Talk:Kiwa hirsuta

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An entry from Kiwa hirsuta appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 10 March 2006.

Contents 1 References 2 Kiwa, goddess of shellfish 3 perspective of a Māori linguist 4 Naming of Kiwa hirsuta

[edit] References

I'm not sure we need all these news reports from various different news agencies. Firstly, they're all the same, and secondly, they only repeat information available in the actual publication (which is linked). I therefore propose to remove all but one, and have the Zoosystema publication as the only other reference, without in-line linking, because it's of general relevance to the article. --Stemonitis 08:00, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I'd overlooked the expedition site when I said "only other". But still, I'd get rid of most of them. --Stemonitis 08:03, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I have not read the publication in detail (it is very thorough, but the biological terminology is a bit heavy for me) but I did not notice some of the facts there that I found in the BBC report - the name "Yeti lobster"; the information about bacteria in the setae. The Fox and Yahoo reports do not add anything, though, as far as I can see. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:15, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Kiwa, goddess of shellfish

I know that Macpherson et al. describe Kiwa as a goddess of shellfish, but I haven't been able to confirm this. I see that (a different?) Kiwa is Lord of the (Pacific) Ocean in Maori mythology [1]. Can anyone help? Gdr 15:30, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, our article has said it since September 2002! Perhaps we should ask User:TUF-KAT...

I wonder if the scientists got the name from Wikipedia? -- ALoan (Talk) 16:28, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

That would be amusing. I've asked at User talk:TUF-KAT. Gdr 17:40, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I have been looking for references to this alleged Polynesian goddess myself and pulled up nothing but blanks. I think perhaps uncited reference to it's origin being the alleged goddess in this instance and not the Maori god may be incorrect. Given that the Maori culture is predominant in a large portion of the Pacific, perhaps it -is- it's origin?

Read the scientific article - they say "ETYMOLOGY.—The name refers to the goddess of the shellfish in the Polynesian mythology (Kiwa). The gender is feminine." but they don't provide an origin, although it is remarkably similar to what Kiwa has said since 2002: "In Polynesian mythology, Kiwa is the goddess of shellfish." [2] -- ALoan (Talk) 01:12, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

The Encyclopedia Mythica describes Kiwa as "mother of all shell-fish in Polynesian mythology", and does not give a source. Tuf-Kat 02:45, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the source is Micha F. Lindemans. Ashibaka tock 00:18, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Lindemans being the chief editor of the aforesaid Encyclopedia Mythica. Kahuroa 21:50, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] perspective of a Māori linguist

Kiwa is a Māori word. Kiwa is a Māori god - the guardian of the sea. I saw the references at the time to Kiwa hirsutus being named after a 'Polynesian goddess named Kiwa'. All I can say is in all the Māori sources I can find, Kiwa is male. He had at least two wives - among his grandchildren are fish and crustaceans. The name Kiwa can only be Māori - it would be different in ALL other Polynesian languages - some have no 'k', replacing it with a glottal stop, nearly all others (except Hawaiian) have no 'w' - replacing it with a 'v'. Hawaiian has 'k' and 'w', but the Hawaiian 'k' is cognate with the Māori 't', Hawaiian having replaced the original Polynesian 'k' with a glottal stop, so that the Hawaiian equivalent of kiwa would be 'iwa. We are finding a lot of the Polynesian mythology stubs on Wikipedia to be inaccurate (often on multiple levels) by the way. Most of them were started by TUF-KAT in 2002 using Encyclopedia Mythica as a source. By the way I have emailed the team that discovered K. hirsuta to ask them where they got their info. Still waiting for a response. Maybe they will have to make the name masculine: K. hirsutus! Kahuroa 21:47, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Naming of Kiwa hirsuta

I received a reply from a member of the team that named Kiwa hirsuta. Quote:

"Dear colleague, thanks for your message. We use the name Kiwa after the Encyclopedia Mythica. It was the only one available some months ago. I assumed that Encyclopedia Mythica was a serious work.

Regards."

Encyclopedia mythica is, of course, on Oceanic mythology in general and on Polynesian mythology in particular, woefully unreliable. I guess this shows how important it is to get things right on the web. Kahuroa 10:04, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

And further to this, the team member writes in a subsequent message that they are taking steps to correct the incorrect etymology as much as is practical:

In fact we have already clarified the etymology in some recent press comments. Unfortunately, most press releases were made before the mistake was detected. I will try to modify the etymology in the web site (MBARI, IFREMER, etc,).

I am pleased with this attitude Kahuroa 10:40, 12 May 2006 (UTC)