Abortion in the nineteenth century Maori: a historical and ethnopsychiatric review
Gluckman, L.K.
New Zealand Medical Journal 93(685): 384-386
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-8446 PMID: 7019788 Document Number: 575387
The anthropological writings on the 19th-century pre-European Maori of New Zealand are reviewed. It seems that various observers misunderstood local folk customs and arrived at wrong conclusions regarding certain childbirth-related practices. Evaluation of the literature shows that induced abortion was not practiced among these people for fear of retributive Makutu. They did, however, attempt feticide by premature induction of labor in late pregnancy. Infanticide was also common. In support of these conclusions, it is noted that missionaries felt the need of speaking out against infanticide; they did not mention aborticide. The folk ritual of taiki, performed during pregnancy, was done not to induce abortion but to destroy the spiritual and punitive powers of the fetus so that infanticide could later be performed safely. the natives seem to have learned about inducing abortion through the use of herbal preparations only after observing white men doing so. The issue of illegitimacy as a reason for abortion is not an issue. Illegitimate children had differnet names but there was no stigma attached to being an unwed mother or an illegitimate child. Aristocratic virgins (puhi) who conceived by a slave could not have hoped to redeem themselves by merely aborting the fetus.