Undoubtedly, the excellent characteristic of the culture rapanui are the statues moai, dedicated in memory of the ancient chiefs and that presidiaban from your altar, the ahu all the activities of the settlements constructed concerning the platform and near a bay. Esta estatuaria predominante logró eclipsar otros elementos de la cultura rapanui tal como: los petroglifos, los tatuajes tatoo, las pinturas corporales Takona, el idioma, la música, la danza, la gastronomía y la escritura Rongo- Rongo, una de las últimas escrituras.
Language:
Religion:
The people Rapanui is a culture that organizes your daily life concerning your spiritual and religious beliefs; of made, great report of history of the this Easter Island determined by the evolution of the diverse religious worships that compose the spiritual tradition Rapanui.
In principle, the human beings have a body (Hakari) and a soul (Kuhane). According to the tradition, the soul survives the body and is capable of acquiring any form, humanizes or animal, but your classic expression is that of a skeleton, as she turns out to be represented in the moai Kava Kava.
The worship of the ancestors, represented in statues every time major, demanded a great quantity of workforce in Rano Raraku's quarries for the production of the moai and of pukaos (hairdos(toilets) of red dross that were taking place in Puna Pau's quarry) and in the systems of transport, with what there diminished obviously the workforce destined for the agricultural production and for the fishing, with what there took place a great famine and a revolution that ended with the commanding order, stopping sharply the work in the quarries and beginning fights between clans, falling down and there being destroyed mutually the moai (to prevent the ancestors from penetrating manna to the enemies), until none stayed in foot. This crisis happened between the XVIth and XVIIIth century. The fights decimated the population and the hunger motivated the appearance of the cannibalism.
When it stopped the practice of the worship of the forbears and the moai they all were the broken ones and for the soils, there began a new religion, the worship of the Man Bird or "Tangata Manu".
This worship had your center in Orongo's ceremonial village (close to the crater of the volcano Rano Kao) and it was consisting basically of that a representative of every family was competing for obtained the first egg of the Manutara guli rapanui (Sterna lunata), which was doing that the chief of the caste of the winner was undressed in the title of Tangata Manu, which was transferring a great power. The title lasted the whole year. For the collection of the egg, the competitors had to lower abrupt cliffs (from Orongo up to the sea), to cross to I swim towards the islands of Motu Iti and Motu Nui (where they were sheltering the Manutara), to steal the first egg, to return to I swim and to raise the cliffs without breaking his precious testimony. Many people were dying on having fallen over a precipice in the cliffs or on having been attacked by sharks during the swimming towards and from the islands.
The religious rites begin in the moment of the birth with the cut of the umbilical cord, and they were continuing in the first years of infancy with the first court of hair and the position of the first taparrabo; later, at the age of eight, the children were receiving the first tattoo, which they were taking in the legs.
Once overcome the stage of the infancy, the young men were submitted to the rites that were marking your initiation in the adulthood; the principal one of them was the celebration of the puberty, which was consisting of the imprisonment several months, of children and girls rapanui of the small island of motorcycle Nui, which was opposite to Orongo's ceremonial village. In this island, the young men were receiving instruction in diverse fields of the culture Rapanui: the trades, the traditions, the art of the war; in this species of school, in addition, the young men were practicing games of skill and physical skills that were serving the instructing teachers to select the most suitable: the chosen ones were happening to develop handcrafted vital specialities inside the society rapanui: the tattoos, the writing, the sculpture and the hewn stone.
As well as the religious rites were beginning from the moment of the birth, which had relation with the death also were of great importance and transcendency for the people pascuense; the principal reason of it, it takes root in that the worship to the forbears is one of the principal characteristics of the society rapanui. Though the funeral practices rapanui were not including the mummification of the deceased, yes they developed a particular modality to treat to the corpses of the powerful members of the diverse lineages. This modality was consisting of wrapping the bodies of the dead men in vegetable fabrics, of then exposing them outdoors inside the ahu of every lineage; as soon as the body was decomposing, the bones of the deceased were washed and deposited in a funeral chamber (a species of mausoleum of the Ure) that was situated in the same ahu. The purpose of this action it was that the soul of the deceased could meet the souls of his ancestors, as soon as it was leaving the earthly world. Finally, the members of the lineage were resembling the deceased in the ceremonial one of the Paina, which was an event of great social relevancy: during this ritual, the kinsmen of the deceased were raising opposite to the ahu, a great effigy formed of sticks and fabrics, which were representing the image of the remembered ancestor.
