A millennium ago, sometime between 700 A.D to 1110 A.D, a group of about 40 Polynesian colonists left their homes and came to Rapa Nui (later to be renamed Easter Island). It is located 2,300 miles of the coast of Chile. The colonists did not have a clue what they were going to find on this new island, bad or good. They had been at open sea for weeks in open canoes. What they found and how they approached their new environment defined their way of life. Several factors contributed to the fate of the Rapa Nui population including the ecosystem, the creation of the Maoi, and the closeness to other South American islands.
Rapa Nui’s ecosystem was somewhat strange. Before, when there was no human settlement, there were no large or small mammals on Rapa Nui. The only animals they had were insects and at least one species of lizard. When settlers came to Rapa Nui, they brought with them the Polynesian rat. Sometimes they would eat the rats because they reproduced rapidly. When the settlers arrived at Rapa Nui, it was heavily forested by giant species of palm trees. There were about sixteen species of palm trees and woody shrubs. Unfortunately, the island was very small so the natural resources that they needed for survival were very limited.
The Rapa Nui started creating huge statues and they named them Moai. At the moment, more than eight hundred and eighty seven Moai are known. Historians don’t know how many Moai the Rapa Nui people originally created. Historians don’t know one hundred percent why the Rapa Nui people created the Moai but there are different theories. One theory that exists is that the Moai are totems that channeled the energy of the world in an effort to honor the Rapa Nui’s ancestors. Another theory suggests the Mo...
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...h the current struggles the island faces to thrive.
As you have read in this paper, the Moai were very important statues. They were the center of things on Easter Island. The Rapa Nui people did everything around them. Now we have seen what has happened on Easter Island due to their obsession with the Moai. The ecosystem has affected the fate of the Rapa Nui people. Easter Island is so small and the Rapa Nui used all of their needed resources too fast which resulted in a rebellion. The fascinating statues were built by the Rapa Nui. The islanders had a horrible past resulting in cannibalism, slavery, and rebellion. They have gone through similar things that other people have gone through. I think that the history behind Easter Island is so fascinating. And that the Moai themselves are amazing statues, and I would love to go to Easter Island one day in my life.
The island is about 4 square miles and is today a place for tourism in the great lakes. Many thousands of years ago though this was a little piece of land with bluffs reaching high above its surroundings and was a merely a small piece of land surrounded by water. It was because of these bluffs the appearance of the island resembled a turtle and led to it being named “The Great Turtle” (Piljac, 1998). Currently the island reaches several hundred feet above the lake and it’s because of this geography that many nations saw this as a perfect military post and would be used over and over again throughout its history as such.
A small company of thirty-four New England missionaries came to Hawaii between 1820 and 1930, were the first modern immigrants. (Lind p.59) Missionaries were powerful agents of cultural destruction, coming to Hawaii to settle and teach their ways and beliefs. Bloodthirsty priests and despotic chiefs had ruled one reason for missionaries arriving and settling in Hawaii, due to the fact that they believed ancient Hawaiians. (Trask p.14) Bringing along cultural havoc by establishing a western style educational system, which included the first textbook as the Bible. The most critical change was in the use of language as a tool of colonization. Language had once been inseparable from the Hawaiians and their history by communicating their heritage between and among many generations, now came to be used as the very vehicle of alienation from their habits of life.
The Hawaiian culture is known throughout the western world for their extravagant luaus, beautiful islands, and a language that comes nowhere near being pronounceable to anyone but a Hawaiian. Whenever someone wants to “get away” their first thought is to sit on the beach in Hawai’i with a Mai tai in their hand and watch the sun go down. Haunani-Kay Trask is a native Hawaiian educated on the mainland because it was believed to provide a better education. She questioned the stories of her heritage she heard as a child when she began learning of her ancestors in books at school. Confused by which story was correct, she returned to Hawai’i and discovered that the books of the mainland schools had been all wrong and her heritage was correctly told through the language and teachings of her own people. With her use of pathos and connotative language, Trask does a fine job of defending her argument that the western world destroyed her vibrant Hawaiian culture.
