[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 17, Issue 56

[Martha Oser]

> I'm still a little unclear as to what hakka is, other than the name  
> of a quasi-regional "tribe" of boat dwellers around the coasts of  
> China... quasi-regional in the sense that they're discussed with  
> other regions, have their own dialect, cuisine, culture, etc. --   
> just no place on the map to call home. 
> 
> I gather "haka" is a Maori dance? Looks a bit like a group kung-fu  
> drill, too...

The haka can be a variety of things - war chant, greeting, call and response 
"song" of sorts.  There are a lot of different haka chant/postures that are 
performed under different circumstances by various Polynesian tribal groups. 

The haka that the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team performs is an "in your 
face" haka - basically, "we're not just going to beat you, we're going to 
beat you so hard your grandchildren will feel it!" 

It's an important part of Polynesian culture to insult your enemies - a 
good, zinging insult lasts longer than just killing the guy, after all. 

If you look on Youtube, there's a clip of the New Zealanders doing their 
thing and the opposing Tongan team responds with theirs. 

Gives me goosebumps every time I watch it... 

 -Helena, putting away the art history hat for now...