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Incest.
We have already shown what marriages are deemed incestuous by the Maori. It is worthy of note that the rules in regard to marriage of relatives among the Maori nearly resemble our own. Such a system does not appear to be common among barbarous peoples.
Professor Westermarck has stated that the horror of incest is not an instructive sentiment (animals do not have it), but rather a social habit, springing from sexual repulsion for persons, even unrelated to the family, with whom one has been brought up from infancy.*
Andrew Lang, in his “Custom and Myth,” quotes Morgan (of Primitive Sociology fame) as follows: “Primitive men very early discovered the evils of close interbreeding”; as also the latter's statement that “early man discovered that children of unsound constitutions were born of nearly related parents.” Mr. Lang goes on to say, “Mr. Morgan supposes early man to have made a discovery (the evils of the marriage of near kin) which evades modern physiological science. Modern science has not determined that the marriages of kinsfolk are pernicious. Is it credible that savages should discover a fact which puzzles science?” Now, it may or may not be credible, but how is it that the Maori holds this view, viz.: that marriages of those closely related is followed by a tipuheke (degeneration, deterioration) in the offspring? For, as we have seen, the Maori are endogamous, and they have no totem system, for exogamy or totemism might have been taken as a cause for the Maori custom already given. Maine, author of “Early Law,” regards exogamy merely as a prohibition of incest. The Maori idea may be summed up in the words of an ancient proverbial saying of the people, “E moe i to tuahine, he itiii”—i.e., “Marry your tuahine and the
[Footnote] * See Deniker's “Races of Man,” chap. vii.
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result will be puny offspring.” Tuahine = sister; also used for cousins.
Tane, Tangotango, and Wai-nui were children of the primal parents, Rangi and Papa (Sky and Earth). Tane married his own daughter, while Tangotango (a male) married his sister Wai-nui, and this, according to Maori myth, was the origin of incest. Marriage also originated in those days of the misty past in the union of the strange beings who preceded man.
It does not appear that incest was common among the natives. It is given sometimes as an explanation of peculiarities in genealogies. To bring upon themselves the contempt of the tribe would be the result, and this would act as a deterrent, more especially among a communistic people such as the Maori.
Since the arrival of Europeans in this land the old native laws, rules, and customs have become much relaxed, and the change in many cases is for the worse. The social rules of the Maori suited such a people, and they do not grasp or adopt ours in a way for such to be beneficial to them. Intermarriages with Europeans do not as a rule produce a desirable cross. Half-castes are, physically, a fine people, though not long-lived as a rule. Mentally they are clever, quick, and sometimes attain distinction. But morally they are often below par, their code of ethics in many instances being an uncertain quantity. In one such family at least four members thereof have been guilty of incest, but it does not seem to trouble them in any way. A native couple who committed incest in this district were expelled from the tribe. A native of the Rotorua district cohabited with his own daughter. On it becoming known they fled together, but were pursued and caught. The girl was taken back home and the father was expelled.
Incest is, in this district, termed irawaru, moe tuahine, and ngau whiore, the expression kai whiore being a variant form of the latter. Three of these terms are connected with dogs. Irawaru is the name of a person in Maori mythology who was turned into a dog by the magic arts of Maui, and who was afterwards looked upon as the origin, or tutelary deity, or parent of dogs. Ngau whiore means “tail-biter.” Those who commit incest are compared to a dog which turns and bites its own tail.
It will thus be seen that the Maori has very sensible notions on the subject of incest and consanguineous marriages. His ideas on such things resemble those of the most advanced peoples. He does not bar whole groups of slightly related peoples from intermarrying, as do so many barbarous and semi-civilised races.