Social identity and the perception of history: cultural representations of Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

The context of intergroup relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand was investigated using perceptions of history by Maori (Polynesian-descended) and Pakeha (Europeandescended) samples from university and the general public. There was strong consensus that the Treaty of Waitangi was the most important event in New Zealand's history, but only Maori, the subordinate ethnic group, showed in-group favouritism in their judgments regarding the Treaty. Pakeha, the dominant group, showed outgroup favouritism, and distanced themselves from past injustices using linguistic strategies. Maori students showed interest in their ethnic origins (ontogeny), rating the distant past and Polynesian history higher, and free-recalling more events prior to European arrival than other groups; Maori in the general population shared a more similar perception of history to Pakeha. Both in-group favouritism and ontogeny were found in sentencecompletion choices. Historical perceptions were strongly related to positions on current political issues. Results are related to social identity theory, social representations theory, and social dominance theory.

Social representations of Latin American history and (post)colonial relations in Brazil, Chile and Mexico

“…Previous studies have shown that collective memories help define and protect social identities (e.g., Liu et al, 1999), and are associated with group-based emotions (e.g., Branscombe & Doosje, 2004), victimization (e.g., Noor, Shnabel, Halabi, & Nadler, 2012, reconciliation (e.g., Noor, Brown, Gonzalez, Manzi, & Lewis, 2008), and acculturation processes (e.g., Figueiredo, Oldenhove, & Licata, 2018).…”

“…Furthermore, when functioning as charters, collective memories can also influence political action (Liu & Hilton, 2005;Liu et al, 1999). Considering that individuals may draw "moral" lessons from their interpretations of past events, charters can help define how different groups should react to present-day situations, as well as the status and position of such groups in their relations with other groups (Liu & Hilton, 2005;Páez et al, 2016).…”

“…In this line, the concept of charter is of great importance. This concept became well known through the work of Liu and Hilton (2005), who based their ideas on Malinowski's work (1926Malinowski's work ( /2011) when referring to the "historical representations that serve to justify why the world is, by explaining how it came to be that way" (Liu et al, 1999(Liu et al, , p. 1023. According to Liu and Hilton (2005), charters are central parts of the social representations of a group's history, given their constitutive properties (i.e., which contribute to the position settings and status of a group) and their normative properties (i.e., setting moral codes, norms, and values to justify and legitimize actions that can serve as foundational myths within a society).…”

Stress, Religious Coping and Wellbeing in Acculturating Muslims

“…New Zealand is traditionally a bicultural nation with the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between British colonizers and indigenous Maori, regarded as the foundation of contemporary New Zealand sovereignty (Liu, Wilson, McClure, & Higgins, 1999). However, changes in immigration policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in a dramatic increase in ethnic, cultural and religious diversity and New Zealand's evolution into a multicultural nation (Ward & Liu, 2012).…”

20201218

“…New Zealand is traditionally a bicultural nation with the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between British colonizers and indigenous Maori, regarded as the foundation of contemporary New Zealand sovereignty (Liu, Wilson, McClure, & Higgins, 1999). However, changes in immigration policy in the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in a dramatic increase in ethnic, cultural and religious diversity and New Zealand's evolution into a multicultural nation (Ward & Liu, 2012).…”