Whānau () is the
Māori word for the basic
extended family group. Within
Māori society
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
the ''whānau'' encompasses three or four generations and forms the political unit below the levels of
hapū
In Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief ...
(subtribe),
iwi (tribe or nation) and
waka (migration canoe). These steps are emphasised in Māori genealogy as a person's
whakapapa.
Early Māori society
In pre-contact
Māori tribal organisation the ''whānau'' historically comprised a family spanning three to four generations, and would number around 20 to 30 people. It formed the smallest partition of the Māori society.
The
kaumātua (tribal elders), senior adults () such as parents, uncles and aunts, and the sons and daughters together with their partners and children. Large whānau lived in their own compound in the
pā. Whānau also had their own gardening plots and their own fishing and hunting spots. The whānau was economically
self-sufficient. In warfare, it supported and was necessarily supported by the
iwi (tribe) or
hapū
In Māori language, Māori and New Zealand English, a ' ("subtribe", or "clan") functions as "the basic political unit within Māori society". A Māori person can belong to or have links to many hapū. Historically, each hapū had its own chief ...
(sub-tribe).
The whānau would look after children and grandchildren collectively, so the loss of a parent was less likely to be devastating to a child's upbringing. In the case of orphaned children, the child would be taken in by the process of
whāngai adoption. This form of adoption is still practised and has some legal codification in New Zealand.
Contemporary conceptions
Contemporary conceptions offer whānau in one of two ways:
# An "object or construction based on descent, cause or a mix of the two"; or
# "A collection of ideas".
As a descent construct, has been variably described as 'extended family',
'extended family or community',
or simply 'family'.
See also
*
Ohana
is a Hawaiian language, Hawaiian term meaning "family" (in an extended family, extended sense of the term, including blood-related, adoptive or intentional).
The term is cognate with Māori language, Māori , meaning "nest".
The root word ref ...
(''
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
an equivalent'')
References
Iwi and hapū
Māori words and phrases
Māori society
Family in New Zealand
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