Legend:
The former wise persons (Maori) predicted that it would come a time in which the land would sink; the raise of the waters would destroy many lives by what in the following generations canoes are constructed to escape of the island.
In times of the Ariki Matua, the acquaintance produces to himself episode of the dream or trip of Haumaka's spirit, which moves eastward in search of a new land. On having come to the eighth land, it descends in the islands of the vertex southwest from the island, which he identifies as three children of the Ariki Taanga (father of Matu'a) turned into stone (Motu Kao Kao, Motu Iti and Motu Nui). The spirit crosses the island for the south coast, up to coming to the bay that today we know as Anakena. Before returning flame to the island “Te Pito O Te Kainga ".
The spirit returns to Hiva and gets in the body slept of Haumaka, who goes to the King Hotu Matua. The King orders him to instruct young men in the construction of a great craft, to assemble provisions and the whole necessary load to make the trip towards the new land.
There are sent seven explorers who state the seen for Haumaka's spirit and cross the whole island before returning to Hiva.Hotu Matua realized the trip towards the new land in two crafts, one of him and other one of his sister Avareipua, both colonists' floods and provisions to be supplied and for the culture. They landed in Anakena's beach, place that would remain established as the residence of the kings. To the moment to land, the wife of the King, Vakai, there gave birth a child called Tuu Maheke, the first inheritor of the royal lineage.Hotu Matu'a divided the territories of the island between his children, who were like that the ancestors of the different tribes: Miru, Koro Orongo, Ngaure, Scrapes, Hamea, Ko Tuu, Hotu Iti, etc.
Hotu Matu'a lived his last days in the sector Through Rano Kau. When he felt near his death, it assembled the principal chiefs and designated your major son as successor, asked to be taken at the edge of the volcano to look for last time at his natal land at the northwest. From there it called to four spirits in order that they were sending the sign of your item across the singing of the roosters. Then, his children took it to your house, where he died; your body was buried in Akahanga.
Hitherto the legend allows to know with certainty neither the historical veracity nor the epoch in which these facts would have happened.
Social organizational:
From the legend of the Ariki Hotu To Matu'a, there is defined a social order headed by the royal family (Ariki Paka) and the religious aristocracy that was including wise persons (Maori) and priests (ivi atua), and then a specialists' variety craftsmen, warriors (matato'a), fishermen (Tangata Terevaka) and farmers (Tangata Keu Keu Henua). Teachers who were teaching(showing) the art of reading (Maori Rongo Rongo) and the common people (Huru Manu) that was constituting the base of the social pyramid. To the lowest level the servants were (Kio) and the defeated enemies destined for the sacrifice (Ika).
The position of the aristocracy was sustained in your divine origin, as descendant of the creative gods. In the line of the ariki of Rapa Nui, the first-born son was destined to receive the power as religious leader of the island. The important men like the ariki were undressed in a power of supernatural origin the mana, and protected by the procedure tapu, the prohibited. This power was centering in the head, to the point that according to the tradition nobody it could have, nor to cut the hair. This power could express in positive form on having initiated the sowings or crops, or in negative form, provoking even the death.
The social major unit was the "mata"" or clan, which origins were going back to the own Hotu Matu'a. The territories they were marked defining straight lines from the coast up to the center of the island. Up to today there remain bordering milestones, mounds of stones called wee horeko.
Politics:
Ariki, the principal authority of the island, was considered of divine origin and that the principal productive activities were controlled by the caste of the priests; on the latter point, also we must bear in mind the high presence of gigantic constructions destined for the religious worship, since they are the ahu and the moai.
Close to the religious traditions related to the vital cycle of the men, the society Rapanui also developed customs relative to the presence of spirits in the community; these were shaping a duality between the good and evil, and could be personified both in animals and in objects. In relation with this affirmation, we must remember that the Rapanui were considering that to the ariki or king, it was possessing magic power that were known by the name of manna, and that they were allowing him(her) to this one assuring the fecundity of the crops and the preeminence on the malignant spirits.
