Change and Resilience in Rapa Nui and the Pacific
Published on 21. January 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
452 pages
978-90-8728-449-7 (ISBN)
Description
This edited volume reflects the latest research on Rapa Nui and the Pacific in the fields of archaeology, education, history, Indigenous studies and museology. Archaeologists show the relationship between value judgments, archaeological data and mapping; economic, ideological and socio-political interactions and stone quarrying; rock art and voyaging histories and Rapa Nui astronomy. The book pays attention to European views including those of the explorer Jacob Roggeveen, the expedition leader Walter Knoche, nineteenth-century eyewitness accounts, the ethnologist Alfred Metraux, and Professor John Macmillan Brown. The representation of Rapa Nui in popular culture is discussed. Contributions show that Rapa Nui identity is expressed through ancestral medicine, finding ways to self-determination in relation to Chile, barkcloth traditions and body art, and architectural space and place. The violence of western education systems is unpacked in the context of Rapa Nui. Contributions also discuss how museum collections, be they photographs, stone and obsidian artefacts reveal new dimensions of Rapa Nui history. Concerns about the restitution of Rapa Nui objects and ancestral remains are explored. Authors discuss the still undeciphered Ro?oro?o script from a historical, science and linguistic perspective and reminisce on 1970s life on Rapa Nui and ethno-archaeological experiments. Two contributions take the reader outside of Rapa Nui to Palau and the Marquesas.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
- 243 Illustrations, color
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 170 mm
ISBN-13
978-90-8728-449-7 (9789087284497)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Fanny Wonu Veys is curator Oceania at the Wereldmuseum and holds the chair Art and Material Culture of Oceania at Leiden University. She has curated Treasures from the depot: Easter Island (2022-2027) and is particularly interested in the significance of historical objects in a contemporary setting.
Jan J. Boersema holds the chair Principles of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University. In his inaugural address in 2002, he was the first to challenge the collapse theory of Rapa Nui. He elaborated his ideas in The Survival of Easter Island (CUP, Cambridge, 2015).
Gerard A. Persoon is Professor Environment and Development (em.) at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University. He has specialized in environmental anthropology, indigenous peoples' rights, and island studies. Most of his work is focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines in particular.
Jan J. Boersema holds the chair Principles of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University. In his inaugural address in 2002, he was the first to challenge the collapse theory of Rapa Nui. He elaborated his ideas in The Survival of Easter Island (CUP, Cambridge, 2015).
Gerard A. Persoon is Professor Environment and Development (em.) at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University. He has specialized in environmental anthropology, indigenous peoples' rights, and island studies. Most of his work is focused on Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines in particular.
Content
Introduction - Jan J. Boersema, Gerard A. Persoon, Fanny Wonu Veys;
Archaeology; 1. A Keynote Address: Here be Dragons: Archaeological Data, Value Judgements, and Mapping Rapa Nui - Jo Anne van Tilburg;
2. The Political Economy of Archaeological Stone on Rapa Nui: Identifying Economic, Ideological, and Socio-Political Interaction in Extreme Isolation - Dale F. Simpson Jr.;
3. Contact and Isolation in Rapanui Rock Art: Two Novel Voyaging Canoe Petroglyphs for Rapa Nui - Alexandra Edwards;
4. Monumental and Multi-Functional - Geoarchaeological and Archaeological Investigations of the Earthworks of Babeldaob, Palau (Micronesia) - Annette Kuehlem, Andreas Mieth, Hans-Rudolf Bork;
5. Archaeological Astronomy on Rapa Nui - Dominique Proust, in collaboration with Clotilde Proust; Histories;
6. Jacob Roggeveen (1659 - 1729): The Man, his Voyage and Visit to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Jan J. Boersema, Roelof van Gelder;
7. Notes on the Significance of Walter Knoche's Easter Island Publications - Hermann Mueckler;
8. The True, the False and the Found - The Use of Sources and Eyewitness Accounts for Life on Easter Island in 1872 - Christian Walter;
9. Fauna, Flora and Natural Phenomena in The Rapanui Myths and Legends Compiled by Alfred Metraux - Zuzanna Jakubowska-Vorbrich, Christopher (Krzysztof) Vorbrich;
10. Furthering Professor John Macmillan Brown of New Zealand's Connections to Easter Island/Rapa Nui through the Extinct Palm (Jubaea) and the Toromiro Tree (Sophora toromiro) - Rosanne Hawarden;
12. Nuku Hiva 1825: Ethnohistory of a Dutch-Marquesan Encounter - Caroline van Santen; Indigeneity and Identity;
13. Ancestral Medicines and 'Culture as Treatment' on Rapa Nui - Sonya Petrakovitz;
14. Twenty-Five Years on Rapa Nui, Tracing the Road to Self-Determination - Riet Delsing;
