Te Ika a Maui: Or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, Illustrating the Origin, Manners, Customs, Mythology, Religion, Rites, Songs

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Te Ika a Maui: Or, New Zealand and its Inhabitants, Illustrating the Origin, Manners, Customs, Mythology, Religion, Rites, Songs
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Richard Taylor
SeriesCambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:530
Dimensions(mm): Height 215,Width 142
Category/GenreAustralia, New Zealand & Pacific history
ISBN/Barcode 9781108017220
ClassificationsDewey:993
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations 8 Plates, color; 2 Plates, black and white; 1 Maps; 63 Halftones, black and white

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 26 August 2010
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Reverend Richard Taylor (1805-1873) was an English missionary, who wrote extensively on Maori culture and the plant and animal life of New Zealand. Taylor graduated from Queens' College, Cambridge in 1828 and was ordained as an Anglican priest the same year. After serving as a curate in the Isle of Ely, Taylor was appointed as a missionary to New Zealand for the Church Missionary Society. He arrived in Australia in 1836 and landed in New Zealand in 1839. Taylor quickly became a peacekeeper between the different Maori tribes in his district. This volume, first published in 1855, provides a detailed account of Maori mythology and culture with a description of the plant life, animal life and geology of the North Island. Taylor strongly condemns contemporary (nineteenth-century) attitudes to Maori culture and demonstrates the complexity of their society in this sympathetic book.