Articulating Rapa Nui: Polynesian Cultural Politics in a Latin American Nation-State - Rilegato

Delsing, Riet

9780824851682: Articulating Rapa Nui: Polynesian Cultural Politics in a Latin American Nation-State

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0824851684 ISBN 13: 9780824851682

Casa editrice: Univ of Hawaii Pr, 2015

In this groundbreaking study, Riet Delsing narrates the colonization of the Pacific island of Rapa Nui and its indigenous inhabitants. The annexation of the island by Chile, in the heydays of world imperialism, places the small Latin American country in a unique position in the history of global colonialism. The analysis of this ongoing colonization process constitutes a “missing link” in Pacific Islands studies and facilitates future comparisons with other colonial adventures in the Pacific by the United States (Hawai‘i, American Samoa), France (Tahiti), and New Zealand (Maori and Cook Islands).

The first part of the book surveys the history of the Chile–Rapa Nui relationship from its beginning in the 1880s until the present. Delsing delineates the Rapanui people’s agency along with their cultural logic, showing their resilience and will to remain Rapanui— indigenous Pacific islanders rather than an ethnic minority forcefully integrated into the Chilean nation-state. In the second part, the author describes the Rapanui’s contemporary emphasis on the revitalization of their language, traditional concepts about land tenure, a unique corpus of material and performative culture, renewed contact with other Pacific island cultures, and creative acts of resistance against Chilean colonialism. Emergent in her analysis is the effect of Rapa Nui’s vibrant tourist industry—commodification of Rapanui difference is creating the possibility to loosen economic and political ties with Chile.

Drawing on statements of several Rapanui, she concludes that over the past few decades they have acquired a different kind of interpretive power, based on which they are making choices that serve them as a people on the road to cultural and political self-determination. Contemporary Rapa Nui is thus a modern, articulated place, marked by spirited identity politics that show the resilience and adaptability of the indigenous people who inhabit this island.

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Product Description:

This ground-breaking interdisciplinary study about Rapa Nui and Easter Island makes a compelling contribution to the fields of anthropology, indigenous studies, Pacific studies and Latin American studies. It will also seize the attention of a non-scholarly public, including world travelers captivated by the island and its supposed mysteries. The book narrates the colonization of the small Pacific island of Rapa Nui and its Polynesian inhabitants. This daring and controversial act of colonial will in the heydays of world imperialism, places the small Latin American country of Chile in a unique position in the history of global colonialism. The analysis of this ongoing colonization process, as narrated in this book, constitutes a ""missing link"" in Pacific studies, and facilitates future comparisons with other colonial adventures in the Pacific by the United States (Hawaii, American Samoa), France (Tahiti), New Zealand (Maori and Cook Islands), and others. The book is divided into two parts. The first one offers a historical analysis of the ChileuRapa Nui contact situation until the late 2000s, and the second one describes and analyzes the Rapanui's contemporary emphasis on the revitalization of their indigenous language, their traditional concepts about land tenure, their unique corpus of material and performative culture, renewed contacts with other Polynesians and creative acts of resistance against Chilean colonialism. It also tells about Rapa Nui's vibrant tourist industry which allows for the commodification of Rapanui difference and creates the possibility to loosen economic and, potentially, political ties with Chile. This text shows how Chile's continuous occupation of the island based on Western principles of sovereignty contradicts Rapanui indigenous concepts of sovereign rights over their land and territory. It also demonstrates how Rapanui emphasis on a specific cultural identity and difference as a Polynesian people is crucial on their path toward self

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