The Prehistory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Title | The Prehistory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) PDF eBook |
Author | Valentí Rull |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 623 |
Release | 2022-07-11 |
Genre | Science |
ISBN | 3030911276 |
This book addresses the main enigmas of Easter Island’s (Rapa Nui, in the Polynesian language) prehistory from the time of initial settlement to European contact with a multidisciplinary perspective. The main topics include: (i) the time of first settlement and the origin of the first settlers; (ii) the main features of prehistoric Rapanui culture and their changes; (iii) the deforestation of the island and its timing and causes; (iv) the extinction of the indigenous biota, (v) the occurrence of climatic shifts and their potential effects on socioecological trends; (vi) the evidence for a cultural and demographic collapse before European contact; and (vii) the influence of Europeans on prehistoric Rapanui society. The book is subdivided into thematic sections and each chapter is written by renowned specialists in disciplines such as archaeology, anthropology, paleoecology, ethnography, linguistics, ethnobotany, phylogenetics/phylogeography and history. Contributors have been invited to provide an open and objective vision that includes as many views as possible on the topics considered. In this way, the readers may be able to compare different of points of view and make their own interpretations on each of the subjects considered. The book is intended for a wide audience including graduate students, advanced undergraduate students, university teachers and researchers interested in the subject. Given its multidisciplinary character and the topics included, the book is suitable for students and researchers from a wide range of disciplines and interests.
The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania
Title | The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania PDF eBook |
Author | Ethan E. Cochrane |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 529 |
Release | 2018 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0199925070 |
"The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Oceania presents the archaeology, linguistics, environment and human biology of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. First colonized 50,000 years ago, Oceania witnessed the independent invention of agriculture, the construction of Easter Island's statues, and the development of the word's last archaic states."--Provided by publisher.
Island at the End of the World
Title | Island at the End of the World PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Roger Fischer |
Publisher | Reaktion Books |
Pages | 316 |
Release | 2006-06-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1861894163 |
On a long stretch of green coast in the South Pacific, hundreds of enormous, impassive stone heads stand guard against the ravages of time, war, and disease that have attempted over the centuries to conquer Easter Island. Steven Roger Fischer offers the first English-language history of Easter Island in Island at the End of the World, a fascinating chronicle of adversity, triumph, and the enduring monumentality of the island's stone guards. A small canoe with Polynesians brought the first humans to Easter Island in 700 CE, and when boat travel in the South Pacific drastically decreased around 1500, the Easter Islanders were forced to adapt in order to survive their isolation. Adaptation, Fischer asserts, was a continuous thread in the life of Easter Island: the first European visitors, who viewed the awe-inspiring monolithic busts in 1722, set off hundreds of years of violent warfare, trade, and disease—from the smallpox, wars, and Great Death that decimated the island to the late nineteenth-century Catholic missionaries who tried to "save" it to a despotic Frenchman who declared sole claim of the island and was soon killed by the remaining 111 islanders. The rituals, leaders, and religions of the Easter Islanders evolved with all of these events, and Fischer is just as attentive to the island's cultural developments as he is to its foreign invasions. Bringing his history into the modern era, Fischer examines the colonization and annexation of Easter Island by Chile, including the Rapanui people's push for civil rights in 1964 and 1965, by which they gained full citizenship and freedom of movement on the island. As travel to and interest in the island rapidly expand, Island at the End of the World is an essential history of this mysterious site.
Easter Island, Earth Island
Title | Easter Island, Earth Island PDF eBook |
Author | Paul Bahn |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Pages | 305 |
Release | 2017-09-01 |
Genre | Travel |
ISBN | 1442266562 |
Easter Island, isolated deep in the South Pacific and now a World Heritage Site, was home to a fascinating prehistoric culture—one that produced massive stone effigies (the moai) and the birdman cult—and yet much of the island’s past remains shrouded in mystery. Where did the islanders come from, and when? How did Rapa Nui culture evolve over the centuries? How, and why, did their natural environment change over time? Paul Bahn and John Flenley guide readers through the mysteries and enigmas of Rapa Nui, incorporating the records of early explorers, folk legends, and archaeological evidence along the way. They cover the island’s geological and environmental history and explore its flora and fauna, illustrating how human actions affected the natural environment of the island. This fourth edition draws in: recent DNA studies of ancient human and animal bones as well as plant remains; evolving understandings of how the moai were transported; and current efforts to reforest the island.
Easter Island
Title | Easter Island PDF eBook |
Author | JoAnne Van Tilburg |
Publisher | |
Pages | 224 |
Release | 1994 |
Genre | Easter Island |
ISBN |
Easter Island's Silent Sentinels
Title | Easter Island's Silent Sentinels PDF eBook |
Author | Kenneth Treister |
Publisher | University of New Mexico Press |
Pages | 160 |
Release | 2013 |
Genre | Architecture |
ISBN | 0826352642 |
"This richly illustrated book of the history, culture, and art of Easter Island is the first to examine in detail the island's vernacular architecture, often overshadowed by its giant stone statues"--Provided by publisher.
Easter Island
Title | Easter Island PDF eBook |
Author | JoAnne Van Tilburg |
Publisher | |
Pages | 228 |
Release | 1994 |
Genre | Archaeology |
ISBN |
Since Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was first discovered nearly 300 years ago, its people, culture and monolithic statues have been seen as an unsolvable riddle. At the heart of the so-called mystery stand the gigantic moai. How were they moved? What do they mean? Over more than 12 years, nearly 1000 statues have been measured, drawn, and photographed by Jo Anne Van Tilburg and a team of colleagues. In this book the author draws on the insights that have been gained, to examine Rapa Nui prehistory in the context of new understandings of ecology and culture.