Sitting on tables in NZ essays

Sitting on tables in NZ essays Sitting on tables and teacher modelling An invitation to reflect on meanings This is an attempt to share with you some of the issues involved in the prohibition against sitting on tables and how it might be viewed by educators. Under the umbrella of tapu and noa (or restrictions and freedom therefrom), there are three distinct concepts involved from pre-colonisation Mori world view and these are ideas about tables, ideas about bodies and ideas about kai. Note that the central meaning of tapu is restriction. Often it is translated as sacred and that is a valid translation in concept and I invite you to reflect on the meaning of sacred in your own understanding and make the links with the idea of restriction. What is a table? First thread of restriction. Pre colonisation Mori did not have an item of furniture or technology that equates to the Colonisers concept of a table. In the first days of meeting each other, Pkeh looked for a platform with legs to describe the closest equivalent of their concept of table and found outdoor rods or poles upon which a platform might be laid at different times. This accident of linguistic linking had the Mori name thu and if you look in the Williams Mori dictionary, you will see that it is translated as altar and was used for the express purpose of divination. So from the very beginning, this was not a place to sit freely. What about the body? Second thread of restriction. The tapu of the human body is a very simple concept to grasp at once. Every culture has enormous respect for the human body and has its own hierarchy of restriction, and every individual within that culture will have her/his own personal practices. Under what circumstances and with whom will you sha...