Authorities of Rapa Nui
Governor Provincial: Carolina Hotu Hey.
Mayor: Luz Sazzo Paoa
Councilmen: Ximena Trengove Pakarati, Marta Hotus, Julio Araki, Carlos Mardones Riroroko and Alberto Hotus.
For more information it presses here rapanuipress
Festivities:
Tapati Rapa Nui cultural event, in which former island traditions are remembered as well as also contemporary activities and competitions. This cultural event is realized in different scenes of the island. Museum father Sebastian Englert: islanders assembles cultural elements, preferably of daily labors, pictorial, handcrafted, religious, ancient representations and several elements of fishing and agriculture. It is possible to visit afoot or in vehicle. Distant to scanty meters of Hanga gnaws; located in the sector of Tahai.
The Rio and Ute.
The Hoko Haka Opo, in which two groups of singers must rival more possible time with singings without repeating them.
The Haka Pei or slide in trunks of bananas in the Maunga Pui in an earring to 45 º with a speed of 70 to 80km/h, without protection in the body. The only competition in the world today. The Pora swimming with floats of totora on a distance of 1500 m.
The Tau'a Rapa Nui, species of triathlon I re-give the orders with boat of totora, career with 15 kilos of bananas to the shoulder, and swimming on pora in Rano Raraku's crater. And, between other activities the Tingi Tingi Mahute, realized fabric beating the bark of the tree of mulberry.
This party consists also of a cajolement and of the crowning of the maiden (2 ó 3 aspirants helped by its families and friends) who obtained the maximum of points along the diverse competitions.
It is an unforgettable and unpublished party.
Fishing:
In the ancient times, the species of major prestige, as the tuna (kahi) and the tortoises (honu), were reserved to the nobility, and your apprehension was prohibited (tapu) during most of the year. The fishing on the high seas in the vaka landlady was reserved to the most wise fishermen (tangata rava ika ma'a), and to expert sailors (tangata tere vaka), under the strict control of the aristocracy miru, that was controlling the most important areas of the north coast and west.
During the winters months, only the royal canoe (vaka vaero) could go out of fishing driven by select some. Those who were eating of these products were remaining contaminated by the tapu, must live isolated in a time.
The fishing depth sea out was fulfilling in sites(places) called haka nononga, which were located from the sea aligning visible signs in land: features of the relief, towers (tupa) or mounds (pipi horeko) of stone, or some ahu. On the other hand, also special sites(places) of fishing were defined (hakaranga), such as pozones deep (rua); free rocks of mollusks to approximately hundred meters of the coast (toka), and the bays (hanga).
In addition, haka kainga were kept sectors called, between 500 and 1000 meters of the coast, destined for the upbringing of the ature, the fish that was using as bait in the fishing of tuna, a pitch that the tapu was getting up to the summer beginning
The phases of the moon and the magic were fundamental in the fishing, universal topic that has a special flavor in Polynesia. For your part, the technologies and the instruments of fishing in Rapa Nui they show a narrow kinship with the islands Marquise.
The fishhooks can separate in two thick categories: the small ro'u and piko, of bone, used in the coastal fishing for the women, and the fishhooks of major size of bone (mangai ivi), of animal or human bone (mangai ivi tangata), or of polished basalt (mangaimaea or mangai kahi). A special type is the compound fishhook (mangai vere vere) generally with both parts of bone, though there is known a couple of polished beards in stone.
The technologies of fishing and compilation of the products of the sea were including, in addition, the use of a variety of networks (kupenga); traps (walls of stone to capture fish in the low tide); sliding bows managed with two logs for the apprehension of eels (here koreha); a mesh at the end of a log (hura); with a mesh while nothing (tutuku); to gather lobsters (ura) by night, with the help of torches (puhi); skin-diving depth in apnea (ruku ruku), especially for the obtaining of the valued crustaceans ura (lobster) and snuff rapa; fishes with line and fishhook while nothing in the surface (hi), between others.
Respect of the use of harpoons in the antiquity, knows only a harpoon of bone, of type marquesano, with fins, rounded top and central orifice to join the handle found in Anakena, and dating about 1200 A.D.
