Well I live in New Zealand - "mana" is a Maori word that's sometimes used when referring to people - it doesn't really have a "supernatural" meaning, more one of "well earned importance and respect" - someone with great mana has the respect of their peers/community/tribe and deserve respect by others for this reason
I believe your understanding of the contemporary definition of mana is through a Christian lens. What the Maori thought it means, and what Christian missionaries allowed contemporary culture to understand it to be, are two different things. It wouldn't have served the Christian purpose to allow for a kind of spirituality to prosper that was more willing to pander to the supernatural in life - this is supposed to be Christs' job, after all. I think the definition as you have stated it is far from what the originators of the language intended .. but who knows? Maybe we're both wrong, and its indeed a harvestable spiritual substance that can be used to make yourself more powerful in the physical world.
> What the Maori thought it means, and what Christian missionaries allowed contemporary culture to understand it to be
You are committing a common error in portraying the Māori and their culture as being crushed and suppressed by colonialism. Hapless victims. The reality of the interplay between missionary and Māori is far more nuanced than that and you a strong disservice to Māori in your portrayal.
I'd ask what basis you have for your assertions about the 'lost' definition of mana, when the definition of mana in the Māori Dictionary specificially states:
> 2. (noun) prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual power, charisma - mana is a supernatural force in a person, place or object.
It goes on to explain how mana originates from the Atua and propagates down. It also discusses the close relation between mana and tapu. http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/word/3424
Where did I say the Maori were oppressed by Christian missionaries? I said no such thing. It is well known that the Maori's were able to deal with the cultural incursion of Christians better than most indigenous tribes in the times of contact
However, I do believe that Maori history and cultural perception has been colored by Christian historians. This has only recently begun to be rectified by John Moorfield, and other authors who have contributed to the Maori dictionary, which is a relatively recent advance.
I'm just trying to explain how the word is used today, AFAIK that christ guy is dead already - I'm not at all religious and I hear the word being use in secular, political contexts in modern New Zealand - I was just trying to explain its modern meaning
Yes, words change meaning, especially when they're imported across language boundaries. Originally mana DID mean something like spiritual power, and is heavily linked to terms for thunder, lightning etc.
Currently it's used in NZ to mean prestige, but it's original sense was much broader - a tree that grows well has mana. Gods have mana. People get mana through (1) their heritage (i.e. high status families have more mana), (2) from other people i.e. we give a sportsperson mana because we respect their ability to kick a ball, and (3) via the group (e.g. if I'm part of a prestigious group, some of thir mana reflects onto me).
The Force (Star Wars) was inspired very much by this spiritual meaning as places could have strong mana as well.
While the etymology is supposedly Proto-Oceanic, there's an interesting parallel with Kriyamana karma, particularly in the more modern usage of gaining/losing mana/karma through your actions.
I wanted to say the same thing as Taniwha. My understanding of mana in Hawaiian pre-contact usage was a combination of the qualities we would call leadership, charisma, and popularity. People with mana made good chiefs, led their warriors in battle and earned respect. They would be good politicians nowadays.
I'd be very interested in any further explanation from fit2rule about the missionary influence on the term. What you say is plausible, but is it based on real sources or just your interpretation? Most Polynesian societies were not secular in the sense that the chiefs consulted with the priests who interpreted the signs of their deity and both acted accordingly. So the chiefs ruled somewhat by divine authority, and the social taboos were couched in religious meaning. So mana could have had a meaning of divine grace or chosen by the gods, yet a modern-day Hawaiian shaman did not explain it to me that way.
Going by (the abstract of) a paper i came across [1], it's possible-to-likely that this was the original meaning of 'mana', and that the use to refer to some kind of abstract supernatural charge is either a derivation or a misunderstanding.
The abstract begins:
Comparative data are assembled to suggest that in Proto-Oceanic, mana was canonically a stative verb meaning 'be efficaceous, be successful, be realized, "work"'. Where mana was used as a noun, it was (and in most daughter languages is) not a substantive but an abstract verbal noun: 'efficacy', 'success', 'potency'.
I probably should expand a bit - "mana" in the modern NZ context is a bit more fluid - you can also carry the mana of a group when you represent them (and do damage to it when you represent them poorly)
Probably "reputation" is the best pakeha (western) equivalent to the concept
