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Atua
Atua are the gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians (see also ); the Polynesian word literally means "power" or "strength" and so the concept is similar to that of '' mana''. Today, it is also used for the monotheistic conception of God. Especially powerful atua included: * '' Rongo-mā-Tāne'' – god of agriculture and peace * '' Tāne Mahuta'' – creator of all living things such as animals, birds and trees * ''Tangaroa'' – god of the sea * '' Tūmatauenga'' – a god of war * '' Whiro'' – god of darkness and evil In Samoa, where means "god" in the Samoan language, traditional tattooing was based on the doctrine of tutelary spirits. There is also a district on the island of Upolu in Samoa called Atua. Atua or gods were also the center of Māori religion. In Māori's belief, there was no such word as "religion" because the natural and supernatural world were one. In other Austronesian cultures, cognates of ''atua'' inclu ...
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Atua (district)
Ātua is an ancient political district of Samoa, consisting of most of the eastern section of Upolu and the island Tutuila. Within Samoa’s traditional polity, Ātua is ruled by the Tui Ātua together with the group of six senior orators of Lufilufi and 13 senior matai from throughout Ātua, comprising the Fale Ātua (or ''parliament'' of Atua). The ''fono'' (meeting) of Atua's rulers takes place in Lufilufi on the great malae of Lalogafu'afu'a. The paramount ''pāpā'' title and sovereign of Ātua is the Tui Ātua. The title traces its lineage to Pili, son of Tagaloa-a-lagi. One of the first known Tui Atua was Tui Atua Leutelele'i'ite of Falefa, who according to oral tradition, is said to have been part ''aitu'' (god-like) and part ''tagata'' (human-like) and lived around 1170 A.D. It is from his lifetime that the known pre-European history of Samoa associated with the Tui Ātua and its holders began. The current Tui Ātua is former Prime Minister, Head of State and tama-a-aig ...
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Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands ( Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands ( Manono and Apolima); and several smaller, uninhabited islands, including the Aleipata Islands ( Nu'utele, Nu'ulua, Fanuatapu and Namua). Samoa is located west of American Samoa, northeast of Tonga (closest foreign country), northeast of Fiji, east of Wallis and Futuna, southeast of Tuvalu, south of Tokelau, southwest of Hawaii, and northwest of Niue. The capital city is Apia. The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a Samoan language and Samoan cultural identity. Samoa is a unitary parliamentary democracy with 11 administrative divisions. It is a sovereign state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. Because ...
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Anito
''Anito'', also spelled ''anitu'', refers to ancestor spirits, nature spirits, and deities in the indigenous Philippine folk religions from the precolonial age to the present, although the term itself may have other meanings and associations depending on the Filipino ethnic group. It can also refer to carved humanoid figures, the ''taotao'', made of wood, stone, or ivory, that represent these spirits. ''Anito'' (a term predominantly used in Luzon) is also sometimes known as ''diwata'' in certain ethnic groups (especially among Visayans). ''Pag-anito'' refers to a séance, often accompanied by other rituals or celebrations, in which a shaman ( Visayan: ''babaylan'', Tagalog: ''katalonan'') acts as a medium to communicate directly with the spirits. When a nature spirit or deity is specifically involved, the ritual is called ''pagdiwata''. The act of worship or a religious sacrifice to a spirit is also sometimes simply referred to as ''anito''. The belief in ''anito'' ar ...
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Māori Mythology
Māori mythology and Māori traditions are two major categories into which the remote oral history of New Zealand's Māori may be divided. Māori myths concern fantastic tales relating to the origins of what was the observable world for the pre-European Māori, often involving gods and demigods. Māori tradition concerns more folkloric legends often involving historical or semi-historical forebears. Both categories merge in to explain the overall origin of the Māori and their connections to the world which they lived in. Māori had yet to invent a writing system before European contact, beginning in 1769, so they had no method to permanently record their histories, traditions, or mythologies. They relied on oral retellings memorised from generation to generation. The three forms of expression prominent in Māori and Polynesian oral literature are genealogical recital, poetry, and narrative prose. Experts in these subjects were broadly known as . The rituals, beliefs, and gen ...
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Tutelary Spirit
A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the ''genius'', functions as the personal deity or ''daimon'' of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore. Ancient Greece Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or ''daimonion'': The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Ancient Rome Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperi ...
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Whiro
Whiro-te-tipua (Whiro, or Hiro in the Tuamotus) is the lord of darkness and embodiment of all evil in Māori mythology. He inhabits the underworld and is responsible for the ills of all people, a contrast to his brother and enemy Tāne. According to some tribes, when people die, their bodies descend into the underworld, where they are eaten by Whiro. Each time Whiro eats a body, he becomes stronger. This process will eventually make him sufficiently powerful to break free of the underworld, at which point he will come to the surface and devour everything and everyone on it. Cremation is therefore recommended to prevent this, because Whiro cannot gain strength from ashes. Taiwhetuki – Whiro's House of Death – is a deep and dark cave where all things evil are preserved, such as black magic. It is a place in which countless personifications of illnesses and diseases dwell. Geckos, skinks, and tuatara Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are reptiles endemic to New Zealan ...
