Inventing 'Easter Island'
by Beverley Haun
List Price:
Our Price: $31.50
You Save: $4.50 (12%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Beverley HaunEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-05
ISBN: 0802093531
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Book Reviews of Inventing 'Easter Island'
Book Review: If you are seriously interested in the history of Easter Island...
Summary: 5 Stars
This review of Haun's excellent book appeared in the Journal "Pacific Affairs" (2009) and is written by one of the world's experts on Easter Island, Professor Terry Hunt of the University of Hawai'i
Beverley Haun's Inventing Easter Island' provides a timely and
perceptively critical analysis of the Euro-American colonial
narratives--"shaped truths"--constructed to make sense, at least for
outsiders, of the nature of this famous island. These "shaped truths"
engendered in colonial encounters live on in modern thinking, both
popular and academic, yet as critical examination and modern research
reveal, many are little more than myths. Haun takes a decidedly
postmodern perspective; one she describes among other adjectives as
"postcolonial." Her goals include deconstructing historical and
contemporary narratives for Easter Island (Rapa Nui), developing a new
postcolonial consciousness, and shaping a hopeful future (23) that
returns the island's narrative of history and identity to the Native
Rapanui.
As Haun recounts in her introduction, Rapa Nui has both a dynamic,
sometimes enigmatic pre-contact history, and an incredibly tragic,
downright cruel colonial history. Today some scholars conflate the
so-called mystery of the Rapanui's pre-contact monumentality with the
island's catastrophic post-contact history of disease, slave-trading,
theft and imprisonment. Thus, today we endure the narrative of an
island people who destroyed their environment, and as a consequence,
destroyed themselves. Haun's analysis will shed critical light on such
contemporary, indeed politicized narratives, including some
perpetuated by academic writers with little if any basis in
archaeological or historical evidence.
Haun analyzes "forces at play" that shaped the European cultural
context of their experience with people of the Pacific and elsewhere
in their global imperial pursuits. Her analysis, like Anne Salmond's
Two Worlds (Viking, 1991) detailing European-Maori interactions,
places Europeans in an essential critical, historical and ethnographic
context.
Chronicling the first European encounters, Haun offers a detailed
account of Dutch journals. There are two salient points: the Dutch
narrative initiates a dividing process, between the people and their
island, or between the Rapanui descendents and their history. For
example, Roggeveen, it seems, downplayed the impressiveness of the
moai (monumental statues); to acknowledge such accomplishments would
threaten Eurocentric notions of superiority. Haun writes that this
process continues today. I concur. Second, she notes a disturbing
selective use of elements in early texts in contemporary accounts,
where scholars cite what supports their views, and omit what does not.
The Spanish arrived in 1770 with a mandate to claim new lands for the
Empire. Haun illustrates these colonial interests in Spanish notions
of "domesticating" islanders with conversion to Christianity, yielding
a pliable native workforce and land for productive exploitation,
anticipating the South American slave raids of Rapa Nui. The Spanish
visit brought significant impacts, including perhaps devastating
epidemic Old World diseases for which the Rapanui had no natural
immunity. Perhaps this catastrophe set the stage for the dismal
impressions formed by the English (in 1774) and the French (in 1786)
who arrived following the Spanish, and with different intentions. Haun
is among only a handful of scholars who recognizes how this likely
chronicle of events, including disease and depopulation, helped to
shape and distort historical impressions.
Finally, Haun outlines how eighteenth-century imagery and "shaped
truths" persist in popular and academic narratives for Rapa Nui today.
Representations in popular culture and impressions of modern tourists
reproduce the "mystery" and effective separation of today's Rapanui
descendents from their moai-making ancestors. And from the early
impressions coupled with some contemporary field research come the
myths of people who committed "ecological suicide." In recent popular
accounts such as Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to
Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2005) and Ronald Wright's A Short History of
Progress (Anansi, 2005), the Rapanui, as Haun writes, "have been
resuscitated only to become representatives of the rest of the earth's
population heading into self-destruction" (254). Indeed, much of the
doomsday metaphor of "ecocide" rests on flimsy interpretations of
selected archaeological, palaeo-ecological, or oral historical
referents.