The compilation of the scanty mollusks and of minor fish on the coast was a task of women and children. The rough rocky relief was facilitating the access to hand of a series of small fish (ra'emea, run aground paohu, paroko, patuki); octopuses (heke); small crabs (pikea), hedgehogs (hatuke, vain) and some mollusks it sucks, takatore, pure and pipi).
At present, the overexploitation of species like the lobster makes your access much more difficult and puts in risk your conservation, as well as of the small mollusks (mash and wee) whose(which) shells are very valued to the confection of crafts, and of the coral strongly gathered for your sale as souvenir.
Art:
The influence is evident of polinésico in the current dances to those who have joined others, as the tango and the waltz, but with a particular way of interpreting it Out-standing Rapanui.
Sau Sau: In the parties the site of honor corresponds to the Sau Sau, of Samoan origin, which the inhabitants fix the date of import in the years ' 40, which in the island it has taken own characteristics. During the night there are organized meetings, in which there is effected this dance, in which the women show all your grace and fluency, inside a rhythmical mobility, which they accompany on the undulating movement of your hands. In the Sau Sau, the pairs they join and separate with rapid movements of hips. In this dance, especially the women, put on a gown of pens of colors, which modern sets of dance are introducing.
Ula Ula: Dance of origin Tahitians, a reminiscence of the original one is danced in the Island, according to the doctor Ramon Campbell. Dancing generally in pace of continuously I live, the pairs are accustomed to dance separated, making wave specially the hips in lateral form, softly, and resting the feet alternative on the heel and the top of the fingers, with rotation of them. The women accompany the dance on graceful movements of the arms, making them undulate in very harmonious form, already aside already towards other one, imitating in many occasions the act of the hairs combing itself with a hand and to be contemplated in an invisible mirror by another hand. All that with a grace and very feminine and captivating suggestion.
Tamure: It dances properly Tahitians, whose grace takes root in two principal aspects. On one hand, the real acrobatics that is precise to develop with the legs, in extraordinarily rapid movements and the execution of pelvic more or less violent movements of sway (R. Campbell). Those who execute well this dance are the men who have travelled to Tahiti. The women in few opportunities dare to do the steps or figures of the Tamuré tahitiano. Dances and current singings are stylizations of the folklore polinésico. Of recent origin they are the waltz tahitiano and the tango pascuense.
Tamure
Writing
The Talking Boards (Kohau Rongo Rongo)
A crux yet...
The slats have not been deciphered and constitute one of the complicated more cruxes of the culture it Rapa Nui...
It is known by the name of rongo rongo to the system of writing carved with '"tops of obsidian or teeth of shark " in the main on the slats of wood.The inhabitants of the Easter Island called her also '"kohau rongorongo ". The current translation of the term "kohau" is a wood that serves to making the hull of the canoes, and rongorongo is the great message, the great study. Also it was translated as "lines of recitation" or '"support staffs reciters ".
There are authors who say that this form of writing is the unique writing constructed in the whole Oceania, though a feasible deciphering is absent still to verify it. The symbols or the glifos come carved along grooves done in advance to the engraving in the appliances and are of an average height between 8 mm up to 1 cm. They seem to represent graphically picture cards of anthropomorphic beings in diverse positions, other creatures of fantasy that are alike the birds, the plants and other terrestrial and aquatic animals, celestial objects, as well as also geometric objects, fishhooks, among others.
Gastronomy:
The Ocean delivers a variety of fish which more desired it is the tuna.Apart from the nourishment of every day, the Umu practised in the dates of rituals of pregnancy, birth, death and celebration of the ancestors with the party of the Paina and other ceremonies, it was allowing to cook great quantity of food in an oven practised under land with volcanic warm stones in which one was arranging the food for caps of food separated by leaves of banana, any cutlery of land and with stewed boiling. Up to today, it is the gastronomic accomplishment with more success.
The Tunu Ahí, boiling outdoors in warm stones, is of regular use overcoat after a fishing shore of the sea.
With the tourism this gastronomy adapted and became more refined to the tastes of the visitors with meetings degustations.
The Tipic food are Umu Tahu (curanto) and Pies of tuna.