Maori People are the native Polynesian culture of continental New Zealand. The Maori People originated from East Polynesia with settlers, arriving in mainland New Zealand through several waves by voyages (in canoes) between the 1320s and 1350s. With many centuries existing in isolation, the settling immigrants developed a distinct cultural identity, whose etymological, mythology, performing and visual arts, and crafts evolved independently compared to former Polynesian cultures in East Asia (where they migrated from) (Lilley, 2019). Some of the early Maori arrivals in New Zealand settled in the Chatham Islands, where their progenies became the Moriori, the other native Polynesian ethnic culture of New Zealand. Early contact between Maori indigenous people and Europeans, beginning in the eighteenth century, was characterized by various activities ranging from violent wars to beneficial trade; Maori culture actively embraced many new technologies from these contact with Europeans (Holmes, 2018).
With the signing of the 1840 Waitangi Treaty, the European and Maori cultures concurred for several generations before conflict broke out. Increasing tensions because of land disputes resulted in conflicts during the 1850s, and extensive land confiscation, to which the Maori people responded with vicious war confrontation. Following the declaration of the non-abidance to the 1877 Treaty, the Maori people in New Zealand were influenced to assimilate their culture with other key features of Western culture and civilizations (Lilley, 2019). Social epidemics and upheavals resulted in illnesses that had a devastating impact on the Maori population, with a dramatic fall in population numbers. The inauguration of the twentieth era saw the population of Maori people begins to recover following efforts made focusing on the Waitangi Treaty to enhance their political influence in broader New Zealand society and ensure social justice.
Traditional indigenous Maori people have thus enjoyed a noteworthy revitalization, which has further been bolstered by different Maori awareness movements that emerged during the 1960s different cultural independence and recognition periods (Holmes, 2018). Nonetheless, disproportionate population numbers of Maori populations face significant social and economic problems and experience lower life expectancy and income levels compared to other New
The traditional history of the New Zealand Maori people describes their origin with regards to their waves of migrating that resulted in their arrival and settlement of their great fleet from Hawaiki in the fourteenth century, a fabulous terrestrial commonly denoted as Tahiti. The historical description offers the foundation for traditional Maori social culture structure. It has been reinforced by various archaeological findings, which illuminate them as arriving in New Zealand during the 1300s (Holmes, 2018). The most commonly identified Maori cultural group is the hapu culture (the main sub-tribe), which denoted the main land-holding cultural group in which matrimonial association was favored.
The Maori culture’s visual arts consist mainly of 4 primary forms: painting, weaving, tattooing (ta moko), and carvings. These visual forms of art were rarely utilized for purely decorative intentions; traditional Maori visual art intentions were highly spiritually motivated and, during the pre – European contact era were utilized by the Maori culture to convey information concerning ancestry, spiritual issues, and other ethnically important subjects (Neha et al., 2020). The construction of visual artifacts was overseen by the tapu regulations with visual artistic styles varying between different regions developing independently: the styles now from time to time perceived as ‘norm of Maori culture’ in fact originate from the TeArawa branch, who preserve a strong continuity in how they practice their visual artistic traditions owing to their early engagements with expressing their traditions to tourists (Lilley, 2019). Most traditional Maori visual art pieces were highly stylized, featuring motifs like the koru, the chevron, and the spiral to express their Oral Legends, Poetry, and Other Literary information to other generations.
The Maori people of New Zealand employed songs, dance, chants, and poetry to express their oral legends, poetry, and other literary information to other generations. Maori cultural performance of poetry (poetry), chants (tauparapara), dance (haka), and songs (waiata) are employed by the Maori culture to pass and express understanding and knowledge relating to their communities, history, and relationships. For instance, the Haka Kapa denotes a Maori dance performance that began in 1880 as visual performance art to tourists (Neha et al., 2020). Some sets extend past New Zealand borders to perform the art. Kapa Haka dance performances as visual art were utilized during World War as an entertainment art to raise funds for Māori warriors participating in the war.
The Maori people of New Zealand employed carvings to express their oral legends, poetry, and other literary information to other generations. Carvings were undertaken in three media forms: stone, bone, and wood (Lilley, 2019). Carvings of wood artifacts were used in decoration of objects, taiaha, containers, and fence poles bearing information of poems, legends, and myths of a particular community. The most common type of wood and ornament carving was pounamu carving, a soft wood carving, but other types of material carvings were also employed, particularly in other mainland regions where pounamu art was not extensively practical (Neha et al., 2020). With European contact, carvings of Maori culture evolved to be more intricate, expressing more detailed oral literature, poems, and art information through decorative approaches.
