blog entry

Brett Friedberg
1. The Horwitz reading was very interesting. I did not know much about the Europeans expedition to New Zealand or any of the interactions between the Europeans and the Maori. Cook seemed to understand the Maori quite well from the observations he had written down. I enjoyed reading about the way Cook viewed the Maori. He seemed to respect their ways more than most European expeditions that encountered a new land and new people. Some of the reading even compared Cook's explorations to the explorations in the Americas, which I thought was very interesting. The Maori gang the narrator visited was surprisingly not as vicious as you would think. They seemed to have a good sense of their history and wanted to stand up for their way of life. Despite this, one of the gang members when speaking of Cook did admit he was happy with the warm water that Cook and the European technology brought to the island.
The Maori were did not know what to make of Cook's ship initially. Obviously, they had never seen anything like this before. Someone called them goblins that could see from the back of their heads when they were paddling backwards in the canoes. That was somewhat funny. Also, the fact that the Maori were confused that this ship had no women and children and offered boys to the Europeans because they thought they were homosexuals was surprising, but makes sense since they did not know the home land the ship came from. They offered them boys and the Europeans thought they were making fun of them. It was interesting to see some of the specific interactions like this between the groups when they first met.
2. There are many different cultural things going on in New Zealand. The Maori and Pakeha are two diverse groups, but have been connected through many years of living in the same place. It will be cool to try and see the differences or similarities between them and how they interact with each other. Meeting people of different cultures is always interesting and can broaden the way you think about certain things.
Much of the reading of Cook's adventures was about the different places they sailed to around New Zealand. It will be cool to see these places first hand especially since so much is known about what happened at all the different sites. I know New Zealand is a beautiful place and when you combine that with the history of the country at different sites, it will make learning the land even more interesting. Also, discovering ways the Maori and native people used the land to live in a place so different than anywhere else in the world will show some great incite to life in New Zealand.