Rapa Nui Journal Volume 19 Issue 1

Motu-Hi. Die Insel der Mowen (Island of Seagulls)

by Roberto Piumini

Originally published as Moru-fri. L'isola dei ga bbiani.

New R. Deutscher Ta chenbuchverlag, 1997. 140 pages.

Carl HanserVerlag Munchen

ISBN 3-423-62103-6

Review by Andrea Wagner

International School of Dusseldorf Niederrheinstr

Collapse. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

by Jared Diamond Viking Press, New York (2005), 575 pages, ISBN 0-670-03337-5

Review by Vincent Lee

Escape from Easter Island

(Les Evades de ['ile de Paques - Loin de Chile, vers Tahiti; 1944-1958)

by Marie-Francoise Peteuil

L'Harmattan, Paris (2004) 270 pages, ISBN 2-7475-7059-2

Review by Ann M. Altman PhD.

Easter Island - Rapa Nui Scientific Pathways to Secrets of the Past

by Andreas Mieth and Hans-Rudolf Bork

Published by the authors (2004); ISBN 3-9809823-0-0 Available for $20 or 16.5 Euros (includes postage and handling) from the authors (sekretariat@ecology.uni-kiel.de) or from the Easter Island Foundation, 110 pages

Review by Ann M. Altman, PhD.

A Look Back

The Journal and Letters of Captain Charles Bishop on the North-West Coast of America, in the Pacific and in New South Wales. 1794-1799.

The Hakluyt Society, Second Series, No. CXXXI, 1966.

Cambridge, Published for the Hakluyt Society © at the University Press. 1967. Edited by Michael Roe. ( Reproduced by permission of the Hakluyt Society.)

A Personal Account of the VI International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific

by Ann M. Altman

On a vast bay, approximately half way down the coast of Chile, the city of Valparaiso and the resort towns of Vina del Mar and Renaca lie side by side, running one into another and each extending back into the hills around the bay. Conference Town, the site of the meeting, is on the out-skirts of Remaca, and offers all the facilities required for a successful international conference in a pleasant park-like setting. Our conference was particularly successful thanks to the conspicuous attention paid to every last detail by Jose Miguel Ramirez of the Center for Rapa Nui Studies at the University of Valparaiso.

The jungles of Kosrae continue to shield vestiges of the island' ancient heritage. Hidden within its verdure are the remnants of stone villages roadways, fortresses, and even more mundane activity sites where one can sharpen tools, make medicine, and take a brief respite en-route from somewhere to someplace else. During the summer of 2004, several archaeological sites were identified within a single square kilometer of the upper Tofol drainage, on the eastern shores of Kosrae. Many of these sites displayed a range and association of features that have not been recorded in the archaeological record for the island, at least not before this.

A moai of Michelangelo Carrara marble carved by Rapanui artist Bene Tuki stands in Venice. In early 2004, an agreement was signed between the Italian Marenostrum Foundation (whose President is Orlando Pandolfi) and the Rapa Nui Mana Henua Ote Ao Corporation (President, Edgard Hereveri) for a series of joint activities leading to cultural and artistic exchanges, development strategies, and education and training. I am my self Honorary President of the Rapa Nui Corporation and Director of the Scientific Council of Marenostrum.

It is nearly impossible to discuss cannibalism on Easter Island without first discussing cannibalism in general - largely because the subject of cannibalism is sensitive and controversial. And, especially since the publication of William Arens's book The Man-Eating Myth in 1979, a number of anthropologists and other scientists have come to question if cannibalism has occurred on the kind of scale suggested by early reports from around the world. As an extremist of sorts, Arens asserts that cannibalism as a custom has never occurred because he dismisses the veracity of all reports others have taken for granted, an assertion that almost seems to be driven more by a revulsion for the practice than for an unbiased examination of the evidence.