The Maori people of New Zealand employed Ta moko, a traditional Maori tattooing carving, in expressing their oral legends, poetry, and other literary information to other generations. Ta moko is undertaken using a chisel bearing poetic or religious significance (Holmes, 2018). Men are tattooed extensively on their bodies compared to women: women are tattooed on their chin and lips, with men bearing tattoos on parts such as thighs, and faces. In large part, Ta moko tattoos convey an individual’s ancestry (Holmes, 2018). Even though modern Tamoko reflects traditional attitudes, the process is undertaken by modern tattooing equipment.
The Maori people of New Zealand employed painting and weaving in expressing their oral legends, poetry, and other literary information to other generations. Even though the oldest visual types of Maori art pieces are visible stone paintings, painting does not stand out as central in’ classical’ Maori arts. The painting was majorly utilized as a decorative approach in house aesthetics to tell stories or reflect position (Lilley, 2019). The contact with European culture allowed Maori paintings to become more intricate in depicting Maori oral legends in rocks, with different colors applied to reflect more intricate details of tales encompassed. The process of weaving was majorly done by women producing artifacts that reflected a particular view point of the culture.
References
Discover Māori culture in New Zealand | 100% Pure New Zealand. Web.
Neha, T., Reese, E., Schaughency, E., & Taumoepeau, M. (2020). The role of whānau (New Zealand Māori families) for Māori children’s early learning. Developmental Psychology, 56(8), 1518. Web.
Holmes, J. (2018). Negotiating the culture order in New Zealand workplaces. Language in Society, 47(1), 33-56. Web.
Lilley, S. (2019). Developing Māori collections. Collection and Curation. Web.
The Pet Care Industry In The State Of New Jersey
Introduction
The pet care industry in America is a fairly mature service industry, representing a mature business with a steady and growing clientele. To open and maintain such a business, it is necessary to study the structure of this industry in the market, assess the risks and rewards, and also draw up a consistent plan of necessary actions for starting a pet care business. To begin with, it is necessary to clearly describe this market and its constituent elements and principles of regulation, also focusing on the state of New Jersey, where such a project is planned to be implemented.
Services Provided
The pet care service is based on the needs of the pet and the client, which includes a special diet and feeding habits, the health of the animal and the medicines required for giving, exercises and games. Aspects of personal attention and special needs are also taken into account by service workers. In addition to taking care of the pets, workers may also care for the plants and even provide some housework like taking care of the mail or dry cleaning. All this is usually included in the list of services automatically, giving additional benefit and confidence to the client since they take care not only of their pet but also of the house as a whole, in which there is a certain holistic nature. Care at the veterinarian or comber may also be included in the range of services.
Market Overview: Risks and Advancements
In recent years, the demand for pet care services has only been growing. This is due to the increased attachment of owners to their animals, and their willingness to make financial contributions to their care. The market across the US is projected to grow by 6.1% by 2027 to be worth $350 billion (Global Market Insights, 2021). At the moment, about 9% of this market is made up of care services, which this review focuses on. Similarly associated with the expansion of this multi-billion dollar market in America are technological innovations offering new and more effective ways of care. Technological breakthroughs in grooming or the provision of training grounds, the introduction of GPS technology to determine the location of animals, allow one to talk about the greater availability of such services.
Therefore, this means the democratization of this market and its even greater growth. Until recently, the market has also been hampered by the fact that people are more likely to trust their pets to friends or relatives. However, with the development of not only technologies but also the industry as a whole, the professionalism of experts in this field is so high that services can be provided relatively inexpensively and at the same time, be impeccable.
Pet Care via Social Networking
It should be noted the diversity of this industry at the micro and macro levels. Although there are an impressive number of full-fledged companies offering their services in New Jersey, animal care is a more branched business that can be done privately. Thus, before opening a company, it should be borne in mind that there is competition from individuals who find work using special social networks. Some sites are algorithms for finding a sitter in a particular state or city, taking into account geolocation. In New Jersey, there are now several hundred private sitters of various ages and professional qualities who claim to be able to provide the best care for a pet. Many of these private entrepreneurs indicate that they have decades of experience, which is also confirmed by the rating and commenting system. The ability to read the profile of each of the sitters and organize the list by price or rating is quite convenient for the client. Thus, aggregators on which sitters are registered that are not tied to a specific company should be perceived as a natural part of the industry and at the same time, quite competitive.
It is also important to note that finding a sitter on a social network is two to three times cheaper than hiring him through a specialized company. In New Jersey, starting prices for a professional sitter start at $90 per night, while on aggregators, such a sitter can be found for $20-25. This indicates a serious market price spread, but also that, regardless of the financial wealth of pet owners, the demand for pet sitting remains relevant.
Post-COVID Era
It is necessary to give a separate description of the state of this industry in the post-COVID era. In 2020, the pet care industry, like many others, suffered significant economic losses. It is pointed out that the recession took place in the literal sense, as a negative trend – people canceled the order of the sitter for the animal more often than they made new requests. This situation was obviously related to the lockdown, the need to stay at home, and the inability to go on a business trip or travel. The plans of most people on the planet began to be fixed around staying at home, so for a long time, the services of pet care organizations were irrelevant.
