The Story Of Maui. Demi-God
p. 42 · Read in the full issue
THE story of Maui, übiquitous demi-god of the Pacific area, has been ably assembled and analysed in a recent Bernice P. Bishop Museum Publication, “Maui of a Thousand Tricks: His Oceanic and European Biographers.”
The author, Dr. Katharine Luomala, professor of anthropology at the Univer
sity of Hawaii and Bishop Museum re search associate, has pursued the trail of Maui for the past fifteen years, as sembling data and comparing the stories of this Pacific Islands hero of the com mon man. While the Maui cycle is a part of the folklore primarily in Polynesia, the stories are also found both in Micronesia and Melanesia. Most frequently asso ciated with Maui are tales involving the snaring of the sun, the bringing of fire to
man and the fishing up of islands from the sea.
Dr. Luomala recently spent several months doing ethnological field work in the Gilbert Islands, through a grant from the Viking Fund and under the auspices also of the University of Hawaii and the Pacific Science Board. The results of her studies will be published later by the Bishop Museum.
Other material on the Pacific prepared by Dr. Luomala which has appeared re cently includes the Polynesian section for “Encyclopedia of Literature” edited by Joseph Shipley and selections for the Pacific Number of the Journal of Ameri can Folklore.