Moa Citings

Abstract

The archaeological consensus is that all species of Moa ( Dinornithiformes) have been extinct for three or four centuries. Yet these giant birds still enjoy a vigorous and prolific afterlife in New Zealand’s literature, art, historiography and popular culture. Arguing that narratives about moa function as myths, in the sense given that term by Roland Barthes, this essay analyses their deployment in the construction of theories about human settlement in New Zealand, and about the development of an endemic (Māori) culture. I suggest that a shift occurred, during the second half of the twentieth century, from a moa mythology based on theories of racial hierarchy to one based on theories of evolutionary ecology. I then consider the ideological investments of the currently dominant theories about moa, and conclude by contrasting these with the very different kinds of affect evoked by accounts of live moa sightings.