I've seen a few documentaries and read a few wiki pages, and I really want to learn more about this strange island and its story.
What books do you recommend? I'm looking for more serious history books, not just stories.
I've become fascinated with the place, they had big statues, no trees, some form of a cool society with wierd rituals and traditions and what I currently understand as a proto-writing system.
tell me more /his/
>>1096714
read the bionicle comics
>>1096763
>tfw I just realized one of my fav toys actually references Rapa Nui
>>1096714
They cut the trees down, the island used to be covered in palms just like other Polynesian islands. A lot of what we know about them is sensationalised, the story of the Bird Man for example, sad truth is they were probably doing just fine before contact, they were genocided, then enslaved, then "civilised", genocided again, and finally abandonded back on their island, with little or nothing of their traditions still alive.
Ultimately, the big statues have been something of a salvation for them, because of the tourism $$$ they bring in and the archeological study they provoke that has re-learned so much of their ancient traditions.
>>1096840
I wouldn't say they were doing just fine. They were probably on their way to dying out before pioneers showed up, and their civilization and traditions were generations dead. Basically they were just a boom town that fucked up with too much expansion too fast. Oh wait I forgot.
>colonialism is the cause of all bad things in the world
>>1096714
Anyone have info on Rongorongo? What's academic consensus on this? Is it a writing system?
As a chilean that has visited the island many times to scubba dive I can verify that they are treated very well, and there's plenty of State programs to make allow them to do as they wish to preserve their culture, the State doesn't even allow anyone that isn't rapanui by bloodline to purchase lands there.
The brits almost extinguished them by chopping down every remaining trees and populating the island with fucking sheep (which never adapted to the climate quite obviously). The remaning population is inbred as fuck and sometimes is funny because you can see brit rape babies in their genes (ginger polynesian lookings guys)
>>1097351
>it was da evil white man
Fuck off, they'd pretty much driven themselves to extinction long before anyone else even found the island.
>>1097394
Who the fuck said that... I'm stating the facts, they were already a diminished population and they got extra fucked by the brits who didn't gave a single shit.
You sound like those liberal bitches that take every stated fact as a personal attack.
>>1096919
It's true they fell to a reduced state, but it wasn't the cataclysm some earlier writers thought it was but a gradual, generations-long decline. It was really the whole genocide / civilising process that did most of the damage, tho ofc their current relative prosperity owes itself to that same outside intervention.
Chilean /his/tory fag here, ill answer all questions about the Rapa Nui "Te pito o Te Nua"
>>1096840
what you say its untrue you major white guilt cuck, the islanders had a MAJOR part on the decline off the island, the most important factors being the scarcity of natural resources and just like abos forgot about fire they forgot how to build and navigate on long journeys (they were part of the polinesian "kingdoms" trade routes).
When they were cut off the rest of the world, civil war soon started killing most of the population. And they started expending resources on stupid moais statues, getting larger and larger with each priest-king, each one requiring hundreds of workers for carving, moving and supplying the works.
All myths and legends concur that there were two ethnic groups in the island, the "original" probably polinesic "short ears" and the ruling caste of the "long ears" probably of continental origin, maybe incaic or so since they came from the east famelic and thin but with powerful cultural "magic" and innovations, new words, etc. The orejas largas soon became the ruling caste of the island and established despotic rules and costumes making life miserable for most but them
First europeans that came already described that shit was going down fast on the island, even describing that some of the sacred moais were toppled down when they came back from other journies (possibly a rebelion against the orejas largas)
Later on the XVIII and XIX century the already weakened island was subject to slaver raids from spanish colonies and (mainly Peru) and the last priests capable of reading Rongo Rongo died on guano mines off the coast of Peru. Only 100 people were left by then and most of islanders are product of inbreeding plus a major influx of foreign genes (mostly artist hipsters and people from the continent or "contis" as they call them)
>>1097351
wena compare
>>1097289
Rongo Rongo is a bustrophedonic, probably ideogramic, writing system
>>1097289
character limit cucked me from replying more.
RongoRongo was written on wooden tablets and has not been seen anywhere on the pacific so its very isolate although many people theorize it was once widespread on the polinesian diaspora.
Its very probably ideographic and like that, almost undeciphrable
Many tablets were destroyed after the discovery.
the Rapa Nui legend says that the mythical navigator king Hotu Matu'a escaping from their sinking homeland in Hiva (Java?) around the first millenium explored the world along his comrades and found Te Pito o Te Nua (the navel of the world) where he established.
Is a well known fact that the original habitants of easter island came with the polinesic migrations, bringing their horticulture of bananas and chickens.
Hotu Matu'a brought with himself lots and lots of this rongo rongo tablets and the priest caste was in charge of reading them so its very probable they had a role in preserving myths, tribal laws and legends rather than serving for record or administration.
It is theorized that another paralell wave of migrants arrived on the coast of south america, creating the polinesic genetic imprint that is around there on some populations especially the Mapuche one and related tribes.
Funny thing is that later on their history, some people came from boats now from THE EAST (the orejas largas, maybe a group coming back after hearing of Rapa Nui) very famelic and thin from the voyage asking for refuge. This guys then took control of the island and with them of the ability to read the sacred tablets.