However, it is important to note an extremely interesting paradox here. The situation has developed in such a way that by spending time at home in the vast majority of cases, people have become closer to their animals and more attached to them. Moreover, the same applies to animals that began to spend much more time with their owners, which lined up in a psychological pattern. Before the era of the coronavirus, animals took it easy when a person left home for a few hours, knowing that they would return at the appointed time.
Nevertheless, now the psychological binding of animals to their owners and vice versa has become much stronger. This has had an undeniable positive impact on the pet care industry in the post-COVID era. Due to the fact that with the lifting of the lockdown, people began to travel more, move around, and generally go out into the streets, the demand for these services is only growing. It is noted that, at the moment, Americans can resort to pet care services even if they leave the house for two or three hours. This indicates how much the level of effect of the owners’ attachment to animals has grown and how much they worry about them. This certainly stimulates the pay-care business today, emphasizing that the services of sitters can be needed at any time. So a market that suffered losses is now on the rise, probably even more so than in the pre-Covid era.
Conclusion
Thus, it is safe to claim that this market will remain prosperous in the coming years. Technological innovations have made these services more accessible. People have become more attached to their animals during the pandemic, and now, with the rise in demand for travel, the need for such services is especially strong. A large number of specialized companies and private employees not only provides healthy competition but also establishes a large number of actors in this market, confirming the profitability of this niche.
Reference
Global Market Insights (2021). Pet care market size by type.
Discussion: Social Anxiety And Loneliness
Humanity is fundamentally akin to social animals, and its survival depends upon connections made during its lifetime. They are essential for maintaining optimal mental and physical health at all ages. Therefore, social isolation and loneliness have tremendous effects on longevity, health, and well-being. The development of such conditions at old age may increase the risk for diabetes, cognitive decline, dementia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, and anxiety (Weissbourd et al., 2021). At the same time, leading to a reduction in the lifespan and deterioration of the quality of life (Weissbourd et al., 2021). Older populations are especially prone to falling under the risk group due to the likelihood of experiencing life transitions and disruptive life events such as loss of close relatives, friends, or partners; retirement; disability; relocation of children, or migration.
However, the effects of social isolation and loneliness, particularly among the elderly, were overlooked social determinants of health and have recently become the subject of attention. These challenges have begun to be recognized as major public policy and public health issues in various nations. The COVID-19 epidemic and the resulting physical separation measures have raised the importance of these issues. In 2018, the UK government decided to appoint a loneliness minister whose objective is the implementation of measures to prevent social isolation. In response to the global pandemic, Japan chose to approach the issue in a similar fashion in 2021. In 2020, the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published a consensus regarding the topic of isolation and possible solutions. Consequently, it is possible to argue that the issue is prevalent even among developed countries and has to be resolved internally via interventions in the health care system.
The pandemic caused major issues with loneliness in the USA as numerous people reported the experience of having such feelings. The issue is prevalent among young adults and often overlaps with depression and anxiety. According to Weissbourd et al. (2021), in October of 2020, 36% out of 950 survey respondents declared that they feel lonely constantly or frequently, and 37% responded that the feeling was occasional. In my opinion, the situation is currently undergoing improvement with the reduction of anti-COVID measures. Although to a certain degree, the effects of loneliness and social isolation could still be felt as prioritization of online services remained. Consequently, the country’s citizens might not be as lonely as they were during the pandemic, but some may continue to display the isolated behavior.
Improving public policies to mitigate social isolation in case of reoccurrence of quarantine measures is necessary. Public efforts aimed at raising awareness of the self-defeating beliefs and actions that contribute to and exacerbate loneliness may bring beneficial results (Weissbourd et al., 2021). People should be aware that loneliness frequently leads to excessive self-criticism, criticism of others, and the expectation of social failures and rejection (Weissbourd et al., 2021). They should be informed of the ways that allow them to regulate these attitudes and actions better. Simultaneously, short-term therapies that target cognitive distortions and help lonely individuals to reframe negative beliefs could be introduced.
Nevertheless, it can be understood that the quality of life among older adults who are susceptible to social isolation depends on the established bonds. It is possible to argue that their lifespan will deteriorate without proper management of social connections (old and new). Aging is the inevitable process of life, and it is interconnected with death and negative thoughts. It is necessary to properly educate the elderly on coping with the loneliness they might experience to promote a higher quality of life.
Reference
Weissbourd, R., Batanova, M., Lovison, V., and Torres E. (2021). Loneliness in America: How the pandemic has deepened an epidemic of loneliness and what we can do about it. Harvard Graduate School of Education. Web.