori art and culture. The article will develop something like the spiral motif that is so common in Maori art, covering an increasingly wide area as it goes along. It begins with a few comments about Maori rafter patterns (kowhaiwhai), the particular subject of the Donnay's article. Next it relates structures of symmetry and antisymmetry in rafter designs to other elements of Maori art. Finally, it suggests connections between those artistic patterns and other aspects of Maori culture. The discussion will concern traditional rather than contemporary Maori culture-as it was up to roughly the middle of the nineteenth century.