EASTER ISLAND

This island rises above a huge submarine platform that was formed by the excessive eruption of three volcanoes, which make up the vortexes of its unique triangular shape of 180 km².  The strategic location of the island makes it the main connection point and doorway for east pacific countries. At the same time it allows it to be an important centre for climatic, oceanic and aerospace research.
In Rapa Nui, reality and myth are often confused. It is an important worldwide archaeological resource because of the mystery that surrounds its gigantic stone sculptures. The name Easter Island was given by the Dutch sailor Jakob Roggeveen, who discovered it on April 5th, 1722 during a long trip that begun in Holland and then continued along the Chilean coast. This date corresponded to Easter. Thus, it received the name of Paasers in Dutch, which was then translated into Spanish as Pascua (Easter). It is internationally known by this name and its translations. The inhabitants of the island, regardless of their ethnical origin, use the name Pascuense to refer to themselves.

HISTORY

According to the myth, the first colonizing group was lead by the ariki or king Hotu Matu’a, accompanied by his family and allies. This emigration had been caused by environmental catastrophes occurred in the ancestral land. In this small and isolated territory of barely 160 km², he and his group began an independent development more spectacular than their mother culture. The founding group included priests that understood astronomy and hieroglyphic writing, or rongo rongo, and also warriors and artisans. They imitated the Polynesian conception of society, which considered chiefs as direct descendants from the gods, with supernatural powers (mana) and protected by a series of rules (tapu) that kept them on top of the social hierarchy with many privileges. With such power they arranged the world and introduced the farming of tropical plants like the taro, the ñame, the banana and the sweet potato, and domestic animals like the hen. They used the toromiro tree and palm woods and the existing volcanic rock quarries in the place. They harvested or fished sea products. In order to better exploit these resources, the land was distributed among the descendants of the first king in the shape of strips that went from the coast to the centre. They built ceremonial centers, or ahu, near the coast where they installed big sculptures called moai, that represented the founding ancestors of the descent. The most classical statues started to be manufactured around the year 1000 A.C. Some of them reached megalithic dimensions of almost 10mt high and weighted 85 tons. Around them, the ariki celebrated great ceremonies and festivities for the redistribution of resources. Demographic increase and an excessive exploitation of the soil caused an environmental stress that eroded the land and produced a generalized lack of food. As a result, bloody tribal battles followed from the year 1600 A.C on, which included cannibalism as a ritual, leaving the population divided into two fractions and almost bordering extinction. The greatest expression of the conflict was the destruction of the moai. In order to revert this process, they resorted to a change in their social organization and the productive strategies used for their preservation. They sheltered themselves in a new religion that did not value the divine origin of some men anymore, but the power given to these by the Make Make (creator god) in the man-bird ceremonies, or Tangata Manu. A more careful economic development followed that focused on farming, formerly done in plateaus and terraces, which became true refuges to prevent erosion. Such processes and all society were now lead by the warriors of each group, the matatoa, that annually exchanged power in the man-bird ceremonies. Every year in September, people gathered in the ceremonial village of Orongo, the new and only political centre, where the candidates of each group fought for the position given to the chief to whoever returned with the egg of the manutara migrational bird that came to nest during that time in the small islands located in front of the Rano Kau crater. According to this, the chosen winner assumed a sacred character and had to live alone and isolated, while his group acquired a despotic power above the rest of the population that included human sacrifices for the gods in order to assure the year’s wellbeing. In the end, such practices constantly renovated the hostility among the groups, causing a permanent climate of violence and social crisis.