Rapa Nui mythology
Rapa Nui mythology, also known as Pascuense mythology or Easter Island mythology, refers to the native myths, legends, and beliefs of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island in the south eastern Pacific Ocean.
Origin myth
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Ancestor cult
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The most visible element in the culture was the production of massive statues called moai that represented deified ancestors. It was believed that the living had a symbiotic relationship with the dead where the dead provided everything that the living needed (health, fertility of land and animals, fortune, etc.), and the living through offerings provided the dead with a better place in the spirit world. Most settlements were located on the coast and moai were erected along the coastline, watching over their descendants in the settlements before them, with their backs toward the spirit world in the sea.[3]
Tangata manu cult
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Tangata manu or bird-man cult succeeded the island's Moai era when warfare erupted over dwindling natural resources and construction of statues stopped.[4] The deity Make-make was the chief god of the birdman cult. The cult declined after the island population adopted Catholicism, though the birdman's popularity and memory were not erased and it is still present in the decoration of the island's church.[5]
Deities and heroes
- Make-make, creator of humanity
- Uoke, tectonic deity
- Hotu Matu'a, legendary king and cultural hero
- Aku-Aku, spirits of the dead
- Manana Take
- Tangata manu
- Hanau epe
- Haua
- Hina-Oio
References
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Further reading
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- Robert D. Craig. Dictionary of Polynesian mythology. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1989 Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN
- Peggy Mann. Easter Island: land of mysteries. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976. Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN
External links
- Easter Island legends and myths - Easter Island Traveling
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