Io Matua Kore is often understood as the supreme being in Polynesian native religion, particularly of the Māori people.
| Io-matua-kore | |
|---|---|
Creator of creators; Parentless one; Supreme being | |
| Other names |
|
| Gender | Male[1] |
| Region | Polynesia |
Io does seem to be present in the mythologies of other Polynesian islands including Hawai‘i, the Society Islands, and the Cook Islands.[1] He, or somebody else with his name, appears as a great-grandson of Tiki, and a father of another Io-rangi in Moriori mythology.[2]: 106, 669
Controversy
editIo was first known generally with the publication in 1913 of Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury's book,[citation needed] translated by Percy Smith as The Lore of the Whāre-wananga.[3] The idea that the Io represented a pre-Christian understanding of "God" much like the Christian God would be propagated by Elsdon Best in his Maori Religion and Mythology.[4]
The Io tradition was initially rejected by scholars including prominent Māori scholar Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter Buck), who wrote, "The discovery of a supreme God named Io in New Zealand was a surprise to Māori and Pākehā alike."[5] Buck believed that the Io tradition was restricted to the Ngāti Kahungunu as a response to Christianity. Jonathan Z. Smith questions the motives behind the existence of such a book,[clarification needed] seeing this as a questionable emphasis of the idea around the Io.[6] Others such as James Cox argues that this "pre-Christian" understanding of a supreme god may in fact be due to the earlier Mormon missionary activities.[7]
See also
edit
- Ao (mythology)
- Kiho-tumu
- Mataaho
- Tagaloa paramount deity in Samoan mythology
- Taʻaroa paramount deity in Tahitian mythology
References
edit- ^ a b c Moorfield, John C. "Io". Māori Dictionary. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ Tregear, Edward (1891). The Maori-Polynesian comparative dictionary. Wellington: Lyon and Blair. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
- ^ Whatahoro, Hoani Te (2011) [1913]. The Lore of the Whare-wānanga: Or Teachings of the Maori College on Religion, Cosmogony, and History. Translated by Smith, S. Percy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108040099.
- ^ Best, Elsdon (2005) [1924]. Māori Religion and Mythology: Being an Account of the Cosmogony, Anthropogeny, Religious Beliefs and Rites, Magic and Folk Lore of the Māori Folk of New Zealand. Te Papa Press. ISBN 9781877385063.
- ^ Hiroa, Te Rangi (1949). The Coming of the Maori. Wellington: Maori Purposes Fund Board.
- ^ Smith, Jonathan Z. (1982). Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. University of Chicago Press. pp. 68–71. ISBN 9780226763606.
- ^ Cox, James (2014). The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies. Routledge. pp. 35–66. ISBN 9781317546030.