There are entire sections of this essay which more eloquently express an argument that I’ve made many times about how colonial cultures are formed and how SA and NZ feel very familiar - so naturally I completely agree with this and it’s obviously correct, no notes
Excellent, but New Zealand only reached gender ratio parity on the eve of world war one, so I'm surprised that you consider it broadly at parity in its early years.
When I looked at one of my ancestors who had thirteen children half the boys never married.
I do find it strange to write an anthropology or history of NZ without mentioning Australia where 25% of them live and work, which has given them and no other people in the last 50 years free movement and which quite possibly has made the entire project viable over many of those last 50 years.
See also: Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, s6:
"The States shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania,
Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for
the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or
established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a
The selection effect works both ways. New Zealand suffers from its isolation. My parents, third generation New Zealanders from the greatest generation, met Americans for the first time during WW2. They could not wait to leave NZ which was a parochial, anglocentric, backwater. They brought their seven children with them to the US in 1963 based on a promise of 3 months work for my dad. My parents had a love hate relationship with NZ culture but ultimately the opportunities and freedom of the US was too big a draw for them. After living in the US for ten years the whole family relocated to Canada. My parents loved Canada and felt at home in a way that was not possible in the US. None of the children have returned to live in NZ. 5 of us kids are Canadians, 1 American and one Australian.
Been working on something very similar based around Erewhon and NZ-as-utopian-experiment, but happy to be scooped by this excellent work. Can't believe I spent my whole life in NZ and never realised Fischer wrote a whole book on us!
what the fuck, the distance between australia and new zealand I never would have guessed. if you'd said perth to wellington I'd have thought "hmm sounds about right"
also the century and a half of subsidized colonization explains something that was always confounding to me about australia, namely the willingness to surrender guns and embrace covid restrictions. my confusion had always been "these guys descend from ex-cons why aren't they even more freedom-obsessed as us!"
I do agree with your view on founder effects strongly. when I first moved from new england to new york I was shocked at how different the values were, and puzzled it for years until arriving at new york having retained a more freewheeling dutch merchant culture despite becoming "english" very early in its history
reading the maori one now immediately, as a bigtime "austronesians are faustian" believer
Politically progressive but a minuscule population of European invaders who transformed a Garden of Eden into an open air factory farm in two generations.
There are entire sections of this essay which more eloquently express an argument that I’ve made many times about how colonial cultures are formed and how SA and NZ feel very familiar - so naturally I completely agree with this and it’s obviously correct, no notes
Thank you sir!
Excellent, but New Zealand only reached gender ratio parity on the eve of world war one, so I'm surprised that you consider it broadly at parity in its early years.
When I looked at one of my ancestors who had thirteen children half the boys never married.
I do find it strange to write an anthropology or history of NZ without mentioning Australia where 25% of them live and work, which has given them and no other people in the last 50 years free movement and which quite possibly has made the entire project viable over many of those last 50 years.
See also: Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900, s6:
"The States shall mean such of the colonies of New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania,
Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, including the northern territory of South Australia, as for
the time being are parts of the Commonwealth, and such colonies or territories as may be admitted into or
established by the Commonwealth as States; and each of such parts of the Commonwealth shall be called a
State."
The selection effect works both ways. New Zealand suffers from its isolation. My parents, third generation New Zealanders from the greatest generation, met Americans for the first time during WW2. They could not wait to leave NZ which was a parochial, anglocentric, backwater. They brought their seven children with them to the US in 1963 based on a promise of 3 months work for my dad. My parents had a love hate relationship with NZ culture but ultimately the opportunities and freedom of the US was too big a draw for them. After living in the US for ten years the whole family relocated to Canada. My parents loved Canada and felt at home in a way that was not possible in the US. None of the children have returned to live in NZ. 5 of us kids are Canadians, 1 American and one Australian.
Been working on something very similar based around Erewhon and NZ-as-utopian-experiment, but happy to be scooped by this excellent work. Can't believe I spent my whole life in NZ and never realised Fischer wrote a whole book on us!
Instantly NZ-pilled me!
fwiw i’m descended from the first wave of Canterbury anglicans and all the posts ring true so far. eg Pakeha really is an everyday word.
I also wrote about the obverse, Aus from the NZ perspective, here: https://stoates.substack.com/p/review-sydney
Great essay. Nice one
what the fuck, the distance between australia and new zealand I never would have guessed. if you'd said perth to wellington I'd have thought "hmm sounds about right"
also the century and a half of subsidized colonization explains something that was always confounding to me about australia, namely the willingness to surrender guns and embrace covid restrictions. my confusion had always been "these guys descend from ex-cons why aren't they even more freedom-obsessed as us!"
I do agree with your view on founder effects strongly. when I first moved from new england to new york I was shocked at how different the values were, and puzzled it for years until arriving at new york having retained a more freewheeling dutch merchant culture despite becoming "english" very early in its history
reading the maori one now immediately, as a bigtime "austronesians are faustian" believer
Distances are comically vast here
Outstanding essay.
Thanks… hopefully rest of series works!
I do mention?
Politically progressive but a minuscule population of European invaders who transformed a Garden of Eden into an open air factory farm in two generations.
I’m in Australia/NZ this month, so it’s perfect timing for this. Excellent as always