The Cult of the Ancestors and the Moais Scientists, especially ethnologists, have long studied how different and complex communities were formed and what cultural aspects kept them alive. In New Guinea, the second largest island on the planet, more than one thousand ethnic groups compete for crop land, hunting grounds
Let history remain history The first Europeans who came into contact with Te Pito te Henua were three Dutch ships commanded by Jacob Roggeveen on April 5, 1722, the date of Easter. This originated the name with which this unknown island was baptized that had not been recorded on any
The Tavake And its future, a challenge for Rapa Nui One of the loveliest spots on the Island is the Moai (statue) quarry at Rano Raraku. Anyone who has visited it has seen or heard the Tavakes, the red-tailed tropicbird. These majestic white birds, with their bright red tail trailing
The Origin of the Polynesian Peoples La Cultura Lapita · The Lapita Culture Among the rare archaeological certainties that we have on the ancient Polynesian peoples, one undisputed fact stands out: The Polynesian people descend from the creators of a complex culture, today called “Lapita”. This group established itself in
Alberto Hotus Chavez Alberto Hotus, 82, is Chairman of the Rapa Nui Council of Elders. This was created in 1980 with the aim of recovering the investiture of Rapanui chiefs and rejecting the delivery of individual titles of land ownership, a situation that was opposed to the ancestral custom of
In ancient Polynesian cultures, sexuality was not a private or taboo matter — it was a sacred act tied to the regeneration of nature and divine power. Sexual relations, fertility, and virginity carried deep cosmological significance: they were the means by which gods and human beings renewed their alliance to
The wreck of “El Dorado” On the morning of Wednesday, June 11, 1913, the small American steam schooner “El Dorado” of the Sanders & Drinkwater shipping company had been sailing along the west coast of America for two months, not realizing that the Humboldt current had diverted the route of
“Matusalem” Masú Hey Masú Hey’s family name really should be Edmunds. His father, Enrique, is the son of Henry Percival Edmunds, the English administrator for the Williamson & Balfour sheep company between 1903 and 1930, and of Sofía Hey, the mother of the first four of nine children Edmunds had
ORO MATUA Sebastián Englert Priest of Rapa Nui Sebastián Englert, a Capuchin priest and researcher of the Rapanui culture, lived on Easter Island from 1935 until 1969, shortly before his death. The fourth of 17 children in the Bavarian Englert family in the village of Dillingen in Germany, he was
Marine Reserve in the bay of hanga roa According to the experts and the international NGOs that are dedicated to marine conservation, the oceans should be managed as ecosystems and not as a cornucopia that the fishing industry can harvest at will. In the entire world, there are around 4
Te Mana o Te Vahine me Te Tane There is a feminine form, just as there is a masculine form. The first serves to nurture and to give birth; the other to plant and to guard. With both of them, the tribe and the families of all nations survive, in
Carmen Cardinal he current Governor of Isla de Pascua is the granddaughter of Rafael Cardinali, an Italian who arrived to the Island during the First World War looking for opportunities and founded the Cardinali clan, a name that is today considered Rapanui. Carmen Cardinali, school teacher and businesswoman in tourism,