Sonia P. Juvik, James O. Juvik. Atlas of Hawaii. 3rd Edition. Hilo: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998.
Debate started to arise when an archaeologist by the name of Thomas D. Dillehay found artifacts of people existing 14,600 years ago, before Clovis, in Monte Verde, a site in southern Chile. These people slept in hide tents, had access to seafood and potatoes, and shared similar characteristics to other artifacts found in North Ame...
Between the years 300BC-400BC, a group of inhabitants landed ashore the island of Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. Once ashore, these settlers began collecting resources and learned to survive with no help from the outside, stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific. They created methods to hunt, fish, make clothing, and cook food properly. In addition, the people of Rapa Nui also separated into different groups or tribes. These tribes coexisted on the island for some time – until civil wars broke out across the island. The inhabitants of Rapa Nui disappeared from the island without a trace. The cause of their disappearance is unknown although experts believe the inhabitants of Rapa Nui were irresponsible with their resources.
Jovik, Sonia P. and James O. Jovik. (1997). “History.” Atlas of Hawaii. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, p.408.
Hawaii is such a diverse and unique area that it is said to be a biologist’s paradise. Biologists travel here to study the wide variety of species and one such species is Aleurites moluccana or the kukui tree. The kukui tree is originally from Southeast Asia, particularly the Indo-Malaysia region, and has moved its way into the Pacific. It was first introduced to the Hawaiian islands when the Polynesians navigated their way here hundreds of years ago (Elevitch, C. R., & Manner, H. I., 2006). Since then, the kukui tree’s physical adaptations have helped it to thrive in Hawaii and native Hawaiians were able to utilize this plant in a number of ways.
The votive statues were created by worshipers of the ancient Mesopotamian gods. They were crafted out of materials such as limestone, alabaster, gypsum, and other such materials (Votive Statues). These statues were created around 2900 to 2350 BCE at the Square Temple at Eshnunna. The creators of these statues created them in their own likeness to be held at the Square Temple, a place of worship to their gods. It was the worshipers belief that the gods would bless these statues and in turn, bless the creators (Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, 2004). Worship of the gods was a huge part of the culture of Ancient Mesopotamia, as such these votive statues played a major role in that culture.
Ii, John Papa., Mary Kawena Pukui, and Dorothy B. Barrère. Fragments of Hawaiian History. Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1983. Print.
Now, about 13 years after the statues were destroyed, the world is at conflict, as to whether they should leave the remains of the statues in the valley as they are, or use the remains to rebuild the statues, or try and make copies of them. Opinions vary and are split, which makes the decision even a harder one. The countries that donate the most for these statues, and would have to finance any rebuilding, think the statues should be left as they are, at least for now. While on the other hand, the Afghani government wants at least one of the two destroyed statues rebuilt. Countries that would be funding this process fear that because the remains are so little, the process would be more of a reproduction, rather than a rebuilding. Yet the Afghani government still insists, believing it would be an accomplishment seen as a symbolic victory over the Taliban. Political ideology and restoration policies are at the heart of the conflict. (http://buddhism.alltop.com/)
In the chronological, descriptive ethnography Nest in the Wind, Martha Ward described her experience on the rainy, Micronesian island of Pohnpei using both the concepts of anthropological research and personal, underlying realities of participant observation to convey a genuine depiction of the people of Pohnpei. Ward’s objective in writing Nest in the Wind was to document the concrete, specific events of Pohnpeian everyday life and traditions through decades of change. While informing the reader of the rich beliefs, practices, and legends circulated among the people of Pohnpei, the ethnography also documents the effects of the change itself: the island’s adaptation to the age of globalization and the survival of pre-colonial culture.
The Polynesian peoples have a lifestyle quite different than that of any other culture, as living on an island requires a level of flexible adaptability in order to cope with such a different, sometimes difficult environment. We see the way diverse cultures build their lives around their circumstances and how they respect them in their cultural myths and stories. The Polynesian legends emphasize the physical environment that they live in. They are quite different than any other region in the world, but the beauty and individuality of the Polynesian culture is prominent as seen in their mythology.
interior of the island has many trees, wild pigs and other small animals and a