PREFACE

1. The word 'preface' means what is in front of you, pre-face, what you can see. Therefore, what you just are reading is an example of 'preface'.

No, I am joking. Or at least half so. Because 'face' here derives from Latin fārī, to speak. A preface is a kind of introduction, a possibility to say something before the real part is beginning. On the other hand I am half serious. I have learned through experience that 'true' etymological explanations often will miss the main point. I therefore prefer to insist, a preface is that which comes in front of you.

What I am saying here is important for understanding the Polynesians (and indirectly also the rongorongo texts - they were written by Polynesians for Polynesians). They (the Polynesians) have as a common sense the notion that you cannot see what is in front of you. Only what already has happened can be seen. The future (what lies in front) is unpredictable. For them front and backside is a matter primarily of time, not space:

"For the Maori the past is an important and pervasive dimension of the present and future. Often referred to as the 'ever-present now', Maori social reality is perceived as though looking back in time from the past to the present.

The Maori word for 'the front of' is mua and this is used as a term to describe the past, that is, Nga wa o mua or the time in front of us. Likewise, the word for the back is muri which is a term that is used for the future. Thus the past is in front of us, it is known; the future is behind us, unknown. The point of this is that our ancestors always had their backs to the future with their eyes firmly on the past.

Our past is not conceived as something long ago and done with, known only as an historical fact with no contemporary relevance or meaning. In the words of a respected Maori elder: The present is a combination of the ancestors and 'their living faces' or genetic inheritors, that is the present generations. Our past is as much the face of our present and future. They live in us ... we live in them." (D. C. Starzecka, Maori Art and Culture.)