15. Barkcloth Figures and Body Art: An Iconography of Miru Identity - Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Cristian Arevalo Pakarati, with Adrienne L. Kaeppler?;
16. System Rapa Nui - Combining Space and Place - Paolo Tombesi; Education;
17. Physical and Symbolic Violence in Education in the Mid-Twentieth Century in Rapa Nui. Ethnographic Evidence in the Notes of Lorenzo Baeza - Javier Corvalan;
18. Education in Rapa Nui: Decolonization, Reparation and Imagination - Camila Zurob Dreckmann; Museum and Collections Research;
19. Legacies to Be Revealed - Tania Basterrica Brockman, Betty Haoa Rapahango;
20. The Production of Obsidian Moai Eyes: New Geochemical Sourcing Data on Legacy Artifact Collections on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Mara A. Mulrooney, Mark D. McCoy;
21. Three-Dimensional Modelling of Rapanui Cave Stones from the Collection of the Kon-Tiki Museum - Reidar Solsvik, Paul Horley;
22. Ka Haka Hoki Mai Te Mana Tupuna. The Repatriation Movement in Rapa Nui - Jacinta Arthur-de la Maza;
23. Repatriate, Repair and Reconcile...Can Sharing Feelings Help Us Understand and Move Forward? The Round Table Discussion on Repatriation in Leiden 2022 - Olaug Rosvik Andreassen; Ro?oro?o;
24. Shipwrecks, Drift Voyages and Ro?oro?o: The Shipwreck of the Essex and the Invention of Ro?oro?o-Writing on Easter Island - Christian Walter;
25. New Analysis of the Berlin Tablet VI 4878 and Experimental Study Of Ro?oro?o Carving Techniques - Rafal Wieczorek, Paul Horley;
26. Children's Initiation Rites as Context for the Ro?oro?o Inscriptions of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Mary de Laat;
27. Easter Island Fifty Years Ago and Ways of Getting Food - Julia McCall;
28. Putting on a Pukao, or How to Lift a Stone Hat onto a Statue - Pavel Pavel
Archaeology; 1. A Keynote Address: Here be Dragons: Archaeological Data, Value Judgements, and Mapping Rapa Nui - Jo Anne van Tilburg;
2. The Political Economy of Archaeological Stone on Rapa Nui: Identifying Economic, Ideological, and Socio-Political Interaction in Extreme Isolation - Dale F. Simpson Jr.;
3. Contact and Isolation in Rapanui Rock Art: Two Novel Voyaging Canoe Petroglyphs for Rapa Nui - Alexandra Edwards;
4. Monumental and Multi-Functional - Geoarchaeological and Archaeological Investigations of the Earthworks of Babeldaob, Palau (Micronesia) - Annette Kuehlem, Andreas Mieth, Hans-Rudolf Bork;
5. Archaeological Astronomy on Rapa Nui - Dominique Proust, in collaboration with Clotilde Proust; Histories;
6. Jacob Roggeveen (1659 - 1729): The Man, his Voyage and Visit to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Jan J. Boersema, Roelof van Gelder;
7. Notes on the Significance of Walter Knoche's Easter Island Publications - Hermann Mueckler;
8. The True, the False and the Found - The Use of Sources and Eyewitness Accounts for Life on Easter Island in 1872 - Christian Walter;
9. Fauna, Flora and Natural Phenomena in The Rapanui Myths and Legends Compiled by Alfred Metraux - Zuzanna Jakubowska-Vorbrich, Christopher (Krzysztof) Vorbrich;
10. Furthering Professor John Macmillan Brown of New Zealand's Connections to Easter Island/Rapa Nui through the Extinct Palm (Jubaea) and the Toromiro Tree (Sophora toromiro) - Rosanne Hawarden;
12. Nuku Hiva 1825: Ethnohistory of a Dutch-Marquesan Encounter - Caroline van Santen; Indigeneity and Identity;
13. Ancestral Medicines and 'Culture as Treatment' on Rapa Nui - Sonya Petrakovitz;
14. Twenty-Five Years on Rapa Nui, Tracing the Road to Self-Determination - Riet Delsing;
15. Barkcloth Figures and Body Art: An Iconography of Miru Identity - Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Cristian Arevalo Pakarati, with Adrienne L. Kaeppler?;
16. System Rapa Nui - Combining Space and Place - Paolo Tombesi; Education;
17. Physical and Symbolic Violence in Education in the Mid-Twentieth Century in Rapa Nui. Ethnographic Evidence in the Notes of Lorenzo Baeza - Javier Corvalan;
18. Education in Rapa Nui: Decolonization, Reparation and Imagination - Camila Zurob Dreckmann; Museum and Collections Research;
19. Legacies to Be Revealed - Tania Basterrica Brockman, Betty Haoa Rapahango;
20. The Production of Obsidian Moai Eyes: New Geochemical Sourcing Data on Legacy Artifact Collections on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Mara A. Mulrooney, Mark D. McCoy;
21. Three-Dimensional Modelling of Rapanui Cave Stones from the Collection of the Kon-Tiki Museum - Reidar Solsvik, Paul Horley;
22. Ka Haka Hoki Mai Te Mana Tupuna. The Repatriation Movement in Rapa Nui - Jacinta Arthur-de la Maza;
23. Repatriate, Repair and Reconcile...Can Sharing Feelings Help Us Understand and Move Forward? The Round Table Discussion on Repatriation in Leiden 2022 - Olaug Rosvik Andreassen; Ro?oro?o;
24. Shipwrecks, Drift Voyages and Ro?oro?o: The Shipwreck of the Essex and the Invention of Ro?oro?o-Writing on Easter Island - Christian Walter;
25. New Analysis of the Berlin Tablet VI 4878 and Experimental Study Of Ro?oro?o Carving Techniques - Rafal Wieczorek, Paul Horley;
26. Children's Initiation Rites as Context for the Ro?oro?o Inscriptions of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) - Mary de Laat;
27. Easter Island Fifty Years Ago and Ways of Getting Food - Julia McCall;
28. Putting on a Pukao, or How to Lift a Stone Hat onto a Statue - Pavel Pavel