Easter Island

Rapa Nui

File:Provincia Isla de Pascua Flag.png Island flag
City motto: (" Rapa Nui" ) Also called "Te Pito O Te Henua (Ombligo del mundo) (Navel of the world)"
Discovered by Europeans	April 5, 1722 by Jakob Roggeveen
Official languages	Chilean Spanish, Rapa Nui
Capital	Hanga Roa
Mayor	Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa (2004-2008)
Area  - City Proper	163.6 km²
Population  - City (2005)  - Density (city proper)	3.791 Inhabitants 23.17 /km²
Currency	Chilean peso
Time zone	Central Time zone, UTC- 6
Official site	http://www.rapanui.co.cl
File:Easter island (Chile).jpg Map of Easter Island.

Easter Island, known in the native language as Rapa Nui ("Big Rapa") or Isla de Pascua in Spanish, is an island in the south Pacific Ocean belonging to Chile. Easter Island is of considerable archaeological importance because it is the richest site of the Pacific island carved stone monuments and has the only evidence of a form of writing in Polynesia.

Geography

Located 3600 kilometers (2237 miles) west of continental Chile and 2075km (1290 miles) east of Pitcairn Island, it is one of the most isolated inhabited islands in the world. It is located at 27°09′S 109°27′W, with a latitude close to that of the Chilean city of Caldera, north of Santiago. The island is approximately triangular in shape, with an area of 163.6 square kilometers (63 square miles), and a population of 3791 (2002 census), 3304 of which live in the capital of Hanga Roa. Easter Island is made up of three extinct volcanoes: Poike, Rano Kau and Terevaka.

The island is warm throughout the year and swept by strong trade winds.

Easter Island and its closest neighbor, the tiny island of Sala-y-Gomez 400km further east, is recognized as a distinct ecoregion, called the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests. The original moist broadleaf forests are now gone, but studies of fossil pollen and tree molds left by lava flows indicate that the island was formerly forested, with a range of trees, shrubs, ferns, and grasses. A large palm, related to the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis) was one of the dominant trees, as was the toromiro tree (Sophora toromiro). The palm is now extinct, the toromiro is extinct in the wild, and the island is covered almost entirely in grassland. A group of scientists are making efforts to reintroduce the toromiro. Reforestation projects include eucalyptus plantations at Vaitea and coconut groves in Anakena Bay. Before the arrival of humans, Easter Island had vast seabird colonies, no longer found on the main island, and several species of land birds, which have become extinct.

History

Carbon dating indicates the first settlers arrived from other Polynesian islands, probably the Marquesas, around 1200 C.E. Their numbers grew quickly. These settlers brought bananas, taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, and paper mulberry, as well as chickens and rats.

Easter Island’s distinctive stone megaliths, or “moai,” were probably carved in a period from the thirteenth century C.E. to the seventeenth century, at a time when the island was largely planted with trees and resources were plentiful.

Some scholars argue that the population may have reached 15,000 during the height of the moai-building period, more recent analysis suggests the human population probably reached a maximum of about 3000, perhaps a bit higher, around 1350 C.E. and remained fairly stable until the arrival of Europeans. The rat population would have exploded even more quickly. The combination of humans cutting down palm trees and rats eating the palm seeds would have led to rapid deforestation. Midden (refuse heap) contents show a sudden drop in quantities of fish and bird bones as the islanders lost the means to construct fishing vessels and the birds lost nesting sites.

A powerful warrior class, or “matato’a” emerged as the mana of the great chiefs declined. Around 1680, a coup by matato’a brought a new cult based around a god “Makemake.” In the cult of the birdman (“tangata manu”), a competition was established in which every year a representative of each clan would dive into the sea and swim across to Motu Nui, a nearby islet, to search for the season's first egg laid by a manutara (sooty tern). The first swimmer to return with an egg would be named "Birdman of the year" and secure control over distribution of the island's resources for his clan for the year. The tradition was still in existence at the time of first contact by Europeans. It ended in 1867.

View of Easter Island from space, 2001

European contact with the island began in 1722, on Easter Sunday, when Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen found 2000 to 3000 inhabitants on the island. He reported that Easter Island was exceptionally fertile, producing large quantities of bananas, potatoes and thick sugar-cane. Most of the statues were still standing when Roggeveen arrived.

Spanish captain Don Felipe Gonzáles claimed the island for the King of Spain in 1770, but no ship from the Spanish navy ever came to make it official. The famed English explorer Captain James Cook stopped briefly in 1774, and a French admiral and explorer, le Comte de La Pérouse, spent 11 hours on the island in 1786. A bay on the north coast has been named after him.

The behaviour of visiting European seamen was unpredictable. Excitable islanders were shot at. Whalers in the 1800s, looking for water and women, brought diseases, principally venereal diseases. The captain of an American ship, the Nancy, in 1805, kidnapped 22 men and women, intending them as laborers to work at a seal colony. The men jumped overboard. Unable to recapture them, the crew shot at them. One managed to return to Easter Island.

Paintings in the so-called "Cave of the Men Eatresses".

Eight Peruvian slave ships arrived to Easter Island in December 1862, and kidnapped 1407 Rapanui people, about one-third of the estimated population. Some were sold in Peru as domestic servants, others for manual labor on the plantations. A public outcry prompted the Peruvian government to ban such Polynesian “imports.” The slavers shipped smallpox-infected Rapanui back to Easter Island, causing an epidemic that reduced the island population to 110 in 1877.

Eugene Eyraud, a lay member of the Sacred Heart Congregation, landed to set up a mission. But, in a short time, all his possessions were confiscated and he became a virtual captive. He was rescued nine months later 1864. He returned in 1866 with Father Hippolyte Roussel. For the disheartened islanders, the food and medicines were an incentive for conversion. Horses and wheelbarrows were introduced.

A French sea captain who brought the two French missionaries to the island, Jean-Baptiste Onéxime Dutrou-Bornier, returned in 1868 and gradually bought up land in exchange for trivial gifts. Dutrou-Bornier built a fancy wooden house, proclaimed himself lord of the island, and took a Rapanui wife. He clashed with the missionaries over plans to ship Rapanui people to Tahiti. Buildings were burned and crops destroyed. The missionaries were recalled. The population declined further. At that stage, Easter Island was turned into one big sheep ranch.

Two Chilean ships had visited the island since 1837. At that time, Chile claimed the largest fleet in the Pacific. In 1888 a Chilean Captain, Policarpo Toro Hurtado, took formal possession of the island in the name of the Republic of Chile. Twelve Rapanui chiefs ceded sovereignty to Chile "forever."

Until the 1960s, the surviving Rapanui descendants were forced to live in a confined settlement in squalid conditions at the outskirts of Hanga Roa, because the island was rented to a foreign sheep company. Extensive sheep farming throughout most of the twentieth century accelerated soil erosion.

Since finally being allowed to live free, they have re-embraced their ancient culture, or what could be reconstructed of it. A yearly cultural festival, the Tapati, celebrates native pastimes.

Rapa Nui is not the island's original name. It was coined by labour immigrants from Rapa in the Bass Islands, who likened it to their home island. The Rapanui name for Rapa Nui was Te pito o te henua (The Navel of the World) due to its isolation, but this too seems to have been derived from another location, possibly a Marquesan landmark.

Politics

Administratively, it is a province (containing a single municipality) of the Chilean Valparaíso Region. It is governed by a mayor and six councillors.

Economy

File:Orthographic projection centred over Easter Island.png

Orthographic projection centered on Easter Island.

Easter Island has moved from a Polynesian economy, based on cultivating sweet potato, raising chickens, and coastal fishing, to a cash economy based on tourism. The opening of Mataveri International Airport near Hanga Roa brought increasing numbers of tourists since the 1960s. Tourists could stay in the few small hotels in the village area, or in homestays. There are twice-weekly flights from Santiago. A well-organized Chilean national park system provides guided tours and security for the monuments.

But tourism, and an influx of people from mainland Chile threatens to alter the Polynesian identity of the island. Since the 1980s, land disputes have created political tensions, with part of the native Rapanui opposed to private property and in favor of traditional communal property.

The U.S. space program lengthened the airport's single 2903-meter (9524 foot) runway to create as an alternate emergency landing site for the space shuttle.

Demographics

Twentieth century Norwegian anthropologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl pointed out cultural similarities between Easter Island and South American Indian cultures. Some scholars have argued Polynesian sailors may have reached the central-south coast of Chile. Some “Polynesian-like” cultural traits, including words like “toki,” have been described among the Mapuche people from southern Chile. However, present-day Polynesian archaeology strongly denies any non-Polynesian influence on the island's prehistory, and the discussion on the subject has become political. DNA testing has proved that the Polynesians arrived from the west rather than the east, and that the people of Easter Island are descendants of intrepid voyagers who set out from Taiwan thousands of years ago.

Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island

Population at the 2002 census was 3791 inhabitants, up from 1936 inhabitants in 1982. The increase was due to the arrival of people of European descent from the mainland of Chile. The island is losing its native Polynesian identity. In 1982 around 70 percent of the population were Rapanui (the native Polynesian inhabitants). At the 2002 census however, Rapanui were only 60 percent of the population of Easter Island. Chileans of European descent were 39 percent of the population, and the remaining one percent were Native American from mainland Chile. About 3304 of the 3791 inhabitants of the island live in the town of Hanga Roa.

Rapanui have migrated out of the island. At the 2002 census there were 2269 Rapanui living in Easter Island, while 2378 Rapanui lived in the mainland of Chile (half of them in the metropolitan area of Santiago).

Population density is only 23 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the nineteenth century, disease due to contacts with Europeans, as well as deportation of 2000 Rapanui to work as slaves in Peru, and the forced departure of the remaining Rapanui to Chile, carried the population of Easter Island to the all time low of 111 inhabitants in 1877. Out of these 111 Rapanui, only 36 had descendants.

The language belongs to the Austronesian family. The modern language, however, has been heavily influenced by Tahitian, so much so that the modern name of Easter Island, “Rapa Nui,” is Tahitian, and that the common greeting, “iorana” meaning "hello," is also Tahitian (“ia ora na”). As a territory of Chile, the main language spoken is the Chilean variant of Spanish.

The pre-Christian Easter Islanders had numerous superstitions and resorted to charms, prayers, incantations, and amulets to bring good luck and ward off evil. After death the soul was supposed to depart to the “place of departed spirits" to be rewarded by the gods or tormented by demons. A small hole was built in the wall the top of all tombs, cairns, and other receptacles, for the dead, for the spirit of the deceased to depart. Spirits were believed to be wandering the earth, influencing human affairs. Spirits were supposed to appear to sleeping persons and to communicate with them through visions or dreams.

Gnomes, ghouls, and goblins were believed to inhabit inaccessible caves and niches in the rock and could prowling about after dark. The small wooden and stone "household gods," were made to represent certain spirits, and were regarded as the medium through which communications might be made with the spirits, but were never worshiped. The Great Spirit Meke-Meke is represented by a bird-like animal as referred to in the description of sculptured rocks and paintings at Orongo.

Pre-Christian Easter Island society was characteristically Polynesian in that power and “mana” (spiritual power) were focused in the “ariki mau,” or great chief. The position of ariki was hereditary, and was considered to be a direct descendant of the gods. Society was divided into “mata” (clans), associated with parts of the island and grouped into two divisions.

The moai were not carved by slaves or workers under duress, but by master craftsmen, formed into guilds, and highly honored for their skills.

Culture

File:Moai and Esmeralda.jpg

Moai in Hanga Roa, with Chilean Navy training ship Buque Escuela Esmeralda cruising behind. This moai is currently the only one with replica eyes

Although often identified as "heads", the statues actually are heads and complete torsos. Some upright moai, however, have become buried up to their necks by shifting soils. About 100 moai are still standing. They vary in height from three meters to 12 meters (10 to 40 ft). Carved from a soft volcanic rock called “tuff,” they consist of huge heads with elongated ears and noses. An immense unfinished statue, 21 meters (68 feet) long was found in the crater called Rano Raraku. Many statues on the burial platforms bore cylindrical, brimmed crowns of red tuff. The largest crown weighs about 27 tonnes.

The largest structures are the great burial platforms, called “ahu,” (shrines) which supported rows of statues. The ahu were situated on bluffs and in areas commanding a view of the sea. Each ahu was constructed of neatly fitted stone blocks set without mortar. The burial platform supported four to six moai, although one ahu, known as Tongariki, carried 15 moai. Within many of the ahu, vaults house individual or group burials.

The function of the moai was to stand on an ahu as representatives of sacred chiefs and gods. Ahu are similar to structures found in the Society Islands, in French Polynesia, where upright stone slabs stood for chiefs. When a chief died, his stone remained.

Experimental archaeology has demonstrated that some moai could have been placed on wooden frames and then pulled to their final destinations. Rapanui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power (mana) as the means by which the moai were "walked" from the quarry.

A total of 887 moai have been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. The on-going moai survey continues to turn up new fragments, and mapping in Rano Raraku quarry has documented more unfinished statues.

Ahu Tongariki, restored in the 1990's

Excavations have also disclosed hidden caves containing decayed remains of tablets and wooden images, and numerous small wooden sculptures. The tablets are covered with finely carved and stylized figures, which seem to be a form of picture writing, known as Rongorongo. It has never been deciphered despite the work of generations of linguists. Some writers have asserted “rongorongo” means “peace-peace” and that the texts record peace treaty documents.

There is archaeological evidence of intensive agriculture on Easter Island, including 1233 prehistoric stone chicken houses or “hare moa,” which are more conspicuous than the remains of the prehistoric human houses (which only had stone foundations). They were 20 or more feet long, 10 feet wide, with a small entrance for the chickens connecting to a stone-walled yard.

Cannibalism did not disappear from Easter Island until after the introduction of Christianity. Cannibal feasts were held in secluded spots, and women and children were rarely admitted. A liking for human flesh drove Easter Islanders' cannibalism, since humans were the only large mammal whose flesh was available. Women and children were the principal victims. Oral traditions show an obsession with cannibalism.

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