The moai were
probably carved to commemorate important ancestors
and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the seventeenth century. Over a few hundred years the inhabitants of this remote island quarried, carved and erected around 887 moai.
What culture is moai?
The moais are the maximum expression of
the Rapa Nui culture
. Over 1,500 years ago, the island located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean welcomed a group of brave Polynesian men.
What is the cultural significance of Easter Island?
The island is most
famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai
, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people. In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
What did moai represent to the Islanders?
Archaeologists believe that the statues were a representation
of the ancient Polynesians’ ancestors
. The moai statues face away from the ocean and towards the villages as if to watch over the people. The exception is the seven Ahu Akivi which face out to sea to help travelers find the island.
What is the significance of how the moai are positioned on Rapa Nui?
The majority of them are located immediately on the coast, and are particularly vulnerable to coastal erosion with many collapsing into the sea.
The ahu and moai remain sacred to the Rapa Nui people
and are central to identity; they are also central to the tourism economy.
What do the moai represent?
They stand with their backs to the sea and are believed by most archaeologists to represent
the spirits of ancestors, chiefs, or other high-ranking males who held important positions in the history of
Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, the name given by the indigenous people to their island in the 1860s.
What is the culture like in Easter Island?
The Rapa Nui are the
indigenous Polynesian people
of Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile.
How were the moai carved?
The moai were
individually carved out of single bays of the rock
rather than a big open area like a modern quarry. It appears that most were carved lying on their backs. After the carving was completed, the moai were detached from the rock, moved down-slope, and erected vertically, when their backs were dressed.
Why is Easter Island important today to Chilean culture?
Famous for the towering stone statues known as moai
, the island of Rapa Nui holds immense cultural value to its native Rapa Nui clans, a society of Polynesian origin who arrived on the island around 400 A.D. With more than 100,000 visitors annually, tourism sustains the “Easter Island” economy—but management of tourism …
How did the moai statues fall?
Construction of the moai statues appears to have stopped around the time of European contact in 1722, when Dutch explorers landed on Easter Day. Over the next century the moai would fall over,
either intentionally pushed over or from simple neglect
. Why construction was abandoned is another mystery.
What is the tallest moai?
The tallest moai erected, called
Paro
, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 82 tons; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.
What do the moai figures of Easter Island represent quizlet?
The moai (meaning “statue”) were probably carved
to commemorate important ancestors
and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the 17th century.
Where are these giant stone heads?
The
Easter Island heads
are known as Moai by the Rapa Nui people who carved the figures in the tropical South Pacific directly west of Chile. The Moai monoliths, carved from stone found on the island, are between 1,100 and 1,500 CE.
Why are the statues called moai?
In the Rapa Nui language, the Easter Island statues are called Moai Aringa Ora, which means “the living face of our ancestors”. The most common interpretation is that these statues
were created in order to preserve the energy of the natives after death
.
How did they build and transport the moai to all areas of the island?
180 islanders pulled the statue
using two parallel ropes tied to each side
. Recent tradition supports this theory, as sledge transportation was believed to have been enhanced by the use of lubricants such as sweet potatoes, palm fronds, and taro root.
What do the statues represent?
They represent what people in the Past chose to celebrate and memorialise, they do not represent history. Indeed, teaching history is almost never the reason why they are erected. Instead, statues in public spaces since Antiquity have most typically been used to represent
power and authority
.
