Reterritorialising Kinship: The Māori Hapū

Authors

  • Jeffrey Sissons Victoria University of Wellington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.122.4.373-392

Abstract

In this article I develop the Deleuzian-inspired argument that Māori hapū can be understood as collective becomings, an emergent series of new kin assemblages territorialised or reterritorialised around different ritual centres. These ritual centres -"intense centres" in Deleuzian terms- took different forms, including small shrines, churches, settlement meeting houses and hapÅ« meeting houses. I conclude that hapū are neither large kin-categories nor smaller kin-groups but assemblages that may include people, land, animals, shrines and buildings.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Sissons, Victoria University of Wellington

Jeffrey Sissons is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is the author of 5 books and over 30 articles on Māori and Polynesian societies. His most recent book, The Polynesian Iconoclasm: Religious Revolution and the Seasonality of Power (Berghahn Books) draws on the thought of Sahlins and Bourdieu to analyse the rapid conversions to Christianity in early 19th Century Polynesia.

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Published

2014-04-08

Issue

Vol. 122 No. 4 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

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