The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group . The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology . Its definition is contested, in part due to conflicting theoretical understandings of social and kinship structures, and also reflecting the problematic application of this concept to extremely diverse human societies. The concept is often contrasted by anthropologists with other social and kinship groups, being hierarchically larger than a lineage or clan , but smaller than a chiefdom , ethnicity , nation or state . These terms are similarly disputed. In some cases tribes have legal recognition and some degree of political autonomy from national or federal government, but this legalistic usage of the term may conflict with anthropological definitions.
38-508: Muriwhenua are a group of northern Māori iwi , based in Te Hiku o te Ika , the northernmost part of New Zealand 's North Island . It consists of six iwi, Ngāti Kurī , Ngāi Takoto , Te Pātū , Ngāti Kahu , Te Aupōuri and Te Rarawa , with a combined population of about 34,000 people. The spiritually significant Hokianga Harbour, located just to the south of the Maungataniwha Range,
76-576: A Treaty of Waitangi claim. This group of radio stations formed various networks, becoming Te Whakaruruhau o Nga Reo Irirangi Māori . Tribe In the United States, Native American tribes are legally considered to have "domestic dependent nation" status within the territorial United States, with a government-to-government relationship with the federal government. The modern English word tribe stems from Middle English tribu , which ultimately derives from Latin tribus . According to
114-426: A city-state, such a unit as Jericho might have become in its later stages … tribalism can be viewed as reaction to the formation of complex political structure rather than a necessary preliminary stage in its evolution. The term "tribe" was in common use in the field of anthropology until the late 1950s and 1960s. The continued use of the term has attracted controversy among anthropologists and other academics active in
152-620: A common ancestor of all Northland tribes. In 1840, 61 chiefs from Muriwhenua signed the Māori language version of the Treaty of Waitangi , in the hopes it would protect their lands from colonisation . However, the Muriwhenua people lost vast areas of land to settlers or the government. A report into Muriwhenua fisheries rights in 1988 led to the passing of the Māori Fisheries Act in 1992. Since 1994,
190-516: A current to Hakarara mountain in Matauri Bay. According to another, he landed in Hokianga Harbour, and on his return to Hawaiki , created waves which reached the coast of Ninety Mile Beach . The chief Tūmatahina is credited with helping the Muriwhenua people escape a besieged village as they were running out of food. He instructed his people to place dummy warriors, made out of bulrushes, around
228-459: A general geographic region, or merely gave a waka name. Initiatives like the Iwi Helpline are trying to make it easier for people to identify their iwi , and the proportion who "don't know" dropped relative to previous censuses. Some established pan-tribal organisations may exert influence across iwi divisions. The Rātana Church, for example, operates across iwi divisions, and
266-414: A generally recognised territory ( rohe ), but many of these overlap, sometimes completely. This has added a layer of complication to the long-running discussions and court cases about how to resolve historical Treaty claims. The length of coastline emerged as one factor in the final (2004) legislation to allocate fishing-rights in settlement of claims relating to commercial fisheries. Iwi can become
304-724: A group), Ngāti Poneke (Māori who have migrated to the Wellington region), and Ngāti Rānana (Māori living in London). Ngāti Tūmatauenga ("Tribe of Tūmatauenga ", the god of war) is the official Māori-language name of the New Zealand Army , and Ngā Opango ("Black Tribe") is a Māori-language name for the All Blacks . In the southern dialect of Māori, Ngāti and Ngāi become Kāti and Kāi , terms found in such iwi as Kāti Māmoe and Kāi Tahu (also known as Ngai Tahu). Each iwi has
342-442: A leadership responsive to the needs of neighboring states (the so-called tribes of the United States or British India provide good examples of this). The British favored the label "aboriginal tribe" for some communities. India adopted a republican constitution in 1950, after three years of debate in its Constituent Assembly. During the debate, Jaipal Singh, a member of Munda tribe from Central India advocated for special provisions for
