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Easter Island

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Central & South American
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   Coordinates: 27°7′14″S, 109°21′5″W

                                                         CAPTION: Rapa Nui


                                                               Island flag

                                                     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
                                                         Capital Hanga Roa
                                                                      Area
                                                             - City Proper
                                                                163,6 km²
                                                                Population
                                                             - City (2005)
                                                   - Density (city proper)
                                                         3.791 Inhabitants
                                                               23,17 /km²
                                       Time zone Central Time zone, UTC- 6
                                                       Telephone Prefix 32
                                                       Postal code 2779001
                                                        Gentilic Pascuense
                                     Mayor Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa ( PDC)
                                                             ( 2004- 2008)
                                    Official site http://www.rapanui.co.cl

   Map of Easter Island.
   Enlarge
   Map of Easter Island.

   Orthographic projection centered on Easter Island.
   Enlarge
   Orthographic projection centered on 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. Located 3,600 km (2,237 statute miles) west of
   continental Chile and 2,075 km (1,290 statute 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 km² (63 sq. miles), and a
   population of 3,791 (2002 census), 3,304 of which live in the capital
   of Hanga Roa. Easter is made up of three volcanoes: Poike, Rano Kau and
   Terevaka. The island is famous for its numerous moai, the stone statues
   now located along the coastlines. Administratively, it is a province
   (containing a single municipality) of the Chilean Valparaíso Region.
   The standard time is eight hours behind UTC ( UTC-6) (five hours behind
   including one hour of daylight saving time).

History

First settlers

   Early European visitors to Easter Island recorded the local oral
   traditions of the original settlers. In these traditions, Easter
   Islanders claimed that a chief Hotu Matu'a arrived on the island in one
   or two large canoes with his wife and extended family. They are
   believed to have been Polynesian. There is considerable uncertainty
   about the accuracy of this legend as well as the date of settlement.
   Published literature suggests the island was settled around AD 300-400,
   or at about the time of the arrival of the earliest settlers in Hawaii.
   Some scientists say that Easter Island was not inhabited until AD
   700-800. This date range is based on glottochronological calculations
   and on three radiocarbon dates from charcoal that appears to have been
   produced during forest clearance activities. On the other hand, a
   recent study, including radiocarbon dates from what is thought to be
   very early material, indicates that the island was settled as recently
   as AD 1200, the time of the deforestation of the island..

   The Austronesian Polynesians, who arguably settled the island, are
   likely to have arrived from the Marquesas Islands from the west. These
   settlers brought bananas, taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, and paper
   mulberry, as well as chickens and rats. The island at one time
   supported a relatively advanced and complex civilization.

   Thor Heyerdahl pointed out many cultural similarities between Easter
   Island and South American Indian cultures which might have resulted
   from some settlers arriving also from the continent. However,
   present-day Polynesian archeology strongly denies any non-Polynesian
   influence on the island's prehistory, and the discussion has become
   very political around the subject. DNA analyses of Easter Island's
   inhabitants offers strong evidence as to their Polynesian origins, a
   tool not available in Heyerdahl's time. However, as the number of
   islanders that survived the 19th century deportations was very small,
   perhaps just 1-2% of the peak population, this mainly confirms that the
   remaining population was of Polynesian origin.

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

Moai-carving culture (10th century AD - 16th / 17th century AD)

   Trees are sparse on modern Easter Island, rarely forming small groves.
   The island once possessed a forest of palms and it has generally been
   thought that native Easter Islanders deforested the island in the
   process of erecting their statues. Experimental archaeology has clearly
   demonstrated that some statues certainly could have been placed on
   wooden frames and then pulled to their final destinations on ceremonial
   sites. Rapanui traditions metaphorically refer to spiritual power
   (mana) as the means by which the moai were "walked" from the quarry.
   Also important was the introduction of the Polynesian Rat, which
   apparently ate the palm's seeds. However, given the island's southern
   latitude, the (as yet poorly documented) climatic effects of the Little
   Ice Age (about 1650 to 1850) may have contributed to deforestation and
   other changes. The disappearance of the island's trees seems to
   coincide with a decline of the Easter Island civilization around the
   17th-18th century AD. Midden 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 their nesting sites. Soil erosion
   due to lack of trees is apparent in some places. Sediment samples
   document that up to half of the native plants had become extinct and
   that the vegetation of the island was drastically altered. Chickens and
   rats became leading items of diet and there are (not unequivocally
   accepted) hints at cannibalism occurring, based on human remains
   associated with cooking sites, especially in caves. Obsidian spear
   points and the toppling of many statues indicate a breakdown of the
   social structure, possibly even leading to civil strife, though almost
   certainly not on as massive a scale as is often assumed.

