Yesterday was a NZ public holiday marking something described as the "Maori New Year".
Given the facts that Maori were, until the arrival of humans starting with Cook, a number of hunter/gatherer tribal groups the majority of whom had no agriculture, no wheel, no written form of communication and in many parts of the country no common language two queries arise:
How did the develop a calendar?
Why did they develop a calendar year?
To expand on the second, pre-European contact the maori had only sea animals and fish, small birds, small dogs, rats, berries, naturally occuring weeds and other maori to eat.
None of these are particularly seasonal except for the odd fish.
They also, by the time Europeans arrived, had no transport other than small coastal boats (The larger raids noted in history involving transport - Banks Peninsula, Chathams etc. - required European-built ships)
Why would Maori have any need for a "New Year"?
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