380-449: A particular hapu may have belonged to different iwi at different times, the tension caused by the social and economic power moving from the iwi down rather than from the hapu up, and the fact that many iwi do not recognise spouses and adoptees who do not have kinship links. In the 2006 census, 16 per cent of the 643,977 people who claimed Māori ancestry did not know their iwi . Another 11 per cent did not state their iwi , or stated only
418-852: A political unit formed from an organisation of families (including clans and lineages) based on social or ideological solidarity. Membership of a tribe may be understood as being based on factors such as kinship ("clan"), ethnicity ("race"), language, dwelling place, political group, religious beliefs, oral tradition and/or cultural practices . Archaeologists continue to explore the development of pre-state tribes. Current research suggests that tribal structures constituted one type of adaptation to situations providing plentiful yet unpredictable resources. Such structures proved flexible enough to coordinate production and distribution of food in times of scarcity, without limiting or constraining people during times of surplus. Anthropologist Morton Fried argued in 1967 that bands organized into tribes in order to resist
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#1732851425518456-438: A prospective vehicle for ideas and ideals of self-determination and/or tino rangatiratanga . Thus does Te Pāti Māori mention in the preamble of its constitution "the dreams and aspirations of tangata whenua to achieve self-determination for whānau , hapū and iwi within their own land". Some Tūhoe envisage self-determination in specifically iwi -oriented terms. Increasing urbanisation of Māori has led to
494-480: A situation where a significant percentage do not identify with any particular iwi . The following extract from a 2000 High Court of New Zealand judgment discussing the process of settling fishing rights illustrates some of the issues: ... 81 per cent of Maori now live in urban areas, at least one-third live outside their tribal influence, more than one-quarter do not know their iwi or for some reason do not choose to affiliate with it, at least 70 per cent live outside
532-518: Is generally held by linguists to be a compound formed from two elements: tri- 'three' and bhu , bu , fu , a verbal root meaning 'to be'. Latin tribus is held to derive from the Proto-Indo-European compound * tri-dʰh₁u/o- ('rendered in three, tripartite division'; compare with Umbrian trifu 'trinity, district', Sanskrit trídha 'threefold'). Considerable debate has accompanied efforts to define and characterize tribes. In
570-628: Is of special significance to the Muriwhenua people. The name Muriwhenua means "this is the end of the land", describing the rohe (traditional tribal lands) of the iwi, extending up the North Auckland Peninsula from the Maungataniwha Range to Cape Reinga . The name Te Hiku o te Ika translates as the tail of the fish, meaning the end of the North Island , which in Māori mythology is
608-728: The Māori King Movement , though principally congregated around Waikato / Tainui , aims to transcend some iwi functions in a wider grouping. Many iwi operate or are affiliated with media organisations. Most of these belong to Te Whakaruruhau o Nga Reo Irirangi Māori (the National Māori Radio Network), a group of radio stations which receive contestable Government funding from Te Māngai Pāho (the Māori Broadcast Funding Agency) to operate on behalf of iwi and hapū . Under their funding agreement,
646-670: The Oxford English Dictionary , it remains unclear if this form is the result of a borrowing from a Romance language source (such as Old French tribu ) or if the form is a result of borrowing directly from Latin (the Middle English plural tribuz 1250 may be a direct representation of Latin plural tribūs ). Modern English tribe may also be a result of a common pattern wherein English borrows nouns directly from Latin and drops suffixes, including -us . Latin tribus
684-496: The original migration voyages ). These super-groupings are generally symbolic rather than logistical. In pre-European times, most Māori were allied to relatively small groups in the form of hapū ( ' sub-tribes ' ) and whānau ( ' family ' ). Each iwi contains a number of hapū ; among the hapū of the Ngāti Whātua iwi, for example, are Te Uri-o-Hau , Te Roroa , Te Taoū , and Ngāti Whātua-o-Ōrākei . Māori use
722-719: The social sciences with scholars of anthropological and ethnohistorical research challenging the utility of the concept. In 1970, anthropologist J. Clyde Mitchell wrote: Despite the membership boundaries for a tribe being conceptually simple, in reality they are often vague and subject to change over time. In his 1975 study, The Notion of the Tribe , Fried provided numerous examples of tribes that encompassed members who spoke different languages and practiced different rituals, or who shared languages and rituals with members of other tribes. Similarly, he provided examples of tribes in which people followed different political leaders, or followed
