The Hau of the Gift and Polynesian-Melanesian Exchange

Record summary

The interpretation of hau, especially as presented in discussions of Māori exchange and Marcel Mauss, became an important scholarly controversy in the late twentieth century. Some writers treated hau as a spiritual force attached to gifts, while others argued that translations and anthropological generalizations obscured specific Māori concepts and social obligations. This is a useful lead for studying how esoteric-sounding categories enter comparative theory. It should be investigated through the exact Māori-language sources and the named debates rather than through simplified claims that hau is an occult energy.