They made Tapu (taboo) for commoners to touch them or everything belonging to them including the tablets, playing a role in the final decline of this writing system
>>1099118
>long ears
>mapuche mainlanders
Your people never learned to sail and in fact Polynesians brought rudimentary plank canoes to one location in Chile and one location in SoCal.
Secondly Rapa Nui didn't forget how to make canoes, they ran out of proper materials, they adapted by making floats using driftwood.
Thirdly aboriginals all maintained fire making skills, including Tasmanians. The Tasmanian can't make fire myth was colonialist babble to claim they were the most primitive people on earth. Fact is a population decline occurred sharply sometime ago that effected their tool sets but they too adapted.
T. Oceanian
>>1097548
>It was really the whole genocide / civilising process that did most of the damage, tho ofc their current relative prosperity owes itself to that same outside intervention.
nigga what?
>"natural" causes reduce their population from 15,000 to 2,000 in a century
>genocide/civilizing did most of the damage
>>1099179
1. There IS a cultural and genetic impront of polinesians on mapuches. Yet its not know if the orejas largas were from:
A) Incaic/Andean origin: maybe the fabled expedition of the Inca Tupac Yupanqui
B) Mapuches or related tribes drifted ashore: very rare possibility since as you said, the mapuches had little to none sailing culture
C) Polinesian remnants that sailed back after some failed time on the coast. The most probable point of insertion was Isla Mocha which is known as place for entrance of polinesian genes.
2) They didnt forgot how to make canoes, they forgot (and yes, also lost materials) on how to build Polinesian catamaranes for long voyages, effectively losing contact with the rest of oceania and maybe with some vital trading routes.
3) implying abos had any kind of civil society at all and not eternally living in the stone age.
Stay cucked Moshe ben Maimonides
>>1099305
>implying abos had any kind of civil society at all and not eternally living in the stone age.
There is this
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/03/13/806276.htm
>Although the land was drained in the late 19th century when European settlers moved in, Builth measured up every hill and valley in the landscape and used a geography simulation program to 're-flood' the land on computer. She found an artificial system of ponds connected by canals, covering more than 75 square km.
"The community excavated channels to get direct access to baby eels that were migrating from the sea, and to bring them into prepared wetlands," Builth told ABC Science Online. "It was a gigantic aquaculture system."
>>1099317
this is really interesting and new.
Sadly modern abos, and the abos that settlers met where the trash tier we know today.
Also dont forget that abos were not the only and exclusive group living on shitpostland, there were many waves of foreign settlers and until they dont find an abo tomb or cemmetery or whatever near a settlement then its all speculation
>>1099305
The genetic imprint of Polynesian motifs in Peruvians and Chileans is the result of modern enslavement of Rape Nui and Madagascan people's, not ancient.
Get over yourself, Natives traded Kumara and that's it. There is no evidence of Native ancestry in our populations that isn't after the advent of colonialism.
>>1099354
Not so fast uncultured friend. there actually plenty of evidence. They only have to dig for the Isla Mocha tumbs and my department coleages are having trouble cause the mapuches there are going full "muh sacred land, gibe money pls" on it instead of being good ol niggers and help them discover a crucial part of their past and mythos. Polynesians even toured the andes, the brazilian jungle (leaving some related tribes there) and back to Chile/Peru were they may or may not have sailed back and obviously mixed with the native populations
It is well known that the closest group to mapuches come from Amazonia, and these groups come from polynesia. These could explain how the mapuches forgot how to saile
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0722/Scientists-find-genetic-link-between-Native-Americans-and-Pacific-Islanders
http://www.nature.com/news/dna-study-links-indigenous-brazilians-to-polynesians-1.12710
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/10/epic-pre-columbian-voyage-suggested-genes
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3267125/
http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/23/11/2234.full
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110203124726.htm
>>1099381
forgot to write that Isla Mocha is supossed to have tombs of polynesian peoples which may give the final and missing genetic information about the polynesic migrations (and the final voyage of the orejas largas), but people elsewhere already have gathered loads and loads of info that heavily implies this may be the case
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocha_Island
>>1099381
Dumbass if you read the reports you'd know that occured thousands of years ago before the Polynesian Lanita expansion occurred
You need to understand the texts before you post them you fool.
>>1099406
Not mutually exclusive, now stop cucking around and post sexy rapa nui photos.
Also, 2:46 am in chile so better btfo
>>1099439
Got any illustrations or reconstructions of their clothing/style?
>>1099439
No, you went down this road dumbass so let me wake your suddenly tired ass up after copy and pasting 6 links
The Oceanic genetic markers are not FROM Oceania they are similar to the markers of Oceanian people's having branched off from Mainland Asia thousands of years ago.
Polynesians were not Polynesians then, Polynesians are the result of the Lapita cultural complex. These genetic findings predate Lapita by thousands of years arguably even 10k + years ago.
Shut the fuck up
>>1099118
>>1099179
>>1099305
I always find it intriguing, that people from the Easter Island called long ears to the ruling class that supposedly came from the east. And it is very similar to the spaniard term for the inca nobility, orejones, meaning big ears.
That that alone doesn't prove anything, but it is a curious fact.