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Tūmatauenga
Tūmatauenga (''Tū of the angry face'') is the primary god () of war and human activities such as hunting, food cultivation, fishing, and cooking in Māori mythology. In creation stories, Tū suggests to kill his parents to allow light into the world. After they are instead separated, he wars with his brothers and becomes the origin of humanity's activities, and the reasons for their behaviour when interacting with the creations of his brothers. As the god of war, all were dedicated to him and he was treated with the greatest respect and awe. Tūmatauenga inspires the New Zealand Army's Māori name: where all soldiers are deemed of the same ''iwi'' ("tribe") under the deity's patronage regardless of racial heritage. The marae is often considered the – fiery ovens of Tūmatauenga – the realm of Tūmatauenga, whereas all areas where battles take place become – the battle domain of Tūmatauenga. Names and epithets After his victories over his brothers, Tū assumed ma ...
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List Of Māori Deities
This is a list of Māori deities, known in Māori as . Major departmental deities * Haumiatiketike, the god of uncultivated food, particularly bracken fern. * Papatūānuku, the primordial earth mother. *Ranginui, the primordial sky father. * Rongomātāne, the god of cultivated foods, particularly sweet potato. * Tānemahuta, the god of forests and birds. *Tangaroa, the god of the Ocean and the creatures within. *Tāwhirimātea, the god of storms and violent weather. *Tūmatauenga, the god of war, hunting, cooking, fishing, and food cultivation. * Whiro, the lord of darkness and embodiment of all evil and death. * Aituā, the god of death, happiness, and misfortune. * Ao, a personification of light. *Auahitūroa, the personification of comets, and the origin of the fire. * Haere, several personifications of the rainbow. *Ikatere, a fish god and father of all sea creatures. *Io Matua Kore, the supreme being; personification of light and the world of the living and the forest ...
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Kupua
In Hawaiian mythology, the Kupua are a group of supernatural entities which might be considered gods or spirits (see also '' Atua''). Hawaiian myths and legends abound with such characters. They are traditionally described as monsters having the power of appearing in different kinds of bodies. They usually have cruel and vindictive characters and are ready to destroy and devour any persons they can catch. There are, however, many kupuas of kindly spirit who give watchful care to the members of their own families. Many Hawaiian kupua are considered as gods having a double body, sometimes appearing as a man and sometimes being able to change shape, into an animal, vegetable, or mineral form. The latter form always possesses supernatural powers. William Westervelt mentions the following classification for kupua: * Ka-poe-kino-lau (the people who had leaf bodies) * Ka-poe-kino-pua (the people who had flower bodies) * Ka-poe-kino-manu (the people who had bird bodies) * Ka-poe-kino-la ...
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Malaysian People
Malaysians are nationals and citizens who are identified with the country of Malaysia. Although citizens make up the majority of Malaysians, non-citizen residents and overseas Malaysians may also claim a Malaysian identity. The country is home to people of various national, ethnic and religious origins. As a result, many Malaysians do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship and allegiance to Malaysia. Majority of the population, however, belong to several clearly defined racial groups within the country with their own distinct cultures and traditions: Malays, Orang Asli (aboriginal population), Malaysian Chinese (primarily Han Chinese), Malaysian Indians (primarily Tamils). The majority of the non-Malay and non-aboriginal population in modern Malaysia is made up of immigrants and their descendants. Following the initial period of Portuguese, Dutch and then significantly longer British colonisation, different waves (or peaks) of immigration and se ...
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Indonesian People
Indonesians ( Indonesian: ''orang Indonesia'') are citizens or people originally from Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic country with a diversity of languages, culture and religious beliefs. The population of Indonesia according to the 2020 national census was 270.2 million. 56% live on the island of Java, the world's most populous island. Around 95% of Indonesians are Native Indonesians (formerly grouped as "Pribumi"), with 40% Javanese and 15% Sundanese forming the majority, while the other 5% are Indonesians with ancestry from foreign origin, such as Arab Indonesians, Chinese Indonesians, Indian Indonesians, and Indos. Population As of 2020, Indonesians make up 3.4% of world total population and Indonesia is the fourth most populous country after China, India and the United States. Despite a fairly effective family planning program that has been ...
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Micronesian People
The Micronesians or Micronesian peoples are various closely related ethnic groups native to Micronesia, a region of Oceania in the Pacific Ocean. They are a part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group, which has an Urheimat in Taiwan. Ethno-linguistic groups classified as Micronesian include the Carolinians (Northern Mariana Islands), Chamorros (Guam & Northern Mariana Islands), Chuukese, Mortlockese, Namonuito, Paafang, Puluwat and Pollapese ( Chuuk), I-Kiribati (Kiribati), Kosraeans (Kosrae), Marshallese (Marshall Islands), Nauruans (Nauru), Palauans, Sonsorolese (Palau), Pohnpeians, Pingelapese, Ngatikese, Mwokilese (Pohnpei), and Yapese, Ulithian, Woleian, Satawalese ( Yap). Origins Based on the current scientific consensus, the Micronesians are considered, by linguistic, archaeological, and human genetic evidence, to be a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people, who include the Polynesians and the Melanesians. Austronesians were the first peopl ...
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