Editing Mummy (section)

==== New Zealand ====
{{Main|Mokomokai}}

Some [[Māori people|Māori]] tribes from New Zealand would keep mummified heads as trophies from tribal warfare.<ref name=Maori1 /> They are also known as [[Mokomokai]]. In the 19th century, many of the trophies were acquired by Europeans who found the tattooed skin to be a phenomenal curiosity. Westerners began to offer valuable commodities in exchange for the uniquely tattooed mummified heads. The heads were later put on display in museums, 16 of them in France alone. In 2010, at a ceremony in the [[Hôtel de Ville, Rouen|Hôtel de Ville]] in Rouen, Rouen City Council returned one of the heads to New Zealand, despite earlier protests by the Culture Ministry of France.<ref name=Maori1>{{cite web|title=Mummified Maori head returned to NZ|url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/mummified-maori-head-returned-to-nz-after-136-years.htm|publisher=Australian Geographic|access-date=13 November 2013|date=10 May 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204030056/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/mummified-maori-head-returned-to-nz-after-136-years.htm|archive-date=4 December 2013}}</ref>

There is also evidence that some Māori tribes may have practiced full-body mummification, though the practice is not thought to have been widespread.<ref name=Orchiston>{{cite journal |last=Orchiston |first=D. Wayne |title=The Practice of Mummification Among the New Zealand Maori |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |year=1968 |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=186–190 |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_77_1968/Volume_77,_No._2/The_practice_of_mummification_among_the_New_Zealand_Maori,_by_Wayne_Orchiston,_p_186_-_190/p1 |access-date=13 November 2013}}</ref> The discussion of Māori mummification has been historically controversial, with some experts in past decades claiming that such mummies have never existed.<ref name=Tregear>{{cite journal |last=Tregear |first=Edward |title=Maori Mummies |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |year=1916 |volume=25 |issue=100 |pages=167–168 |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/?wid=1053 |access-date=13 November 2013}}</ref>
The historical significance of full-body mummification within Māori culture is acknowledged by science, although there is still debate as to the nature of their exact mummification processes. Some mummies appear to have been spontaneously created by the natural environment, while others exhibit signs of direct human involvement. Generally, modern consensus tends to agree that there could have been a mixture of both types of mummification, similar to that of the Ancient Egyptian culture.<ref name=Orchiston />