h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yuck... I think cannabalism is totally GROSS!!!
How can anyone eat someone else... oh well...

Well, it seems gross to me as well, but then, I was brought up in a society that frowns on cannibalism. To people brought up in some other societies, eating pork seems gross. It's all cultural, isn't it?

In New Zealand, up until British explorer Captain Cook released some pigs in the 17th century, there were no large land mammals. There was a small native rat and a few bats. Cook released the pigs so there would be food available when he returned.

The native Maori tribes practised cannabilism. They ate prisoners captured from other tribes. This supplemted their normal diet of birds, fish, seals and vegetables.

When white people (whalers, sealers) started living in NZ in the 19th century, the Maori word for these people was pakeha, meaning white meat.

Cannabilism, mainly through the influence of missionaries, had stopped by about 1840.

The word pakeha now means a person who is not of Maori descent; especially: a white person. The word is in general usage but some people think it derogatory.

Hm, interesting. Is there any evidence whether "pakeha" is a longstanding native word, or a corruption of the English "pork"?

Maori language is descriptive. Pa-ke-ha. Pa means (variously) meeting house, place for storing food. I will try and find out about the ke-ha bit. The language, up until the 70s, was in danger of dying out. It is currently enjoying something of a renascence and is taught in schools to most, (Maori and Pakeha) 5-10-year-olds. The Maori, and indeed most whites, belately realised in the Maori language and culture we have something special and unique here.

New Zealand's population is just under 4 million. About 10% are of Maori descent. No Maori has 100% Maori blood. A bad-taste joke of earlier times was that the Maori were sleeping their way to extinction. Another 5% of the NZ population come from various other Pacific Islands.

A lot of the Maori language is similar to native Hawaiian. The Maori people, about 900 years ago, sailed by waka (canoes with outriggers) to NZ from the mythical land of Haiwaiki. Modern thinking believes this was Hawaii.

Wild descendents of the pigs still roam the New Zealand bush and provide good hunting opportunities. They are known as Captain Cookers.

Mike, last night I was talking to a Maori friend. He said pakeha originally meant "Very smelly boat" Pa (in this sense describing where the seamen lived) = boat. Keha = very smelly.

I imagine the whalers, sealers, boats of the 18/19th centuries would indeed have been rather smelly.

He remembers his mother, who was born in the early 20th century, referring, jokingly, to long pork and short pork. Short pork (Captain Cooker pigs) was the preferred food. Less salty than long pork (humans) apparently.

Well, they do call seamen "old salts", after all. I wonder whether landlubbers might have been more appetizing?

A seamans intake of salt must have been enormous. It was used as a preservative for all the food carried aboard ship.

I imagine lundlubbers would have tasted similar to unsalted pork.