4.2.3: Maui (South Pacific)
- Page ID
- 279510
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)The South Pacific demi-god Maui differs from traditional trickster archetypes by leaning toward more positive trickery, or more specifically conduct that offers more benefit to people even as it serves his needs directly. The many descriptive titles applied to him demonstrate his action’s connotations: Maui the Deceiver, Maui the Evil House, Maui the Many Devices, Maui the Brave, Maui the Kind, Maui the Wise, and Maui the Eight Eyes or the Supernatural (Hart and Reed 16).
Like traditional heroes, Maui survives a miraculous birth. Upon his birth, his mother sees that he has no life. Heartbroken and loath to let her baby go, she cuts off her topknot of hair and wraps the infant’s body in it before setting it upon the ocean’s waves. But Maui is not dead and the topknot keeps him afloat, securing his future as one who will outwit and outmatch both humans and the elements of nature.
As a young man, Maui felt the sun raced across the sky too quickly, leaving his grandmother too little time to cook for him. To tame the sun’s ambition, he conceives of a plan to slow its path. His brothers, wary from experience with Maui’s malicious sense of humor, serve as reluctant henchmen, weaving flax ropes that will be used to lasso and hold the sun. While his brothers wrestle against the burning power of the mighty sun, Maui takes up his favorite weapon, the jawbone of his ancestor, using it to pummel the sun into heeding his wishes. He succeeds, slowing its arc across the sky to offer people sufficient time to attend to their duties and pleasures. The rays of the sun represent the wounds it suffered from contending with the powerful demi-god. In addition to mastering fire for mortals, Maui’s intervention with celestial bodies also includes controlling the phases of the moon by holding his massive hand over the full moon, permitting just the light he desired to shine through his fingers (16-19). Locating the natural etiological rationale is uncomplicated, but greater emphasis is placed upon the value of such a potent and truculent character. Like other tricksters, he straddles several worlds: human and divine, ethical and unethical or self-serving conduct, heroic and comic. Cultural admiration for his feats may reflect the need for a strong protector deity in a land full of volcanic and seismic dangers, and later British colonization. He represents brash rule-breaking in a world where such actual behavior may have harsh, if not fatal, consequences.