Beverley Haun provides a useful critique at an important juncture in
our understanding of what happened on this Polynesian island. She
correctly points out that "it is the very instability of the invented
Easter Island that allows it to be transformed into different versions
to suit the zeitgeist of the time" (254). As an archaeologist working
on Rapa Nui, I would add that her critique can be extended to much of
the narrative constructed for prehistory as well. It has been shaped
by some of the same historical threads she identifies, particularly as
the early impressions are pushed back in time to loosely interpret the
sometimes mute stones of archaeology. Yet, in contrast to the ultimate
relativism of some postmodern arguments (where all knowledge is
subjective), I envision a competing scientific narrative that now
challenges the colonial invention of Easter Island. In its place
"postcolonial knowledge" can be constructed on the critical approach
and empirical standards that embody scientific research. Bad "science"
does not negate the value of science in the pursuit of knowledge, but
instead demands critical reassessments. Empirical standards for
archaeological (and sometimes historical) questions also offer the
potential to build "postcolonial" knowledge and bring empowerment to
Rapanui people in reclaiming their history.
TERRY L. HUNT
University of Hawai'i Manoa, Honolulu, USA
Summary of Inventing 'Easter Island'
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known to its inhabitants, is located in the Pacific Ocean, 3600 kilometres west of South America. Annexed by Chile in 1888, the island has been a source of fascination for the world beyond the island since the first visit by Europeans in 1722 due to its intriguing statues and complex history. Inventing 'Easter Island' examines narrative strategies and visual conventions in the discursive construction of 'Easter Island' as distinct from the native conception of 'Rapa Nui.' It looks at the geographic imaginary that pervaded the eighteenth century, a period of overwhelming imperial expansion.
Beverley Haun begins with a discussion of forces that shaped the European version of island culture and goes on to consider the representation of that culture in the form of explorer texts and illustrations, as well as more recent texts and images in comic books and kitsch from off the island. Throughout, 'Easter Island' is used as a case study of the impact of imperialism on the view of a culture from outside. The study hinges on three key points - an inquiry into the formation of 'Easter Island' as a subject; an examination of how the constructed space and culture have been shaped, reshaped, and represented in discursive spaces; and a discussion of cultural memory and how the constraints of foreign texts and images have shaped thought and action about 'Easter Island.'Richly illustrated and unique in its findings, Inventing 'Easter Island' will appeal to cultural theorists, anthropologists, educators, and anyone interested in the history of the South Pacific.
Australia & Oceania Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Australia & Oceania Books
Soldiers of the Queen: Women in the Australian Army (Australian Army History)by Janette Bomford
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2001-05-17; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
The Causes of Molecular Evolution (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution)by John H. Gillespie
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1991-02-27; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Health, Prevention and Economicsby David R. Cohen, John B. Henderson
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1989-02-23; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Swimming With SharksPenguin Group New Zealand, Limited; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $54.78
The Truth of the Matterby E.Gough Whitlam
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 1979-06-28; Paperback; Book
First Years: Wellingtonby Gavin McLean
Penguin Books (NZ); Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Birds of New Zealand, Hawaii, Central and West Pacific. by Ber Van Perlo (Field Guides)by Ber Van Perlo
Collins; Published: 2011-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $33.66
Price in other shops:
Caledonia Australis: Scottish Highlanders on the Frontier of Australiaby Don Watson
Harpercollins; Published: 1985-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Australian People and theby Michael McKernan
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd; Published: 1984-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.s. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842by Nathaniel Philbrick
Demco Media; Published: 2004-10; Turtleback; Book
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Islandby Eric Kjellgren
Metropolitan Museum of Art; Published: 2001-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.78
Price in other shops:
Easter Island: Rapa Nuiby Felipe L. Soza
NICEYE; Published: 2008-11-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.98
Island at the End of the World: The Turbulent History of Easter Islandby Steven Roger Fischer
Reaktion Books; Published: 2006-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.93
Price in other shops:
Easter Island (Chile) 1:30,000 Visitor's Map (Travel Reference Map)by ITM Canada
ITMB Publishing, Ltd.; Published: 2006-11-22; Map; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Islandby Terry Hunt, Carl Lipo
Free Press; Published: 2011-06-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.50
Price in other shops:
The Mystery of Easter Island (Mystic Traveller)by Katherine Pease Routledge
Adventures Unlimited Press; Published: 1998-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.03
Price in other shops:
Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her Remarkable Expedition to Easter Island (Lisa Drew Books)by Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Scribner; Published: 2003-04-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.74
Price in other shops: