Introduction

As modern genetic research proceeds, hastened on by large national grants and sometimes grandiose visions of the future of molecular genetics, we come increasingly into contact with complex issues about the implications of genetic research to human society. Especially important to this discussion are the affects of genetic research on indigenous peoples throughout the world. Their cultural and geographical isolation (often imagined) has created distinct population with unique genetic characteristics. This makes indigenous societies ideal candidates for genetic research. The purpose of this project is to present one case study of an alternative indigenous understanding of the body and some of the implications of these different worldviews.

Indigenous societies often see the body as sacred, something more than a mass of molecules. The imposition of a Western capitalist economic paradigm can lead to commodification of the body and subsequent desacralization, in direct contradiction of indigenous worldviews. This is illustrated with the Maori moko, or tattoos of the Maori people and the trade that developed in mokomokai, or tattooed heads in the early nineteenth century. This paper details the significance of the moko and mokomokai in Maori culture and the events that led to the trade in tattooed heads.