Tā moko

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tā moko is the permanent adornment of the body and face of the Māori , the indigenous people of New Zealand . It differs from the commonly used form of tattooing in that it is not applied with many small dots and stitches, but with scratching and scraping tools. The skin with moko has pitted bumps and is no longer smooth and soft. This tradition was brought back by the Māori from their Polynesian homeland, Hawaiki , and its methods and patterns are similar to those in other parts of Polynesia.

meaning

Designation of the lines

Before Europeans came to New Zealand, practically all high-ranking Māori moko wore. Māori without moko were considered to be of low social status. Receiving the moko marked an important phase in life in the transition from childhood to adulthood and was accompanied by many rituals . The Moko itself contains a kind of code that allows statements about the origin and rank of the wearer.

Moko were also considered attractive. Men wore moko mainly on their faces, thighs and buttocks, and sometimes on their backs and calves. Women wore moko on their lips and chins, sometimes on their foreheads, as well as on their backs and thighs.

During the musket wars , Mokomokai (also called Toi Moko), tattooed skulls of Maori warriors, were used as currency for firearms.

Instruments

Originally the Tohunga-ta-moko (tattoo artists) used various scrapers and scrapers from the bones of the albatross with a handle. The color pigments for the body are made from Awheto - a substance obtained from the fruiting bodies of the Cordyceps robertsii fungus - the darker ones for the face are made from Ngaheru , charred wood. The color pigments were kept in jewelry boxes called oko and passed on from generation to generation. Usually the tattoo artists were men.

Tā moko today

Since 1990, Tā moko has experienced a renaissance - both for men and women - as a sign of identity and as part of the general revival of the Māori language and culture. However, the patterns are now tattooed, no longer scratched into the skin with scrapers. Not all mokos are permanent, however, especially in connection with tourist events, the moko often consist of paint applied to the face.

Tā moko in art

The painters Gottfried Lindauer and CF Goldie were known for detailed Tā moko portrait paintings .

literature

  • Te Rangi Hiroa : The Coming of the Maori . Ed .: Māori Purposes Fund Board . Wellington 1949 (English, online ).
  • Robert Jahnke, Huia Tomlins-Jahnke: The politics of Māori image and design. In: Pukenga Korero Raumati (Summer) 2003, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 5-31.
  • Michael King , Marti Friedlander : Moko: Māori Tattooing in the 20th Century. 2nd Edition. David Bateman, Auckland 1992.
  • Mirja Loth: Moko - Tattoo of the Māoris. Background, meaning, myths and sketches. Mana Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-934031-59-3 .
  • Horatio Gordon Robley : Moko; or Maori tattooing . Chapman & Hall, London 1896. ( Full text in the New Zealand Electronic Text Collection (NZETC))
  • Linda Waimarie Nikora, Mohi Rua, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: Wearing Moko: Māori Facial Marking in Today's World. In: Nicholas Thomas, Anna Cole, Bronwen Douglas (eds.): Tattoo. Bodies, Art and Exchange in the Pacific and the West. Reaction Books, London 2005, Chapter 9, [p. 191-204].
  • Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: More than Skin Deep. In: Elazar Barkan, Ronald Bush (ed.): Claiming the Stone: Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity. Getty Press, Los Angeles 2002, pp. 243-254.
  • Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: Tā Moko: Māori Tattoo. Goldie. Exhibition catalog. ACAG and David Bateman, Auckland 1997, pp. 108-114.
  • Hans Neleman : Moko - Maori Tattoo. Edition Stemmle, 1999, ISBN 3-908161-95-9 .

Web links

Commons : Tattoos in Polynesia  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. Te Rangi Hiroa : Tattooing . In: Māori Purposes Fund Board (Ed.): The Coming of the Maori . Wellington 1949, p.  296-299 (English, online ).
  2. The heads of the Maori. In: Der Tagesspiegel of October 5, 2012. Accessed January 7, 2019.
  3. Abraham Joseph Wharewaka : Mokomokai : Preserving the Past . Auckland 1990 (English, online ).