Rapa Nui Journal Volume 11 Issue 3

Thailand Handbook, 1997 (Second Edition) by Carl Parkes

Moon Travel Handbooks, PO Box 3040, Chico, CA 95927-3040

Review by Georgia Lee

International News

What's New in Polynesia

What's New in Hangaroa

An American airman landed at Rapa Nui in April of 1967. Lt. Colonel Reed C. Mulkey, Commander of the 55th Aerospace Rescue and Recover Squadron at Kindley AFB, Bermuda, was impressed by what he saw and wrote the following letter to his family. Our thanks to Reed for sharing this peek into life on Rapa Nui, thirty years ago.

A group of academic investigators originally envisioned building the William Mulloy Library on Rapa Nui to fulfill the last wishes of the late Dr. William Mulloy, archaeologist at the University of Wyoming, and to honor his truly seminal archaeological restoration work on the island. Our goal was to provide a central research facility with a comprehensive collection of papers, books, and other materials relating to Rapa Nui and Polynesia with Dr. Mulloy's collection, left to the islanders, as its core.

The Chilean Forest Service Corporacion Nacional Forestal (CONAF) is the Chilean Government Agency whose mandate includes the management of National Parks. The Rapa Nui National Park was established in 1935, its 6.7 hectares covers about 42% of the total area of Easter Island. including all its major archaeological monuments.

The urge to preserve monuments and sites arises from the universal need of knowing and understanding the origins and developments of human societies (ICOMOS 1964, 1990). This is deeply linked to the psychological need to know our history and recognize a familiar environment so as not to feel unprotected (Mattinen 1988). These concepts are particularly appropriate for the case of the monumental heritage of Easter Island.

Of the four expeditions known to have touched Easter Island between 1722 and 1786 many written records are available. Some reports are very scientific, including maps that show the exact landing spots. This is unfortunately not the case in regard to the Dutch visit of 1722. Although it is well known that Roggeveen's fleet came to the island on April 5, 1722, and an abstract of his journal was published in English by B.G. Corney in 1908, little importance was given to it by the general public.

This paper arose in part from my own interest in the persistent popularity of the phenomenon of cannibalism as an explanation in Archaeology (e.g. see Bahn 1990; 1991; 1992), and In part from Steven Fischer's report in the invaluable Rapa Nui Journal (1992) of an alleged visit to Easter Island by a French vessel in 1845. In what must be one of the most ridiculous yarns ever spun about the island, it was claimed that the crew was attacked by cannibals, and "Mr Ollivier ... had, on various parts of his body, the teeth marks of those cruel islanders, who had begun to eat him alive."

This led me to wonder what, if any, hard evidence lies behind the claim, found throughout the literature on Easter Island, that its occupants were cannibals at some point in their history.