EASTER ISLAND

Span. Isla de Pascua, Polynesian Rapa Nui, remote island (1992 pop. 2,770), 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the South Pacific, c.2,200 mi (3,540 km) W of Chile, to which it belongs. Of volcanic origin, Easter Island is mostly covered with grasslands and is swept by strong trade winds. The inhabitants are of Polynesian stock. Farming and sheep raising are the principal occupations; wool is the only export.

Chile regards the island as an integral part of the mainland, not as a colony. The inhabitants are citizens of Chile but do not pay taxes and are not subject to military conscription. A Chilean naval officer is governor, and a mayor and council of elders have a voice in local matters but no power to raise revenues. There have been sporadic independence movements, the latest in 1964.

Easter Island was named on Easter Day, 1722, by the Dutch navigator Jakob Roggeven. At that time the population was about 4,000, down from perhaps 9,000 two centuries earlier, probably because of overuse of sparse resources. The spread of European diseases, especially smallpox, and the raids of Spanish slavers reduced the population to slightly more than 100 by 1887. Chilean annexation in 1888 led to stabilization.

Easter Island has long been famous for its hieroglyphs and for hundreds of remarkable monolithic stone heads (moais) whose origin and meaning have been widely debated. Carved from soft volcanic tufa, the statues are from 10 to 40 ft (3–12 m) high, some weighing over 50 tons. Regarding the origin and culture of the builders of these monuments, one formerly popular theory is that of Thor Heyerdahl, that fair-skinned invaders from the East carved the monoliths, and that later (c.1680) the present Polynesians conquered the island, unleashing violent strife leading to near extinction of the population. Now generally accepted, however, is the conclusion of French ethnologist Alfred Métreaux that the statues are no more than 500–600 years old and that they were built by the Polynesian ancestors of the present inhabitants. DNA samples taken from the oldest bones found on the island reveal Polynesian characteristics. Among other ideas now debunked are those connecting Easter Island with Egyptian or Hindu cultures or making it the remnant of a "lost continent." The entire island is now a national park.

See studies by J. Dos Passos (1971) and J. A. Van Tilburg (1994).

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.

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