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Maori Settlement on South Kaipara Peninsula

Whole document restricted, see Access Instructions file below for details of how to access the print copy. / This thesis is a regional study using several kinds of evidence, The focus of the work is the South Kaipara peninsula, on the west coast north of Auckland and the successive Maori peoples whose home it was, There are four major sections: the social environment, the natural environment, archaeological research and, drawing these three together, a multi-disciplinary approach to analysis. The first section comprises three chapters. Chapter 1 traces the doings of the ancestors, using traditions and whakapapa gathered during the latter part of last century. Chapter 2 studies early eyewitness accounts, the advent of Europeans and the changes they effected. Chapter 3 considers the serious consequences of nineteenth century land alienation on the Maori inhabitants of the peninsula, and of population decrease through warfare, European diseases and economic change. The second section contains two chapters. Chapter 4 provides a background to subsequent chapters and covers geomorphology, soils, climate, flora and fauna. Chapter 5, using ethnographic material, explores the resources which would have been important to the Maori people, and the impact which successive groups made to the environment over time. Section 3, of two chapters, describes the archaeological research undertaken on the peninsula since the late 1950s. Chapter 6 includes results of the intensive site recording which began in 1975, and was largely completed in 1978. An overall analysis of the different kinds of sites and their locations is made in relation to soils, topography and height above sea level. Chapter 7 describes and analyses a midden sampling project which produced radiocarbon dates, palaeoenvironmental and shellfish species studies, and a detailed examination of the common cockle which occurred in all middens. The fourth section, Chapter 8, analyses settlement patterns. Because of the very large number and concentration of sites, the peninsula is divided into 14 geographic units so that aspects of these could be compared. Included are 1) landscape and topographic features, 2) historical settlement information, 3) the recorded sites and their frequencies, and 4) site type locations and frequencies. The findings for the areas are compared and conclusions drawn to suggest an overall culture history of the Maori people of the South Kaipara Peninsula.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/276711
Date January 1996
CreatorsSpring-Rice, Wynne
PublisherResearchSpace@Auckland
Source SetsAustraliasian Digital Theses Program
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
RightsWhole document restricted. Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated., http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm, Copyright: The author

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