French Museum Tries To Return Maori Head

Yahoo News ^ | 10-24-2007 | Angela Doland

[blam]

GGG Ping.

Maori Men And Women From Different Homelands

[Slings and Arrows]

Thats what happens when you try to get ahead.

[blam]

Celts before the Maoris?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

French Maori head heads to New Zealand ahead of Liverpool head.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks Blam. Who wouldn't *want* a Maori head, that's what I wanna know. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are Blam, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Monkey Face]

Oh ick. Where’s the nearest head?

[arderkrag]

Thats what happens when you try to get ahead but you don't keep your head on your shoulders.

;)

[mikrofon]

What that up on the road, a head?

[Slings and Arrows]

Hard to believe there's a Frenchman out there who doesn't want a little head.

[Grizzled Bear]

Please add me to the “not a ping list.” Is there a secret handshake I need to learn?

[Clioman]

None of this would have happened if they had just quietly buried the ugly thing under a hedge in the back yard.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

This is news? French give head?

[UnklGene]

Maori heads

[Slings and Arrows]

Is there a secret handshake I need to learn?

[xJones]

Thanks for the head’s up.

[DieHard the Hunter]

This is big news in NZ. For a number of years Maori have been seeking the repatiation of their ancestral body parts as a part of the Waitangi Treaty reparations — which is fair enough, how would you like it if someone went raiding thru the local morgue carrying off the body parts of your relatives to, say, Finland? — and they are indeed quite upset that the French Government just doesn’t “get it”.

(nothing new there)

The heads in question have elaborate facial tattoos, called “Moko” — these were chiseled in using very sharp rat’s teeth chisels — and were usually awarded to only the most prestigious Maori warriors as a pain-endurance thing. During the ordeal (which would last a very long time) the warrior was expected to not utter one sound.

If killed in battle, these heads would become war-prizes for the winning side.

After the arrival of the Europeans, tho’, there became this bizarre trade in heads for the museums of curious Europeans. The Maori weren’t stupid: they weren’t going to let an opportunity like that go by. So, they began tattooing the faces of their captured slaves, then chopping them off and selling them, too.

So some of the heads are prominent warriors, and some are not. But the Maori (quite understandably) would like the lot returned. Seems reasonable, I can’t see why the French would like to keep NZ body parts unnecessarily.

[xJones]

Please add me to the “not a ping list.” Is there a secret handshake I need to learn?

You have to go through Slings' initiation ritual first. It's very embarrassing, and your naked photos will be shown all over the internet afterwards.

[Grizzled Bear]

I already wrestled in the vat of warm tapioca.

What more is left to do?

[xJones]

I already wrestled in the vat of warm tapioca.

Hey, this is Slings' initiation, I'd never be warped enough to require this. After the tapioca vat, he made me stand naked in front of my computer screen and sing "I'm a little teapot", but that was a while back and they say it's gotten a lot worse since then.