Maori utu requires response to wrongs to restore cosmic balance

Evidence

But the heart of the story, as the Maori tell it, is not only revenge. It is about the duty to answer a great wrong rather than let it pass in silence — for a people who will not stand up for their honored dead and their sacred places will not long survive. Whakatau acts not from mere anger but from utu — the principle of balance and response, of setting right what has been thrown out of balance. He restores the balance his people’s world required, and then the cycle, ideally, can rest. — , A Year of World Stories, 12437

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains utu as the Maori principle of balance and response, tying a specific hero’s motive to a governing cultural concept.
• XREF: connects to: The Andean principle ayni requires balanced reciprocal giving to earth and community — , A Year of World Stories, 10687; Harm to a Māori child was understood as damage to the whole ancestral line — , The Rod and the Child: A Global History…, 5245

Broader Connections

• Harm to a Māori child was understood as damage to the whole ancestral line #complicates (0.70) — , The Rod and the Child, 5245