Life Stories of Women in Rapanui Society in the First Half of the Twentieth Century, Gender Studies, Part 3

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).