Rapanui

In this groundbreaking study, Riet Delsing narrates the colonization of the Pacific island of Rapa Nui and its indigenous inhabitants. The annexation of the island by Chile, in the heydays of world imperialism, places the small Latin American country in a unique position in the history of global colonialism. The analysis of this ongoing colonization process constitutes a “missing link” in Pacific Islands studies and facilitates future comparisons with other colonial adventures in the Pacific by the United States (Hawai‘i, American Samoa), France (Tahiti), and New Zealand (Maori and Cook Islands). The first part of the book surveys the history of the Chile–Rapa Nui relationship from its beginning in the 1880s until the present. Delsing delineates the Rapanui people’s agency along with their cultural logic, showing their resilience and will to remain Rapanui— indigenous Pacific islanders rather than an ethnic minority forcefully integrated into the Chilean nation-state. In the second part, the author describes the Rapanui’s contemporary emphasis on the revitalization of their language, traditional concepts about land tenure, a unique corpus of material and performative culture, renewed contact with other Pacific island cultures, and creative acts of resistance against Chilean colonialism. Emergent in her analysis is the effect of Rapa Nui’s vibrant tourist industry—commodification of Rapanui difference is creating the possibility to loosen economic and political ties with Chile. Drawing on statements of several Rapanui, she concludes that over the past few decades they have acquired a different kind of interpretive power, based on which they are making choices that serve them as a people on the road to cultural and political self-determination. Contemporary Rapa Nui is thus a modern, articulated place, marked by spirited identity politics that show the resilience and adaptability of the indigenous people who inhabit this island.

Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) has long captivated travellers and explorers since it was first encountered by European voyagers in 1722. The island’s colossal stone carvings (moai) have been the primary attraction, yet these have overshadowed the broader culture of the Rapanui people. This significant edited collection brings together thirteen specialists from eight countries in a series of studies that address the pre-history, history, contemporary society and popular culture of Easter Island. Consideration is given to both the Rapanui and western cultures with topics covered including archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, tourism, literature, comic books and music. This is a multidisciplinary book with subjects ranging from fact to fiction and from Thor Heyerdahl and Katherine Routledge to Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.

This book is a comprehensive description of the grammar of Rapa Nui, the Polynesian language spoken on Easter Island. After an introductory chapter, the grammar deals with phonology, word classes, the noun phrase, possession, the verb phrase, verbal and nonverbal clauses, mood and negation, and clause combinations. The phonology of Rapa Nui reveals certain issues of typological interest, such as the existence of strict conditions on the phonological shape of words, word-final devoicing, and reduplication patterns motivated by metrical constraints. For Polynesian languages, the distinction between nouns and verbs in the lexicon has often been denied; in this grammar it is argued that this distinction is needed for Rapa Nui. Rapa Nui has sometimes been characterised as an ergative language; this grammar shows that it is unambiguously accusative. Subject and object marking depend on an interplay of syntactic, semantic and pragmatic factors. Other distinctive features of the language include the existence of a ‘neutral’ aspect marker, a serial verb construction, the emergence of copula verbs, a possessive-relative construction, and a tendency to maximise the use of the nominal domain. Rapa Nui’s relationship to the other Polynesian languages is a recurring theme in this grammar; the relationship to Tahitian (which has profoundly influenced Rapa Nui) especially deserves attention. The grammar is supplemented with a number of interlinear texts, two maps and a subject index.

Rapa Nui, one of the world’s most isolated island societies and home to the notable moai, has been at the centre of a tense debate for the past decade. Some see it as the site of a dramatic cultural collapse occurring before Western contact, where a self-inflicted ecocide was brought on by the exhaustion of resources. Others argue that the introduction of Western pathogens and the slave raids of 1862 were to blame for the near extinction of the otherwise resilient Rapa Nui people. Cultural and Environmental Change on Rapa Nui brings together the latest studies by prominent Rapa Nui researchers from all over the world to explore the island’s past and present, from its discovery by Polynesians, through the first documented contact with Western culture in 1722, to the 20th century. The exiting new volume looks beyond the moai to examine such questions as: was there was a cultural collapse; how did the Rapa Nui react to Westerners; and what responses did the Rapa Nui develop to adjust to naturally- or humanly-induced environmental change? This volume will appeal to scholars and professionals in the fields of history, archaeology and ecology, as well as anyone with an interest in the challenges of sustainable resource management, and the contentious history of Rapa Nui itself.

