The Ancient History of the Maori

Record summary

John White’s six-volume The Ancient History of the Maori remained a major source in early twentieth-century arguments about Māori origins, migrations, genealogies, and pre-European history. Its identifiable narratives were repeatedly mined by diffusionists, ethnologists, and later archaeologists, sometimes as though they formed a consistent chronological archive. The set matters for studying transmission and editorial construction of Indigenous historical knowledge. Verification should compare the Māori-language materials, informants, translation, and editorial interventions, since the work’s publication history and reliability have been debated.