ABSTRACT
Maori social and economic life followed essentially the Polynesian pattern. The transplanting of the society to a distinctly non-Polynesian habitat left its mark on the culture. The largest kinship group among the Maori was the tribe. One of the lesser features of social organization depends upon the traditional arrival of the Maori in a fleet of canoes. The most clearly observable canon of Maori life is the cohesiveness of kinship groupings within the tribe. To the Maori who lived in the vicinity of the forest lands birds was a stable source of food supply. The elements of Maori technology have been described without emphasis on the division of labor. Social stratification in Maori society is responsible for minimizing competition; it tends to reinforce cooperation by being fitted into the division of labor. Moreover the individualism characteristic of Maori personality was securely harnessed to the needs of the group.