The Birdman cult (16th / 17th century AD - 19th century AD)

   The surviving population developed new traditions to allocate the
   remaining, scarce resources. Around 1680, a coup by military leaders
   called matatoa brought a new cult based around a previously
   unexceptional god Make-make. In the cult of the birdman (Rapanui:
   tangata manu), a competition was established in which every year a
   representative of each clan, chosen by the leaders, would dive into the
   sea and swim across shark-infested waters 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.
   Moto Nui islet, part of the Birdman Cult ceremony
   Enlarge
   Moto Nui islet, part of the Birdman Cult ceremony

European contacts

   The first European contact with the island began in 1722 on Easter
   Sunday when Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen found 2,000 to 3,000
   inhabitants on the island, although the population may have been as
   high as 10,000 to 15,000 only a century or two earlier. The
   civilization of Easter Island was long believed to have degenerated
   drastically during the century before the arrival of the Dutch, as a
   result of overpopulation, deforestation and exploitation of an
   extremely isolated island with limited natural resources.

Slavery and annexation to Chile

   A conclusion cannot be drawn for a catastrophic event. All that can be
   said with certainty is that there was a massive, anthropogenic
   alteration of the ecosystem and, subsequently, a cultural transition.
   By the mid-19th century, the population had recovered to about 4,000.
   Then, in merely 20 years, deportation via slave traders to Peru and
   diseases brought by Westerners nearly exterminated the entire
   population — only 110 inhabitants remained on the island in 1877.
   Recollections of these events by the surviving descendants have led to
   the belief that they described ancient memories of a pre-contact
   collapse. The population of native Rapanui has since gradually
   recovered from this low point.
   A petroglyph found near Ahu Tongariki
   Enlarge
   A petroglyph found near Ahu Tongariki

   Easter Island was annexed by Chile in 1888 by Policarpo Toro, by means
   of the " Treaty of Annexation of the island" (Tratado de Anexión de la
   isla), that the government of Chile signed with the native people of
   the island.

Today

   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.
   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.

   Recent events have shown a tremendous increase of tourism on the
   island, coupled with a large inflow of people from mainland Chile which
   threatens to alter the Polynesian identity of the island. Land disputes
   have created political tensions since the 1980s, with part of the
   native Rapanui opposed to private property and in favour of traditional
   communal property (see Demography below).

   Mataveri International Airport serves as the island's only airport. The
   airport's single 2903 m (9524 ft) runway was lengthened by the U.S.
   space program to serve as an alternate emergency landing site for the
   space shuttle.

Ecology

   View of Easter Island from space, 2001
   Enlarge
   View of Easter Island from space, 2001

   Easter Island, together with its closest neighbour, the tiny island of
   Sala-y-Gomez 400 km further East, is recognized by ecologists as a
   distinct ecoregion, called the Rapa Nui subtropical broadleaf forests.
   Having relatively little rainfall contributed to eventual
   deforestation. The original subtropical moist broadleaf forests are now
   gone, but paleobotanical 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, and the toromiro is extinct in the wild, and the island is
   presently covered almost entirely in grassland. A group of scientists
   partly led jointly by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Göteborg
   Botanical Garden, are making efforts in order to reintroduce the
   toromiro to Easter Island. An interesting fact is the presence of the
   bulrush nga'atu which is also found in the Andes (where it is known as
   totora); there are indications that nga'atu was not present before the
   1300s-1500s. Before the arrival of humans, Easter Island had vast
   seabird colonies, no longer found on the main island, and several
   species of landbirds, which have become extinct.

Destruction of the ecosystem

   "The overall picture for Easter is the most extreme example of forest
   destruction in the Pacific, and among the most extreme in the world:
   the whole forest gone, and all of its tree species extinct.". Diamond's
   conclusions have been challenged by Hunt (2006) (see reference list).
   After extensive research, Hunt concludes that the trees were lost
   because rats which came on the settler's rafts or boats ate the seeds,
   and much of the population loss was due to capture by slave traders.

   In his article From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui, Benny
   Peiser notes evidence of self-sufficiency on Easter Island when
   Europeans first arrived. Although stressed, the island may still have
   had at least some (small) trees remaining, mainly toromiro. Cornelis
   Bouman, Jakob Roggeveen's captain, stated in his log book, "...of yams,
   bananas and small coconut palms we saw little and no other trees or
   crops." According to Carl Friedrich Behrens, Roggeveen's officer, "The
   natives presented palm branches as peace offerings. Their houses were
   set up on wooden stakes, daubed over with luting and covered with palm
   leaves," indicating living palm trees were still available, though
   these were likely coconuts introduced after the extinction of the
   native palm.

   In his book "A Short History of Progress", Ronald Wright speculates
   that for a generation or so, "there was enough old lumber to haul the
   great stones and still keep a few canoes seaworthy for deep water".
   When the day came the last boat was gone, wars broke out over "ancient
   planks and wormeaten bits of jetsam". The people of Rapa Nui exhausted
   all possible resources, including eating their own dogs and all nesting
   birds when finally there was absolutely nothing left. All that was left
   were the stone giants who symbolized the devouring of a whole island.
   The stone giants became monuments where the islanders could keep faith
   and honour them in hopes of a return. By the end, there were more than
   a thousand moai (stone statues), which was one for every ten islanders
   (Wright, 2004). When the Europeans arrived in the eighteenth century,
   the worst was over and they only found one or two living souls per
   statue.

   Easter Island has suffered from heavy soil erosion during recent
   centuries. Largely, this condition emerged as a result of massive
   deforestation. However, this process seems to have been gradual and may
   have been aggravated by extensive sheep farming throughout most of the
   20th century. Jakob Roggeveen reported that Easter Island was
   exceptionally fertile, producing large quantities of bananas, potatoes
   and thick sugar-cane. In 1786 M. de La Pérouse visited Easter Island
   and his gardener declared that "three day's work a year" would be
   enough to support the population.

   Rollin, a major of the French expedition to Easter Island in 1786,
   wrote, "Instead of meeting with men exhausted by famine... I found, on
   the contrary, a considerable population, with more beauty and grace
   than I afterwards met in any other island; and a soil, which, with very
   little labour, furnished excellent provisions, and in an abundance more
   than sufficient for the consumption of the inhabitants." (Heyerdahl &
   Ferdon, 1961:57).

   The fact that oral traditions of the islanders are obsessed with
   cannibalism is evidence supporting a rapid collapse. For example, to
   severely insult an enemy one would say: "The flesh of your mother
   sticks between my teeth." This suggests that the food supply of the
   people ultimately ran out.

Cultural artifacts

Moai

   Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island
   Enlarge
   Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island
   Moai from Ahu Ko Te Riku in Hanga Roa, with Chilean Navy training ship
   Buque Escuela Esmeralda cruising behind. This moai is currently the
   only one with replica eyes.
   Enlarge
   Moai from Ahu Ko Te Riku in Hanga Roa, with Chilean Navy training ship
   Buque Escuela Esmeralda cruising behind. This moai is currently the
   only one with replica eyes.
   Ahu Tongariki, restored in the 1990's
   Enlarge
   Ahu Tongariki, restored in the 1990's
   Ahu Akivi, the only moai facing the ocean
   Enlarge
   Ahu Akivi, the only moai facing the ocean

