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Rapa Nui, now Easter Island
originally had a complex traditional religion centred on ancestor worship and
the spiritual power of mana, manifested in the iconic moai statues.
This belief system transitioned into the Birdman Cult; Tangata manu,
which featured an annual competition to find the individual who could bring back
the first seabird egg. However, the population is now almost entirely Roman
Catholic, a religion that became dominant following the arrival of missionaries
in the 1860s and the subsequent conversion of the islanders.
The religious rituals started from birth, when the umbilical cord was cut,
and extended through their whole lives, including rituals for the first haircut,
the first tattoos, initiation and coming of age rituals.
But perhaps the most important rituals, that most affected Rapa Nui art and
history, were the ones associated with death. The Rapa Nui believed that their
forefathers’ spirits had the ability to come to their aid in case it was
necessary, since the spirit remained around his relatives for a long time before
leaving for good. This spiritual energy or mana, attributed mostly to chiefs and
important members of society, had the ability to influence events for a long
time.
This cult to the ancestors led to the development of a funeral ritual which
consisted in wrapping the bodies in vegetable fabric and expose them to open air
inside the ahu until their decomposition. Finally, the bones were washed and
deposited in a funeral chamber in the same ahu, so that the spirit could reunite
with its ancestors.
But above all else, the ancestor cult gave way to the most representative Easter
Island characteristic, the moai. When a tribe chief or any of the important
members dies, a moai was ordered to be sculpted in the Rano Raraku quarry and
was later transported to its village and placed on an ahu or ceremonious altar.
Once placed on its altar, the eyes and pukao were placed (a type of hat carved
from red scoria), at which moment the moai obtained their mana and could
exercise their power. There were more than 300 ahus on the whole island and more
than 600 moai, mainly in the coastal regions and always facing their village,
which it protected.
But the crisis and conflicts within the population, due to the scarcity of food,
which happened between the 17th and 18th centuries, caused a decline in the
moais and ancestor cult era, giving way to a new religious and political order.
The belief in Make-Make or creating god prevails even more strongly and it is at
this point that the Tangata Manu or Birdman ceremony starts being celebrated,
through which the island’s governors are chosen. In this way a member of the
working class could still gain political power, since the competition for the
first manutara (Easter Island seagull) egg requires a great strength and
physical prowess.
There were also a series of prohibitions and precepts that governed the daily
life of Rapanui, who were known by the name of tapu (taboo). The tapu were bans
or prohibitions to do certain things, such as getting a haircut, or determining
areas closed for fishing rights or other circumstances.
My Icon: One af the ancestorial statues. |
