Māori Religion and Mythology - Part 1 by Elsdon Best

This is a second-hand copy of the book Māori Religion and Mythology - Part 1 by Elsdon Best. 

Condition: This is a used book in very good condition. Sun fading to book spine. School prize insert inside front cover (St. Joseph's Maori Girls' College).

Publisher: Te Papa
Year: 1995 (Originally published 1924, Revised edition 1976)
ISBN: 9780909010362
Format: Hardback with dustjacket
Pages: 424
Condition: Used (Very Good)

Originally published: Wellington, N.Z. : Dominion Museum, 1924. Includes bibliographical references and index. An account of the cosmogony, anthropogeny, religious beliefs and rites, magic and folk lore of the Maori folk of New Zealand First published 1924; this reprint with alterations 2005. Elsdon Best was a prolific recorder of pre-European Maori social life and material culture. His work established him as New Zealand's foremost ethnographer of Maori society. Best based is research on rare first-hand knowledge, wide reading, informed study and discussion with Maori. His was a lifelong project underpinned by a belief that Maori were a people under threat of extinction, yet by the time of his death in 1931 Best's work had assumed new importance as it informed a Maori cultural renaissance. Today, the Elsdon Best books are accepted as classic studies. They remain a uniquely valuable record of traditional Maori culture, social customs and beliefs.