This book addresses the main enigmas of Easter Island’s (Rapa Nui, in the Polynesian language) prehistory from the time of initial settlement to European contact with a multidisciplinary perspective. The main topics include: (i) the time of first settlement and the origin of the first settlers; (ii) the main features of prehistoric Rapanui culture and their changes; (iii) the deforestation of the island and its timing and causes; (iv) the extinction of the indigenous biota, (v) the occurrence of climatic shifts and their potential effects on socioecological trends; (vi) the evidence for a cultural and demographic collapse before European contact; and (vii) the influence of Europeans on prehistoric Rapanui society. The book is subdivided into thematic sections and each chapter is written by renowned specialists in disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, paleoecology, ethnography, linguistics, ethnobotany, phylogenetics/phylogeography and history. Contributors have been invited to provide an open and objective vision that includes as many views as possible on the topics considered. In this way, the readers may be able to compare different of points of view and make their own interpretations on each of the subjects considered. The book is intended for a wide audience including graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, university teachers and researchers interested in the subject. Given its multidisciplinary character and the topics included, the book is suitable for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines and interests.

From Captain Cook's voyages to Kevin Costner's 1994 film, Rapanui has captured the interest and imagination of many people. Most accounts of Rapanui (as the people of Easter Island call themselves and their land) describe a barren, empty landscape. This book places people prominently in that landscape. Grant McCall has spent more than two decades studying Rapanui and in this revised second edition he presents the details of how Easter Island came to be what it is today. Rapanui is the absorbing story of the survival of an ingenious population of scarcely 3,000 people who cling to the rocky home they love. The first part of the book offers the reader a concise outline of the latest discoveries in the prehistory and history of Rapanui. Later chapters on contemporary life flow around the familiar concepts of family and group, belief, earning a living, relations with one's kin and with strangers. The final chapter describes the most recent changes and concludes with ideas about what the next millennium might bring to the people of the world's most remote island.

-Reveals the heretofore unknown identity of this 19th-century Easter Island (Rapa Nui) man, and the secrets hidden in his impressive tattoos -Body art reveals amazing insights into Easter Island history An impressively tattooed but unnamed Easter Island (Rapa Nui) man appears often in the pages of Pacific Island histories and museum catalogs. The Swedish ethnographer Dr. Knut Hjalmar Stolpe knew him only as Tepano, the Tahitian version of the Christian name Stephen. But what was his real Rapanui identity, and what can his life story tell us about the history of Easter Island? This book reveals his identity, who illustrated him, and how he transcended the tragic events of 19th-century Rapa Nui to become one of the most iconic faces of the Polynesian past. The authors summarize the history of tattoo as practiced by Rapanui artisans, link that history to island geography, and present rare barkcloth sculptures as a visual record of tattoo patterns. This title is the first in a new series on Polynesian Arts & Culture by Mana Press, in partnership with Floating World Editions. For a list of future titles, visit: www.FloatingWorldEditions.com. For more on Rapa Nui, the Mana Gallery and Mana Books, visit: www.eisp.org. An Introduction; The Tattooed Man; The Tattooed Man and Hoa Hakananai a: Rapa Nui, November 1868; The Geography of Rapanui Tattoo: Early Illustrations, Locales, and Key People; Rapanui Tattoo and Colonialism; Rapanui Tattoo Designs and Motifs; Discovering the Tattooed Man: Mataveri, April 1877; Knut Hjalmar Stolpe and Oscar Elkholm: Tahiti, May 1884; The Tattooed Man and Madame Hoare: Tahiti, circa 1870; Madame Hoare and Julien Viaud [Pierre Loti]: Tahiti, 1872; C. B. Hoare, Charles D. Voy, and Thomas Croft: Tahiti, 1873; Alphonse Louis Pinart: 1877; Constance Frederika Gordon Cumming and Alphonse Louis Pinart: 1877; Drawings by Julien Viaud [Pierre Loti]; Identifying Julien Viaud's [Pierre Loti's] Rapanui Subjects; Identifying the Tattooed Man: Viable Candidates; Acknowledgments; Map of Rapa Nui; Glossary; Notes; References.