760-458: The 'Adibasi' -- a translation into Hindi of 'aboriginal'. His arguments proved persuasive. These communities were to have seats in the legislatures and positions in government employment 'reserved' for them. Each of the assembly members prepared a list of communities that deserved special protections. These names were listed in a "Schedule" (appendix) to the Constitution. So these came to be called
798-444: The 'Scheduled Tribes', often abbreviated to ST. Second, bands could form "secondary" tribes as a means to defend against state expansion. Members of bands would form more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such polities could begin producing surpluses that could support a standing army that could fight against states, and they would have a leadership that could co-ordinate economic production and military activities. In
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#1732851425518836-556: The bones" — literally to the burial-areas of the ancestors . Māori author Keri Hulme 's novel The Bone People (1985) has a title linked directly to the dual meaning of bone and "tribal people". Many iwi names begin with Ngāti or with Ngāi (from ngā āti and ngā ai respectively, both meaning roughly ' the offspring of ' ). Ngāti has become a productive morpheme in New Zealand English to refer to groups of people: examples are Ngāti Pākehā ( Pākehā as
874-572: The fish Māui caught. Elders sometimes say the head of the fish is the New Zealand capital city of Wellington , but it can only go where the tail will allow. According to Muriwhenua tradition, the great waka navigator Kupe discovered the region, mistaking Houhora mountain, north of Kaitaia, for a whale. The crew of his waka explored from Cape Reinga to Parengarenga Harbour , including Karikari Peninsula , Tokerau Beach , Whangaroa Harbour and Matauri Bay . According to one tradition, he followed
912-506: The growing New Zealand Māori population tried to keep a connection to their culture, family history, spirituality, community, language and iwi . The Victoria University of Wellington Te Reo Māori Society campaigned for Māori radio, helping to set up Te Reo o Poneke, the first Māori-owned radio operation, using airtime on Wellington student-radio station Radio Active in 1983. Twenty-one iwi radio stations were set up between 1989 and 1994, receiving Government funding in accordance with
950-664: The largest social units in New Zealand Māori society . In Māori , iwi roughly means ' people ' or ' nation ' , and is often translated as " tribe ", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. Iwi groups trace their ancestry to the original Polynesian migrants who, according to tradition, arrived from Hawaiki . Some iwi cluster into larger groupings that are based on whakapapa (genealogical tradition) and known as waka (literally ' canoes ' , with reference to
988-1280: The modern state system. Tribes have lost their legitimacy to conduct traditional functions, such as tithing , delivering justice and defending territory, with these being replaced by states functions and institutions, such as taxation, law courts and the military. Most have suffered decline and loss of cultural identity. Some have adapted to the new political context and transformed their culture and practices in order to survive, whilst others have secured legal rights and protections. Fried proposed that most surviving tribes do not have their origin in pre-state tribes, but rather in pre-state bands. Such "secondary" tribes, he suggested, developed as modern products of state expansion. Bands comprise small, mobile, and fluid social formations with weak leadership . They do not generate surpluses, pay no taxes, and support no standing army. Fried argued that secondary tribes develop in one of two ways. First, states could set them up as means to extend administrative and economic influence in their hinterland, where direct political control costs too much. States would encourage (or require) people on their frontiers to form more clearly bounded and centralized polities, because such polities could begin producing surpluses and taxes, and would have
1026-474: The nature, structure and practices of tribes. Writing on the Kurdish peoples, anthropologist Martin van Bruinessen argued, "the terms of standard anthropological usage, 'tribe', 'clan' and 'lineage' appear to be a straitjacket that ill fits the social reality of Kurdistan". There are further negative connotations of the term "tribe" that have reduced its use. Writing in 2013, scholar Matthew Ortoleva noted that "like
