
The History of Mana: How an Austronesian Concept Became a Video Game Mechanic - chesterfield
http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/4/the-history-of-mana-how-an-austronesian-concept-became-a-video-game-mechanic
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jkldotio
It seems remiss of the article to not mention the word 'manna' meaning a
mystical food or a spiritual nourishment. The OED has it as a Hebrew word,
possibly coming from Aramaic word. Most often rendered in English with two
N's, following the Greek μάννα, it is sometimes spelled with one. It appears
not only in the bible but is used in English in multiple senses in every
century from the 13th to the 21st.

I'm not saying there isn't a Austronesian connection, I just think an academic
piece would do well to mention a credible second hypothesis. I'm not a
linguist but without very clear and direct evidence my working hypothesis
would be that both words probably had an influence on the fantasy version.
"Manna from Heaven" would have been heard in conversation by almost every
single person he names in the article. Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens all use
it.

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polemic
Did you know: as pointed out here, "mana" is used in New Zealand (not just by
Māori) and means something like "status" or "honour" (to drastically simplify
a nuanced and powerful word[1]). Its also the name of a left wing party that
Kim Dotcom has allied his Internet Party with for the upcoming election. The
joint party is called "Internet Mana Party"[2] and is likely to achieve at
least two seats on the new parliament.

1\.
[http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&prove...](http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&keywords=mana&search=)

2\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana_Party#Internet_Mana_Party....](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana_Party#Internet_Mana_Party.2C_2014)

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Taniwha
Well I live in New Zealand - "mana" is a Maori word that's sometimes used when
referring to people - it doesn't really have a "supernatural" meaning, more
one of "well earned importance and respect" \- someone with great mana has the
respect of their peers/community/tribe and deserve respect by others for this
reason

~~~
fit2rule
I believe your understanding of the contemporary definition of mana is through
a Christian lens. What the Maori thought it means, and what Christian
missionaries allowed contemporary culture to understand it to be, are two
different things. It wouldn't have served the Christian purpose to allow for a
kind of spirituality to prosper that was more willing to pander to the
supernatural in life - this is supposed to be Christs' job, after all. I think
the definition as you have stated it is far from what the originators of the
language intended .. but who knows? Maybe we're both wrong, and its indeed a
harvestable spiritual substance that can be used to make yourself more
powerful in the physical world.

~~~
EdwardDiego
> What the Maori thought it means, and what Christian missionaries allowed
> contemporary culture to understand it to be

You are committing a common error in portraying the Māori and their culture as
being crushed and suppressed by colonialism. Hapless victims. The reality of
the interplay between missionary and Māori is far more nuanced than that and
you a strong disservice to Māori in your portrayal.

I'd ask what basis you have for your assertions about the 'lost' definition of
mana, when the definition of mana in the Māori Dictionary specificially
states:

> 2\. (noun) prestige, authority, control, power, influence, status, spiritual
> power, charisma - mana is a supernatural force in a person, place or object.

It goes on to explain how mana originates from the Atua and propagates down.
It also discusses the close relation between mana and tapu.
[http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/word/3424](http://www.maoridictionary.co.nz/word/3424)

~~~
fit2rule
Where did I say the Maori were oppressed by Christian missionaries? I said no
such thing. It is well known that the Maori's were able to deal with the
cultural incursion of Christians better than most indigenous tribes in the
times of contact

However, I do believe that Maori history and cultural perception has been
colored by Christian historians. This has only recently begun to be rectified
by John Moorfield, and other authors who have contributed to the Maori
dictionary, which is a relatively recent advance.

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fit2rule
What, no "Magic Carpet"? Pfftt ..

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Carpet_(video_game)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Carpet_\(video_game\))

I was very amused when this game was released and there was 'mana everywhere',
but as an Australian I guess I kind of already knew what mana was by then ..
what fascinates me about this article is that it seems that we're finally
looking beyond the prejudice and realizing - contemporaneously - that we lost
a lot of value in life because our forefathers were racist, intolerant
assholes.

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liotier
What, no mention of Populous ?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populous](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populous)

~~~
joshu
What, no mention of every random game that had the concept of mana?

~~~
jpatokal
Populous was a blockbuster game _and_ it predates both Warcraft and Diablo by
half a decade (released 1989), so it is indeed a striking omission. It's also
the first game I can remember that used the concept by that name.

~~~
danudey
Sure, but it did little to bring the word to modern-day gamers compared to the
impact that WoW and other RPGs has had.

~~~
liotier
It did, indirectly as a whole generation of developers has been exposed to
it... And they made the games you know today.

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egypturnash
Hah, I guessed "Niven's fantasy books" would be an important part of this
story.

The back of my head is saying "but what about JRPGs using the term since
forever" when he only discusses M:TG and Warcraft but I could be wrong.

~~~
pyre
> but what about JRPGs using the term since forever

Before MTG though? I just remember magic depending on "MP" was "magic
points/power" just like "HP" was "hit points" (i.e. 'life'). What's the
earliest JRPG to call it 'mana?'

~~~
scott_karana
Squaresoft's _Secret of Mana_ came out the same year at M:TG, 1993.

