It is estimated that by the beginning of the classic period of Maori art and culture about 90 percent of the population lived in the North Island of New Zealand. The smaller groups of the South Island were apparently more conservative, and it was thus largely in the north that a spectacular florescence of sculpture and architecture took place.

Two major carving styles existed. The northwestern style (especially in reliefs) featured undulating, serpentine shapes; human bodies and limbs were tubular or triangular in section and often intertwined. Heads were peaked, with gaping mouths that often had hands and arms looped through them. Large areas of surface remained smooth, while small sections and details, such as lips and eyebrows, were finely patterned. The eastern style of human figures was basically naturalistic, apart from oversize heads; the stances of figures resembled those of central Polynesia, with short legs, swaybacks, and hands on the torso, but the neck was well defined. Some faces were naturalistic portraits; others were ferociously stylized, with slanting oval eyes, distorted mouths, and outstretched tongues. Both styles of faces were usually covered with tattoo designs, while scrolls and other designs accentuated the shoulders, hips, and knees.

The northwestern style is thought to be older than the eastern, partly on the basis of oral tradition and partly because the “central-Polynesian” aspect of the eastern style suggests that it may have developed as a result of later immigration. There was a considerable mobility of local styles. Innovation, however much desired, was nevertheless restrained to some extent by the existence of a recognized repertoire of named patterns, predominantly scrolls, which sustained a continuity of style.

The continual quest for prestige in Maori society encouraged men of high status to commission and own important works. The choice of such works changed throughout Maori history. It appears that war canoes were the most prestigious works in the 18th century. Communal war canoes, which were up to 100 feet long, were lavishly decorated with carving and painting. In most parts of the country the attached prow carving had a figure leaning forward with arms stretched behind it; a thin panel carved with openwork spirals ran from the figure to a transverse slab, on the back of which was yet another figure, which looked down the length of the canoe from a squatting position. The sternpost was a high vertical slat with openwork scrolls and a small figure seated at the foot. More figures were carved in relief along the hull; their eyes were sometimes inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The whole canoe was painted red, with black-and-white details, and had feather streamers hung from the sternpost.

In the first half of the 19th century, following population changes resulting from intensified tribal warfare, the introduction of firearms, and the spread of Western diseases, a number of local styles were extinguished, and, after the European suppression of fighting, the decorated storehouse came into prominence. As a precaution against vermin, these food storehouses were elevated on posts, which were often in human shape. The houses had pitched roofs and deep porches. The outer gable was fitted with bargeboards, usually carved with a complex mythological scene of several figures hauling ashore a whale (a symbol of plenty), which was represented by an abstract pattern of spirals indicating its jaws. At the peak of the gable stood a mask or small figure, and at the foot of the bargeboards were sills with reliefs of ancestors. In some large storehouses, vertical panels between the ends of the sill and the bargeboards were carved with copulating figures—another reference to fertility—while still more figures were carved on a small door and on panels at the back of the porch.

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Largely because of the influence of the artist Raharuhi Rukupo, the meetinghouse subsequently became the central object of local tradition and pride, as it remains to this day. The meetinghouse follows the same principles of design as the storehouse, but it is built at ground level. The exterior carvings stress not the aspect of abundance but ancestral power: indeed, the whole building symbolizes the tribal founding ancestor, with the gable mask representing his face, the bargeboards his arms, and the ridgepole his spine. The porch is undecorated, except for large lintels above the door and the frame around a single window. The interior, however, is fully furnished with relief panels of frontal ancestral figures alternating with panels of laced reed in polychrome geometric patterns. The lower sections of the house posts are carved as small ancestral images. Beams and rafters are painted in prescribed red, white, and black designs.

The prevalence of warfare in the later phases of Maori history led to the construction of defensive earthworks and palisades around hilltop villages. The gates were massive planks, carved above the entrance with major ancestral figures. The palisades incorporated posts with further ancestral figures, often much bigger than life-size.

Maori material culture differed from that of the rest of Polynesia in the absence of certain types of objects (such as stools and neck rests), in the addition of others, but above all in its ornateness. Images of divinities are rare outside of architecture, except for “god sticks” (rods with heads at the upper end). Weapons included a range of short hand-club types, in wood, nephrite, or whalebone, reflecting early Polynesian models. Some had human figures carved in relief near the grip (overall engraving of the blade was a late development). Staff clubs had ends carved as faces with sharp protruding tongues. Chiefs owned carved adzes with fine nephrite blades as insignia of status. Lavish relief carving covers the entire surface of small flutes, paint cups, and, above all, lidded treasure boxes.

The highly valued nephrite, classed in several grades of beauty, was employed not only for clubs and hooks but also for a variety of pendants. The best-known depict small frontal human figures in contorted poses. Cloaks, the usual garment of both sexes, were woven of flax, bordered with geometric patterned bands. Feathers (pigeon and kiwi) and dog’s hair ornamented others. Like other Maori arts, weaving was a highly ritualized process.