Maori Tattooing (Dover Pictorial Archives)

Book Description
This classic of ethnography was assembled in the19th century by an astute observer and skilled illustrator who first encountered the Maori art during his military service in New Zealand. Maori tattooing (moko) consists of a complex design of marks, made in ink and incised into the skin, that communicate the bearer’s genealogy, tribal affiliation, and spirituality. This well-illustrated volume relates how moko first became known to Europeans and discusses the distinctions between men and women’s moko, patterns and designs, moko in legend and song, and the practice of mokomokai: the preservation of the heads of Maori ancestors. Unabridged republication of the classic 1896 edition. 180 black-and-white illustrations.



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This definitive reference on Maori body art features 180 photographs and line drawings by the author, an astute observer and skilled illustrator. H. G. Robley first encountered the Maori art form during his military service in New Zealand; thirty years later, he published this classic of ethnography. The 1896 work not only summarizes all previous accounts of Maori tattooing but also augments them with Robley's numerous personal observations from his three decades of observation and study among the craft's practitioners. Maori tattooing, or moko, consists of a complex design of marks, made in ink and incised into the skin, that communicate the bearer's genealogy, tribal affiliation, and spirituality. The author relates how moko first became known to Europeans and discusses the distinctions between men and women's moko, the patterns and designs, the tradition's related legends and songs, and the practice of mokomokai: the preservation of the heads of Maori ancestors.


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