~~~
ColdHawaiian
Here's the Wikipedia article on it:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_of_Mana).
I never played the game myself, but the article mentions that mana was used as
"spell points", and that

> The story takes place in a fictional world where mana represents an
> ethereal, but finite, energy source.

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thro2
playing the devil's advocate here, the name "mana" for the concept in question
came much later than its incorporation into video games (as "MP"), which
argues against the concept having been borrowed from the culture that had the
word "mana". and at least after the fact, MP are an obvious solution for the
problem of rate limiting spells - so it's plausible to argue that the inherent
concept probably would have shown up in games independently of any particular
tribal society using it in their formulation of magic or not.

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nnq
There's also a "mana" word in Eastern European languages (
[http://dexonline.ro/definitie/mana](http://dexonline.ro/definitie/mana) \-
it's an archaic-regional word, not new or imported from French/English!), VERY
polysemantic, with some distantly similar meanings, and with some negative
connotations, usually listed everywhere as having either a Greek or a Slavic
root (мана), but also fond in older Bible translations... so a Hebrew ->
Slavic -> (...) route might be possible. _And this is way older than Mircea
Eliade 's rediscovery and popularization of the Austronesian word._

99% coincidence, but who knows, we might even have a common origin of Indo-
European and Austronesian languages showing up it's head here...

Reminds me of the 2000+ years old Sanskrit word "avatar" that also got a whole
new meaning in the digital world :)

~~~
thaumasiotes
> 99% coincidence, but who knows, we might even have a common origin of indo-
> european and Austronesian languages showing up it's head here...

This isn't possible given the timescales involved. Constant language change
means there's no way to distinguish hypothetically identical-by-descent words
that diverged so long ago from unsurprising identical-by-coincidence words.
What cannot be detected in theory cannot usefully be said to exist at all.

In sum, an even more ancient common origin of ancient language families cannot
be described as "showing itself" anywhere, since there's nothing left to be
seen.

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CurtMonash
Did they write a whole article on the subject without mentioning Larry Niven's
role?

Per Wikipedia, "Not Long Before the End" was first published in 1969.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Goes_Away](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Goes_Away)

That said, I must confess that there was a difference between his concept and
the modern computer-RPG one -- his mana was present in the environment in
general, rather than being specific to any one spellcaster.

(I am permanently ashamed that I didn't see the close connection to
Nevinyrral's Disk until it was pointed out, but the I generally don't quickly
see backward spellings. E.g., it took me about a week to understand the name
of the "Alucard" vampire build in Elder Scrolls Online.)

~~~
throwaway283719
Did you try searching the article for the phrase "Larry Niven"? He is
mentioned about halfway down.

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programminggeek
What about the bible?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna)

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diziet
Another question: Why is mana almost always blue?

~~~
melloclello
I would say that's in order to contrast with the typical HP bar, which goes
from green to red as you lose health.

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contingencies
_Pacific Island cultures are the origin of the concept of mana, and yet more
people in the world have learned about the concept from WoW or other fantasy
games. At its height, there were more players of World of Warcraft than
Pacific Islanders._

Goddamn we need more online anthropology!

~~~
benbreen
We need more of both! I know more than one anthropologist in training whose
"field work" involves lurking on online message boards and fora - guessing
that online anthropology will become an increasingly hot topic in the next
couple years.

~~~
partomniscient
A subset is already covered by the
[http://knowyourmeme.com](http://knowyourmeme.com) site.

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swayvil
Mana == Prana (yoga) == Chi (I dunno, karate or something) (== attention,
maybe). People have been talking about this stuff forever.

Generalized cosmic power.

People scoff, but I think that modern people are just different. A shift in
sensitivities happened. We're all about ideas now.

Consider the classic case of the geek who can't get laid. It's like he's blind
to something.

~~~
hosh
I can quibble with that -- mana would be more like refined jing, or shen in
the "three treasures" schema (jing-chi-shen).

The sensitivity has always been here, though it has been suppressed (among
some other weirder phenomena) Some interesting readings:

* [http://earthweareone.com/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hosp...](http://earthweareone.com/what-a-shaman-sees-in-a-mental-hospital/)

* Ken Wilber's arguments about the "dignity" and "diasaster" of modernity (_The Marriage of Sense and Soul_)

It's less about modern people and more about modernity itself. Modernity
currently treats anything woo woo (pre-modern) as childish, wishful thinking
(think, "The Secret"), and as a result, there has been pathological
disassociation with wisdom traditions.

------
acheron
Just so you know, it's pronounced "monna". [http://penny-
arcade.com/comic/2000/06/16](http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/06/16)

~~~
mhurron
Related:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSb1fg6sQuU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSb1fg6sQuU)

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Pxtl
Long article is long. Funny, I was a huge fan of Niven when I was a kid but
only read his SF books, never his fantasy.

