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The culture of New Zealand is largely inherited from British, Oceanian and European customs, interwoven with Maori and Polynesian tradition. An isolated Pacific Island nation, New Zealand was comparatively recently settled by humans. Initially Māori only, then bicultural with colonial and rural values, now New Zealand has a cosmopolitan, multicultural culture that reflects its changing demographics, is conscious of the natural environment, and is an educated, developed Western society. Māori culture has predominated for most of New Zealand's history of human habitation. Polynesians reached the islands of New Zealand about 1280. Over the ensuing centuries of Polynesian expansion and settlement, Māori culture developed from its Polynesian roots. Māori established separate tribes, built fortified villages (Pā), hunted and fished, traded commodities, developed agriculture, arts and weaponry, and kept a detailed oral history. Regular European contact began from 1800, and British immigration proceeded rapidly, especially from 1855. The colonists had a dramatic effect on the Maori, bringing Christianity, advanced technology, the English language, numeracy and literacy. In 1840 Māori leaders signed the Treaty of Waitangi, intended to enable the tribes to live peacefully with the colonists. However, after several incidents, the New Zealand land wars broke out from 1845, with Māori suffering a loss of land, partly through confiscation,but mainly through widespread and extensive land sales. Maori retained their identity, mostly choosing to live separately from settlers and continuing to speak and write Maori. With mass migration from Britain, a high Maori death rate and low life expectancy for Maori women, Maori population figure dropped between 1850 and 1930. Work by demographer I. Poole shows the drop may not have been as great as previously believed as most Maori did not register birth until a child benefit was paid by the 1931 Labour Government. From about 1860 Maori became the minority race in New Zealand. Māori culture has regained much of its lost influence as Maori have integrated into New Zealand society. European New Zealanders (Pākehā), despite their location far from Europe, retained strong cultural ties to "Mother England". These ties were weakened by the demise of the British Empire and loss of special access to British meat and dairy markets. Pākehā began to forge a separate identity influenced by their pioneering history, a rural lifestyle and New Zealand's unique environment. Pākehā culture became prevalent after the land wars, but after sustained political efforts, biculturalism and the Treaty of Waitangi became part of the school curriculum in the late 20th century, to promote understanding between Māori and Pākehā. More recently, New Zealand culture has been broadened by globalization and immigration from the Pacific Islands, East Asia and South Asia. European and Māori remain the two largest ethnicities, but the large Polynesian population in Auckland has prompted the observation that Auckland is now the largest Polynesian city in the world.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Auckland and around )〕 However, the country outside of Auckland is still much less heterogeneous, with big parts of the South Island remaining predominantly of European descent. New Zealand marks two national days of remembrance, Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day, and also celebrates holidays during or close to the anniversaries of the founding dates of each province. New Zealand has two national anthems of equal status; "God Save the Queen" and "God Defend New Zealand"〔"God Save the Queen" is also an official anthem but is rarely sung〕—the latter of which is often sung with alternating Māori and English verses. Many citizens prefer to minimise ethnic divisions, simply calling themselves New Zealanders or Kiwis. ==Māori culture== (詳細はMāori are the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand (Aotearoa) who first arrived In New Zealand about 1280. They arrived from Eastern Polynesia,most likely the Society Islands. In 2014 demographers believe about 100-200 Polynesians migrants arrived at a similar time. Māori settled the islands and developed a distinct culture over several hundred years. Maori oral history tells of a long voyage from Hawaiki (the mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) in large ocean-going canoes (waka). Māori mythology is a distinctive corpus of gods and heroes, sharing some Polynesian motifs. Some notable figures are Rangi and Papa, Māui, and Kupe. Central to many cultural events is the marae, where families and tribes gather for special occasions, such as pōwhiri or tangi. Māori often call themselves "tāngata whenua" (people of the land), placing particular importance on a lifestyle connected to land and sea. Communal living, sharing, and living off the land are strong traditional values. The distinct values, history, and worldview of Maori are expressed through traditional arts and skills such as haka, tā moko, waiata, carving, weaving, and poi. The concept of tapu (meaning taboo or sacred) is also a strong force in Māori culture, applied to objects, people, or even mountains. Europeans migrated to New Zealand in increasing numbers from 1855. Maori traditional penchant for war,especially between 1805 and 1842 during the Musket Wars and diseases introduced destabilized traditional Māori society. The Treaty of Waitangi 1840 formed the basis of the establishment of British rule over New Zealand. New Zealand became partly self-governing in 1852 with the establishment of its own Parliament. The most serious conflict between Maori and European settlers was between 1863 and 1864 which resulted in land being confiscated from the defeated tribes. However Māori sold most of their land after 1870 and continued to do so until the 1980s. From 1820 Maori entered a long period of cultural and numerical decline. However their population began to increase again from the late 19th century, and a cultural revival began in the 1960s, sometimes known as the Maori Renaissance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Culture of New Zealand」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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