ABSTRACT
As children and adults, free Maoris lived always encircled by kinsfolk, whom they reckoned in hundreds and even thousands. Each free individual was related to all members of his local community, except slaves, by descent or marriage (and often both), and to all fellow tribesmen by descent. Strangers were not accepted as permanent residents in a village unless they could demonstrate descent from a common ancestor or were attached to a local family by marriage or adoption.
