Rapa Nui Journal Volume 17 Issue 1

A History ofthe Pacific Islands

Steven Roger Fischer, 2002

ISBN 0-333-94976-7 paperback

Palgrave, Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire G21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

Review by Joan Seaver Kurze

Circle of the Sea. Creations from Oceania

Museum of Natural History, Providence, R. I. 2002.

Text by Norman Hurst.

96 pages. Full color, 9.5 x 11".

ISBN 0-9646544-1-5. Available from Hurst Gallery, 54 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge MA 02138. Price $20

Review by Deborah Waite, University of Hawai'i

Pacific Landscapes: Archaeological Approaches

Edited by Thegn N. Ladefoged and Michael W. Graves, 2002

Easter Island Foundation, Bearsville Press, Los Osos, CA.

Paper; 8.5x11; 275 pages; photographs, maps, drawings.

ISBN 1-880636-20-4

Review by Dave Tuggle

Voldemars Matvejs (Pseudonym - Vladimir Markov, 1877-1914)

Raksti, Darbu Catalogs, Sarakste. 2002. "Neputns".

Paper cover, 16 color plates, numerous black/white photographs Text in Latvian and Russian.

ISBN 9984-729-19-2.

Chile. Moon Handbooks. First Edition

Wayne Bernhardson 2002

ISBN: 1-56691-405-1

627 pages plus Index, maps, black/white photos; soft cover.

Diccionario Ilustrado: Rapa Nui-Espanol-Ingles- Frances

By Arturo Hernandez Salles and Nelly Ramos Pizarro, 2001.

With Profesores del Departamento de Lengua y Cultura Rapa Nui del Liceo Lorenzo Baeza Vega, Isla de Pascua.

Illustrated by Carlos Carcamo Luna. Universidad Catolica de Tumuco. Pehuen Editores.

ISBN 956-16-0338-1. 152 pages, soft cover. All illustrations in color.

Rapa Nui en los Ojos de Lukas (bilingual edition)

Fundacion Renzo Pecchenino y Universidad Andres Bello.

Jose Miguel Ramierz Aliaga (Translated by William Liller)

ISBN 956-7618-09-7

BRITISH TELEVISION HAS JUST SCREENED a new Easter Island documentary from BBC's "Horizon" stable, which had already made a double-program on the subject more than ten years ago. When I was first contacted by the new program makers, I was told that (a) they wanted to focus on the new work and new ideas that have arisen in the intervening years, and (b) in particular they wanted to assess three conflicting theories about the island's downfall - i.e. the manmade ecological disaster model, the natural ecological disaster model, and the theory that it was European impact which caused all the trouble. What we get in the finished show, however, is somewhat different from these early intentions.

Moai Sightings

What's New in the Pacific

What's New in Hanga Roa

Other News: Easter Island Moai for Sale

Brother Eugene Eyraud was the first missionary to work on Rapa Nui. In December 1864 he wrote a letter from Valparaiso to the Very Reverend Father Superior of the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Paris, telling him about his experiences during his first visit to Rapa Nui. This letter has been summarized in many publications and, apparently, translated into Spanish. However, we know of no translation available in English and the absence of such a translation has deprived many of those interested in Rapa Nui of a charming and informative account of life on Rapa Nui in the middle of the nineteenth century. In November 2002, while assisting the curators of the museum in Hanga Roa, and as part of our contribution to an expedition organized by Earthwatch under the auspices of Dr. Christopher Stevenson, we came across the correspondence of Brother Eugene and, upon learning that no English translation seemed to exist, we decided to take up the task ourselves. We believe that our efforts will be rewarded by the pleasure that this letter will give to those who are now able to read it.

It is a common human aspiration and expectation - both of research scientists and of tourists - that a site that has been once studied or visited should remain practically untouched forever, easily recognizable and almost identical to the first time that it has been approached by them. Changes and progressions are seen very suspiciously.

Figure 1 presents in tabular form the sequence of signs on line 6 of the verso of Tablet G (also known as Small Santiago Tablet) identified as a genealogy by Nikolai Butinov and Yuri Knorozov (1956, 1957). Whether or not these signs do constitute a genealogy, they exhibit a clear pattern from the second row down: the main sign of the third element of each row is found as second element of the next. The pattern is so clear that Giulio Facchetti, a specialist of Etruscan and Minoan, has independently come to the conclusion that group 381-002 (row 1, column 3) is a variant of sign 351 (row 2, column 2).

Interactions between ancient environmental conditions, natural resources, prehistoric land use and culture on Rapa Nui have been much discussed since Bahn and Flenley published Easter Island - Earth Island in 1992. Investigations on prehistoric agriculture on Rapa Nui were intensified in the last decade (Stevenson and Haoa 1998; Stevenson et al. 1999, 2002; Wozniak 1999, 2001). The relationships between environmental resources, land use and the cultural development on Rapa Nui were recently summarized and discussed by Martinsson-Wallin (2002). Despite intensive research on Rapa Nui's prehistory, from a scientific point of view, "forgotten" areas on the island remain, for example Poike peninsula. It was commonly believed that Poike peninsula, as the oldest part of Rapa Nui, did not have importance for agriculture. Recent research by Mieth et al. (2002) in eastern Poike showed evidence of intensive agriculture and settlement in this area. Furthermore it was proved that in eastern Poike, at around AD 1280, a dramatic change of the ecosystem took place, accompanied by the expansion of agriculture. An ancient Jubaea palm forest was cleared within a short period of time with the aim to open the landscape in the downslope areas for new ceremonial places, dwellings and agriculture.

People's lives and their social and economic activities are influenced by the environment that, along with history and culture, has determined its structure. Generally, what has been written about the people of Rapa Nui has been written and interpreted by persons with an outsider's perspective. This has frequently created an erroneous view of what the roles of men and women were in reality. Thus direct work with informants is important for it gathers their impressions and their own perceptions of their roles in their own society. It must also be taken into consideration that "in general, each individual does not directly represent the whole of society, he represents it through his immediate social context, and through restricted groups of which he is a member" (Ferrarotti, in Pujadas 1992:11).

The prehistory of Rapa Nui presents us with a paradox. On an extremely isolated island with limited resources and uncertain fluctuations in climate and agricultural productivity, the pre-contact population of Rapa Nui invested huge amounts of effort into monumental architecture and statuary (see Hunt and Lipo 2001). The per capita investments in such monuments likely stand as the greatest anywhere in the ancient world. These remarkable achievements are set against a backdrop of dramatic environmental change and biotic degradation

As an outsider to the culture of Rapa Nui and a fleeting visitor in the life of Nico Haoa, I can only comment on the intermittent but influential experiences we shared over the last 23 years. My first connection with Nico and his wife Rosita came in 1980. Nico was low-key, and really I must say with some embarrassment that I have a hard time formulating a memory of him at that time. My interaction mainly was with Rosita, who insisted that the noisy motorcycle be left out on the street. That irritated me no end. During that year, there was an invasion of elderly (30+ years) graduate students and faculty that included Georgia Lee, Joan Seaver Kurze, Jo Anne Van Tilburg, George Gill, myself, and a few others, all who gravitated toward Rosita's residencia, as it was then known. It was a pioneering business; a little bit of (slightly western) heaven that permitted an escape from a cultural setting we were unprepared to deal with. The tourist trade was just beginning in those years, and Nico gradually built room after room and catered to the foreigners who were fascinated with the myths of Rapa Nui. In retrospect, it was clearly the right choice, as Hotel 'Otai is the premier place to stay on Rapa Nui.