   The large stone statues, or moai, for which Easter Island is world
   famous were carved during a relatively short and intense burst of
   creative and productive megalithic activity. Archeologists now estimate
   that ceremonial site construction and statue carving took place largely
   between about AD 1100 and 1600 and may have consumed up to 25% of
   island-wide resources — with some statues probably still being carved
   at about the time Jacob Roggeveen arrived. According to recent
   archaeological research 887 monolithic stone statues, called moai, have
   been inventoried on the island and in museum collections. This number
   is not final, however. The on-going statue survey continues to turn up
   new fragments, and mapping in Rano Raraku quarry (see below) has
   documented more unfinished statues than previously known. In addition,
   some statues incorporated into ceremonial site construction surely
   remain to be uncovered. 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. Most
   moai were carved out of a distinctive, compressed, easily-worked
   volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site called Rano Raraku. The
   quarry there seems to have been abandoned abruptly, with half-carved
   statues left in the rock. However, on closer examination the pattern of
   use and abandonment is more complex. The most widely-accepted theory is
   that the statues were carved by the ancestors of the modern Polynesian
   inhabitants ( Rapanui) at a time when the island was largely planted
   with trees and resources were plentiful, supporting a population of at
   least 10,000–15,000 native Rapanui. The majority of the statues were
   still standing when Jacob Roggeveen arrived in 1722. Captain James Cook
   also saw many standing statues when he landed on the island in 1774. By
   the mid-19th century, all the statues had been toppled, presumably in
   internecine wars.

   As impressive as the statues are, the ahu platforms contained 20 times
   as much stone, and actually required even greater resources to build.

Stone chicken houses

   There is archaeological evidence of intensive agriculture, including
   1,233 prehistoric stone chicken houses ( 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. The houses are believed by some to have originally
   served as graves.

Rongorongo

   Tablets found on the island and bearing a mysterious script known as
   Rongorongo have never been deciphered despite the work of generations
   of linguists. In 1932 Hungarian scholar Wilhelm or Guillaume de Hevesy
   called attention to apparent similarities between some of the
   rongorongo characters of Easter Island and the ancient Indus script of
   the Indus Valley civilization in India, correlating dozens (at least
   40) of the former with corresponding signs on seals from Mohenjo-daro.
   This correlation was re-published in later books, but later works
   showed these comparisons to be spurious.

   Some writers have asserted rongorongo means peace-peace and that their
   texts record peace treaty documents, possibly between the long ears and
   the conquering short ears. However, such explanations have been
   strongly disputed, particularly since the "long-ear/short ear"
   designations of historical islanders have become increasingly
   unsupportable.

   Like most indigenous tellers of Easter Island histories or legends,
   islanders continue to have questionable motives for their accounts and
   have always been creative, imaginative and quick to give answers to
   inquisitive archaeologists and historians. Rongorongo's purpose and
   intent remain as puzzling as the script's meaning. While there have
   been many claims of translation, none have withstood peer review and
   become generally accepted.

Demography

   Population at the 2002 census was 3,791 inhabitants, up from 1,936
   inhabitants in 1982. This increase in population is due mainly to the
   arrival of people of European descent from the mainland of Chile.
   Consequently, the island is losing its native Polynesian identity. In
   1982 around 70% of the population were Rapanui (the native Polynesian
   inhabitants). At the 2002 census however, Rapanui were only 60% of the
   population of Easter Island. Chileans of European descent were 39% of
   the population, and the remaining 1% were Native American from mainland
   Chile. 3,304 of the 3,791 inhabitants of the island live in the town of
   Hanga Roa.

   Rapanui have also migrated out of the island. At the 2002 census there
   were 2,269 Rapanui living in Easter Island, while 2,378 Rapanui lived
   in the mainland of Chile (half of them in the metropolitan area of
   Santiago).

   Population density on Easter Island is only 23 inhabitants per km² (60
   inh. per sq. mile), much lower than in the 17th century heyday of the
   moai building when there were possibly as many as 15,000 inhabitants.
   Population had already declined to only 2,000-3,000 inhabitants before
   the arrival of Europeans. In the 19th century, disease due to contacts
   with Europeans, as well as deportation of 2,000 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, and they are the ancestors of all the 2,269 Rapanui
   currently living on the island.

Local Council

   The mayor of Easter Island is Mr. Pedro Pablo Edmunds Paoa ( PDC)

   The Councillors are:
     * Hipólito Juan Icka Nahoe — PH ( Humanist Party)
     * Eliana Amelia Olivares San Juan — UDI
     * Nicolás Haoa Cardinali — Independent, centre-right
     * Marcelo Icka Paoa — PDC
     * Alberto Hotus Chávez — PPD
     * Marcelo Pont Hill — PPD

Mythology

   The most important myths are:
     * Tangata manu
     * Make-make
     * Hotu Matu'a

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