| 介绍（中） | 像这个用绿色石头雕刻的吊坠这样的珍贵饰品是毛利人财富和地位的标志（＜i＞mana＜/i＞）。这些专家由被称为tohunga tarai pounamu的专业雕刻师设计和塑造，旨在调和石头内部和外部的自然力。这种风格的吊坠被称为kapeu，因为它的圆形下端有着微妙的曲线。它的横截面薄而平坦，是由一块深绿色半透明的石头制成的，经过天然研磨剂的细致研磨，使其光滑。考虑到毛利人的极端流动性，贵重的小物品经常被穿孔并作为保护措施佩戴，直到下次需要为止。小凿子中使用的软玉刀片尤其如此，但在连接到编织的亚麻纤维绳上并悬挂在耳朵上或脖子上作为吊坠佩戴之前，绿岩的碎片或边角料也可能经过整形和抛光。一个悬挂孔是通过在两侧钻单独的锥形孔，直到这些孔到达中间才能完全刺穿它而形成的。
Pounamu（或绿岩）是可生物降解的木材、纤维和骨骼世界中已知最硬的材料，因其耐用性和强度以及其内部景观所展现的美丽而受到毛利人的珍视。一个完整的词汇表描述了绿岩的种类和质量，每一种都用合适的名字来识别细微的差别。虽然从地质学上讲，岩石分为明显命名的类别（软玉或宝玉），但毛利人根据视觉外观进行分类，根据颜色、阴影和色调识别出四种主要类型：
Inanga，以当地淡水银鱼（Galaxias maculatus）命名，其浅滩可以使河流变成多云的灰绿色
Kahuragi，罕见而半透明，这种生动的绿色阴影以天空的清澈和开放而得名
Kawakawa，最常见的品种，有斑点的内含物，让人想起当地药用植物（Macropiper excelsum）的叶子 Tangiwai，一种宝石岩，透明玻璃，在光线照射下可达到发光质量；它的名字让人想起了眼泪的流动
这种非凡而罕见的石头被发现埋在巨石中，这些巨石只在新西兰南岛特有的河流中发现，它在那里为这片土地命名：Te Wai Pounamu，"绿石之地"。Ngai Tahu人的当地部落（iwi）仍然是这块石头的保管人，确保它沿着适当的路径传播，以便在更广泛的人群中传播。毛利人对普那木的估价与欧洲人对黄金的估价相同。19世纪70年代，来自科罗曼德尔的毛利族长者Te Otatu评论道："让白人来开采黄金吧。这不是我们祖先所知道的事情。我唯一的宝藏是pounamu。" 毛利人的石器。惠灵顿：政府印刷厂，1974年。
Maia Nuku
2015年 |
| 介绍（英） | Highly prized ornaments such as this pendant carved from greenstone were markers of wealth and status (mana) for Māori. Fashioned and shaped by specialist carvers known as tohunga tarai pounamu, these experts aimed to reconcile the natural forces of the stone both within and without. This style of pendant is known as kapeu due to the subtle curve of its rounded lower tip. Thin and flattened in cross section, it has emerged from a section of dark green, yet translucent stone which has been polished and smoothed by meticulous grinding with natural abrasives. Given the extreme mobility of Māori, small items of value were often perforated and worn as a safeguard until they were next needed. This was particularly true of the nephrite blades used in small chisels but chips or offcuts of greenstone might also be shaped and polished before being attached to woven flax fiber cords and worn suspended from the ear, or around the neck, as pendants. A single suspension hole was created by drilling separate, conically shaped holes into either side until these reached the middle to fully pierce it.
Pounamu (or greenstone) — the hardest known material in a biodegradable world of wood, fiber and bone — was as much prized by Māori for its durability and strength as for the beauty revealed in its interior landscape. An entire vocabulary describes the variety and quality of greenstone, the subtle nuances of each acknowledged with appropriate names. While geologically the rock falls into distinctly named categories (nephrite jade or bowenite), Māori classify according to visual appearance, recognizing four principal types based on color, shade and hue:
Inanga, named after the native freshwater whitebait fish (Galaxias maculatus), shoals of which can turn the rivers a cloudy, grey-green;
Kahurangi, rare and translucent, this vivid shade of green is named after the clarity and openness of the sky;
Kawakawa, the most common variety, flecked with inclusions which evoke the leaves of the native medicinal plant (Macropiper excelsum); Tangiwai, a form of bowenite, clear like glass which achieves a luminous quality when held against the light; its name evokes the flow of tears.
This remarkable and rare stone is found buried within boulders found only in rivers specific to New Zealand’s south island, where it has lent its name to the land: Te Wai Pounamu, “the land of greenstone water.” Local tribes (iwi) of the Ngai Tahu people remain the custodians of the stone, ensuring it travels along appropriate pathways for distribution among the wider population. Māori valued pounamu in the same way Europeans valued gold. In the 1870s, Te Otatu, a Māori elder from Coromandel, remarked: “Let the gold be worked by the white men. It was not a thing known to our ancestors. My only treasure is the pounamu. Kati ano taku taonga nui i te pounamu.” (Best, 1974:175)
Sources
Best, Elsdon. Stone implements of the Māori. Wellington: Government Printer, 1974.
Maia Nuku
2015 |