1064-401: The pallisades of their pā (fortification), fix a long flax rope to a rock on the mainland, and use it to escape. Tūmatahina followed at the rear of the group, and used his large footprints to hide the footprints of the other people, concealing the escape from the enemy. The kūaka ( bar-tailed godwit ) is the symbol of the tribes; their annual migration from the Muriwhenua harbours represents
1102-412: The popular imagination, tribes reflect a primordial social structure from which all subsequent civilizations and states developed. Anthropologist Elman Service presented a system of classification for societies in all human cultures, based on the evolution of social inequality and the role of the state . This system of classification contains four categories: Tribes are therefore considered to be
1140-416: The same leaders as members of other tribes. He concluded that tribes in general are characterized by fluid boundaries, heterogeneity and dynamism, and are not parochial. Part of the difficulty with the term is that it seeks to construct and apply a common conceptual framework across diverse cultures and peoples. Different anthropologists studying different peoples therefore draw conflicting conclusions about
1178-483: The stations must produce programmes in the local Māori language and actively promote local Māori culture. A two-year Massey University survey of 30,000 people published in 2003 indicated 50 per cent of Māori in National Māori Radio Network broadcast areas listened to an iwi station. An Auckland University of Technology study in 2009 suggested the audience of iwi radio stations would increase as
Muriwhenua - Misplaced Pages Continue
1216-503: The successful escape. Later, the Whangape chief Ueoneone travelled to Waikato , where he fell in love with the sisters Reitū and Reipae and proposed to marry them. On her way north, Reipae fell in love with a chief named Ōtāhuhupōtiki and married him; their harbour became Te Whanga-a-Reipae (the harbour of Reipae), which was shortened to Whangārei . Reitū married Ueoneone at Whangape; their twin daughters Kauae and Tawakeiti married Tūpoto,
1254-408: The traditional tribal territory and these will have difficulties, which in many cases will be severe, in both relating to their tribal heritage and in accessing benefits from the settlement. It is also said that many Maori reject tribal affiliation because of a working-class unemployed attitude, defiance and frustration. Related but less important factors, are that a hapu may belong to more than one iwi,
1292-591: The tribe has collective assets under management of $ 1.85 billion. Iwi affairs can have a real impact on New Zealand politics and society. A 2004 attempt by some iwi to test in court their ownership of the seabed and foreshore areas polarised public opinion (see New Zealand foreshore and seabed controversy ). In Māori and in many other Polynesian languages , iwi literally means ' bone ' derived from Proto-Oceanic * suRi ₁ meaning ' thorn, splinter, fish bone ' . Māori may refer to returning home after travelling or living elsewhere as "going back to
1330-533: The tribes have settled land claims with the New Zealand Government through the Waitangi Tribunal . Te Reo Irirangi o Te Hiku o Te Ika , an iwi radio station, serves the Muriwhenua tribes. It broadcasts a main station on 97.1 FM , an urban contemporary station Sunshine FM on 104.3 FM and a youth-oriented station Tai FM. Iwi Iwi ( Māori pronunciation: [ˈiwi] ) are
1368-422: The violence and exploitation of early kingdoms and states. He wrote: In fact, there is no absolute necessity for a tribal stage as defined by Sahlins and Service, no necessity, that is, for such a stage to appear in the transit from a single settlement with embedded political organization, to a complex-state structured polity. Such a developmental process could have gone on within a unit that we may conceptualize as
1406-484: The word rohe to describe the territory or boundaries of iwi. In modern-day New Zealand , iwi can exercise significant political power in the management of land and of other assets. For example, the 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlement between the New Zealand Government and Ngāi Tahu , compensated that iwi for various losses of the rights guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840. As of 2019
1444-415: The word Indian , [t]ribe is a word that has connotations of colonialism." Survival International says "It is important to make the distinction between tribal and indigenous because tribal peoples have a special status acknowledged in international law as well as problems in addition to those faced by the wider category of indigenous peoples." Few tribes today remain isolated from the development of
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