Q 01/05

Which Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes and fire is said to live in Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea?

A) Hiʻiaka

B) Pele

C) Nāmaka

D) Kapo

Answer · why

B) Pele

Pele reached Hawaii by canoe from Tahiti, legend says, and in one telling an older sister had banished her for the fires she started.

Q 02/05

Which British explorer brought the word taboo into English after hearing it on a Pacific voyage in 1777?

A) William Bligh

B) George Vancouver

C) Samuel Wallis

D) James Cook

Answer · why

D) James Cook

James Cook heard the word in Tonga, where he noted it covered anything forbidden to be eaten or used. Māori say tapu and Hawaiians say kapu for the sa...

Q 03/05

Which Polynesian word for a sacred supernatural force now names the magic points spent in many video games?

A) Mana

B) Tapu

C) Aloha

D) Haka

Answer · why

A) Mana

Mana got its first detailed description in English from the missionary Robert Henry Codrington in 1891. The writer Larry Niven made it a fuel for cast...

Q 04/05

In Māori mythology, which first man also gives his name to carved humanoid figures found across Polynesia?

A) Rātā

B) Whiro

C) Tiki

D) Tāwhaki

Answer · why

C) Tiki

Tiki found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond in one Māori tradition. A carved pendant worn around the neck is called a hei-tiki.

Q 05/05

Which giant stone figures of Easter Island were carved as the living faces of deified ancestors?

A) Ahu

B) Moai

C) Pukao

D) Mataa

Answer · why

B) Moai

Moai still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first arrived in 1722. Nearly half never left the quarry at Rano Raraku.