Rapa Nui Journal Volume 15 Issue 1

The Continuum Encyclopedia of Native Art: Worldview, Symbolism & Culture in Africa, Oceania and Native North America

Hope B. Werness (New York, London: Continuum, 2000)

Review by Norman Hurst

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Trespassers on Easter Island: Explorers, Whalers, Slavers, Adventurers, Missionaries, Scientists and Tourists, from 1722 to the Present Time

Hanns Ebensten, 2001

(The Ketch and Yawl Press, Key West)

Hard cover, 157 pages, $25.00. ISBN: 0-9641735-1-4

Review by Georgia Lee

Exalted Sits the Chief: The Ancient History of Hawai'i Island

by Ross Cordy

Mutual Publishing, Honolulu. 2000

Paperback, 6"x9"; 464 pages; 15 tables; 75 figures (including maps and photograph) glossary, references, and index. 19.95.

Review by Dave Tuggle

Mangarevan Archaeology: Interpretations Using New Data and 40 Year Old Excavations to Establish a Sequence from 1200 to 1900 AD

Edited by Roger C. Green and Marshall I. Weisler

University of Otago Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology No. 19,2000 $10

Review by Vincent H. Stefan

Easter Island Archaeology: Research on Early Rapanui Culture

Christopher M. Stevenson and William S. Ayres, eds.

Easter Island Foundation, 2000 $25

Review by Paul G. Balm

Moai Sightings

What's New in the Pacific

What's New in Hangaroa

The XIV^th Congress of the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, September 2-8, Liege, Belgium

We here present an amazing saga of the sea: "Captain Benson's Own Story" which provides an early glimpse of Easter Island as it appeared to a shipwrecked crew in 1913. Following Captain Benson's Own Story, we include an excerpt from another obscure little book by Frederick O'Brien, Mystic Isles of the South Pacific, published in 1921 by Star Books, New York. As it happened, O'Brien was in Tahiti when Benson and two crew members arrived via rowboat to the harbor at Pape'ete. His colorful story adds a bit of depth to the Log of the El Dorado. We know little about the author, N. P. Benson, not even his full name. That he must have had considerable experience at sea is evident from comments made in O'Brien's story, as well as hints dropped by the Captain himself. If any of our readers can provide any information on Benson or his crew, we'd be delighted. Thus begins the story of survival against the odds.

Severe inadequacies exist in the veterinary care and welfare of the animals of Rapa Nui. The most marked problems are livestock overpopulation and the widespread toxicity of horses and cattle associated with ingestion of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in the plant, Crotalaria grahamiana. The endemic toxicosis is compounded by pervasive malnutrition, dehydration, parasitism, and antiquated notions of herd management. Intoxicated livestock wander the island searching for sustenance, resulting in progressive damage of precious archaeological sites. Environmental impact of the foraging livestock creates conflicts of interests among ranchers, archaeologists, and the tourism industry.

In Part I we examine the definitions and history of ENSO, ask why we care about it, and make a stab at the curious equatorial dynamics behind it. The goal is a tutorial which will help non-oceanographers discern relevant papers amidst the voluminous ENSO literature. In Part II (the next issue of RNJ) we will see that whatever one thinks of equatorial dynamics theory, the actual ENSO data are baffling without an idealized model to organize it. After sorting out what is going on, we look at the particular effects of ENSO on Rapa Nui.

In a 1999 symposium on "The Origins of Postmodernity", Perry Anderson gave a gloomy account of the state of contemporary world culture. In his view, ever since the French Revolution there has existed an enormous wealth of revolutionary possibilities and social alternatives, as well as a rich array of narratives that have virtually ceased to exist due to the collapse of the socialist paradigm in the late 1980s. All that is left now is global neo-liberalism, which has spread to the furthest corners of the world by way of technological developments, mass media and the working of international corporations. The result of these processes has been a homogeneous global culture characterized by brute standardization through the channels of the world market, one of the main features of late capitalism. These developments and the global neo-liberal hegemony in particular are the reason for Anderson's despair.

The aim of this paper is to provide an alternative interpretation for the large Rapa Nui stone fishhooks, mangai maea . These nicely carved hooks have been interpreted as clan or status symbols, as well as ordinary fishhooks (Chauvet 1935:32-34, Martinsson-Wallin 1994:125126, Metraux 1940:363, Heyerdahl 1961 :415-426, Lee 1992). We here examine this specific type of fishhook in the light of large fishhooks found on other islands in Polynesia. There is clear evidence that oversized fishhooks were used symbolically by leading chiefs for a very specific kind of "fishing" that was dedicated to the war god at certain ceremonial structures. In this case, the "fish" consisted of human sacrifices, suspended from a tree by a large fishhook inserted in the victim's mouth. These types of human sacrifices were called "fish". The relationship between large fishhooks and human sacrifice is discussed in this article.

It has been 15 years (1985-6) since I was last on Rapanui to live and research and there have been changes a plenty. I usually reply just as well, since why else would I return but to study those changes? My first social anthropological research was as a Ph. D. student at the Australian National University, when I arrived on 1 April 1972 to study a culture that no longer existed but had been invented over the previous century.

In this issue of the journal, we are exhibiting a new format as well as many other new features that we hope will provide a better and more accessible Rapa Nui Journal. The size has been expanded so that we can now publish longer submissions complete in one issue. Author may submit manuscripts for consideration as articles, reports, comments or essays. The editors will evaluate manuscripts in consultation with peer referee, a appropriate. At the same time, we intend to continue with many of the familiar features to which RNJ readers have become accustomed. We welcome input and invite feedback and comments.