Abstract:
The texts of Maori oral tradition preserve special information for
communication within Maori society. The forms in which that information is
communicated are varied and in named types. Whakataukii are one of those
types and they are one means of making public and preserving knowledge about
Maori society. The knowledge which is contained in whakataukii, or referred
to by them, ranges from simple observations of daily life, to philosophical
concepts and records of history. This thesis proposes that whakataukii are
a genre of Maori oral tradition. By examination and interpretation of a
selection of sayings arranged in two categories, one which relates to Maori
society as a whole and the other which relates to individual tribes, it
considers the role of these texts in transmitting cultural information.
Oral texts are often represented as unsophisticated forms of language,
dependant for sophistication on a development to writing. Sayings are
generally studied as colloquial texts and are seldom the subject of the
serious interpretative study given to written literature. In this thesis
the sayings of Maori oral tradition, with their culturally distinct but
highly developed use of language, are regarded as comparable in their own
sphere to compositions of written literature.