1400s: Tribal Boundaries Emerge
May 25, 2019
By AHNZ
Some people think human progress is ever upward, the future always better. Yet frequently we do go backwards. Are our synthetic fibre blankets and clothes better than our natural fibre (wool) grandparents’? Did the farming Kiwi family eat better grain, bread, meat, and butter than us and more cheaply? Was their social and working life more healthy? Their postal system more frequent and secure? Their government smaller, their tax less? Were their high-ceilinged houses drier and warmer in winter than our damp electrically-heated ones and their accompanying high winter power bills? Is our music better? Are our schools good? Is our military capable? Are our hospitals proficient and equipped? In my opinion: NO!
In the earlier post, Game of Stones, Otago University archaeologists were recorded as finding the same results 700 years ago. Early New Zealanders had good quality stone but later had to back off to lesser quality. I can imagine some of the older generation talking about the stone quality used by the younger generation the same way oldies might talk about music..
“The ‘one hit wonders’ that are popular with the young people these days will soon be forgotten, replaced by more of the same. The classic rock we had back in our day is still the best, it never wears out, never goes out of fashion!”
My hypothesis was that a tribal monopoly over the stone supply explains the scarcity and the associated wealth and power would have made them a Stone Kingdom above all others. I put this to Professor Richard Walter who kindly said “I think you are more or less right…Your ideas are really sound.” (note: he didn’t said “valid”)
Walter is being very generous and encouraging here. If you want a supervisor for your PhD get this guy. He doesn’t actually go along with the Stone Kingdom idea (not having read enough Frank Herbert?) saying, “But the costs were definitely not because some groups started to monopolise the stone sources – that did not happen.”
The C15th, Walter says, was characterised by the emergence of tribal boundaries. Large double hulled sailing canoe stock depreciated and was not replaced. An agricultural territorialism era rose to replace the free and easy early times when hunted and gathered food and fibre was plentiful. The small world that was New Zealand had become bigger, harder to pass through and that impacted the logistics of quality stone supply. So then we don’t need the added (but fun) explanation of Mafia Warlords of Stone.
I don’t know why he says of the monopoly, “that did not happen.” The other explanation, general transport costs rising, would apply to everything not just stone. But according to the earlier article about these early New Zealanders, “They started to use inferior grade local materials … which wasn’t what I expected. We don’t know why … but they weren’t looking at importing adzes. They were still importing other materials.” So a general shipping and trade decline doesn’t cut it- we need an explanation specific to the good nephrite. A Stone Mafia fits that bill. Besides, that’s what’s always to blame for our going backwards: State Intervention in some form.
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ref. Walter email to AHNZ, May 2019
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