Rapa Nui Journal Volume 20 Issue 2

CHANGING TIMES: Two views of Hangaroa's main street: the top photograph (by Georgia Lee) dates from 1981; the lower photograph was taken this past June by Marla Wold. In 1981, this street was called Policarpo Toro.

AT THE MEETING OF THE BOARD of the Easter Island Foundation in April 2006, Christopher Stevenson turned over the reigns of the presidency after completing two 2-year terms. The Board thanked Chris for his leadership for the past several years.

IN APRIL 2005, I BROUGHT ENRIQUE Tucki of CONAF from Easter Island to Australia for an environmental technical visit. Prior to his arrival I sent him an email, advising him that he had one little obligation to me when he got here; to transcribe the lyrics of my favorite Matato'a songs in Rapanui and translate them into English.

"Alle fugler sma de er...('all the little birds'... ) do you remember the rest of the lines?" Of course I do; this song would be a childhood memory of any Norwegian. What was more surprising about this question is that it was asked by a Rapanui, and on Rapa Nui.

THE RETURN OF MR UGLY

A SERIOUSLY UGLY moai with a nose like that of Jimmy Durante's has been shipped back to the island. A visual artist from Argentina, Rosa Velasco, returned it as a "matter of reparation."

THE MOST ASTONISHING moai sighting in years comes from the Outdoor Education Garden, a new feature at the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens in Romsey, England.

I hope that the readers of this journal will not pass this volume over in the mistaken impression that its topic is an esoteric one, of interest only to ethnobotanists. The truth is that the study of the sweet potato cuts straight to the heart of some of the most important issues in Polynesian prehistory, especially for Rapa Nui.

Blue Planet & Beyond

by Jeffrey T. Barbour

321 pages with 36 b/w photos and illustrations

ISBN 978-1-4116-7161-4 6"x9" hardcover

Golden Phoenix Publishing, Olympia, Washington

MOST RAPANUIPHILES WOULD LIKELY AGREE that there are two kinds of books published about our favorite island those we're glad to have and those we wish we could, in the words of Nicholas Cage's character in The Rock (while describing VX nerve gas), "disinvent".

Helene Martinsson-Wallin

How did you get into archaeology, and specifically Easter Island archaeology? What triggered your interest?

During my childhood I was surrounded by archaeological remains.

THE YEAR 2006 MARKS the 160th anniversary of the birth of the prominent Russian scientist, Nikolay Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay.

Fourteen days after leaving Valparaiso, Easter Island, the "Mystery of the Pacific" was sighted. Easter Island is 2300 miles west of Chile, and, though it is comparatively well-known by repute on account of the huge images, hewn out of lava, that are to be found in many parts of the island, especially near the sea shore, it has been very seldom visited.

EASTER ISLAND MAT'A 'A HAVE defied classification for over a century. These objects are most commonly interpreted as "spearpoints" that were hafted to a handle and used in combat (e.g., Metraux 1940: 166-7).

Part I of IV - General Descriptions, Garden Locations, the Agricultural Calendar, Hydrology and Soils, Cultigens, and Agricultural Techniques

FOLLOWING THE PUBLICATION of Brander and Taylor's 1998 paper, "The simple economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus model of renewable resource use," in the American Economic Review, resource economists have been interested in further developing a model to show how conflict, human institutions and customs, and technological change might act and interact to exacerbate or ameliorate the feast-famine or predator-prey cycle that caused catastrophe on Easter Island (Rapa Nui).

This issue of Rapa Nui Journal focuses on prehistoric economics and subsistence, replicative archaeology, and early agriculture in the Marquesas Islands.

Archaeologist Charlie Love bas had an ongoing project for many years: that of exploring Rapa Nui with a copy of Thomson's 1886 book in hand. He photographs the sites, taking care to duplicate the same view as is shown in the early pictures.

The VII Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific - 2007

Gotland University, in Collaboration with the Easter Island Foundation