Rapanui: Tradition and survival on Easter Island

by Grant McCall

Grant McCall has spent more than two decades studying Rapanui and in this revised second edition of his 1980 monograph, he presents to a new audience the details of how Easter Island came to be what it is today. "Rapanui" is principally an academic book, but should appeal to the general reader interested in knowing a story of survival of an ingenious population of scarcely 3000 persons who, with relatives spread across the planet, cling mainly to the rocky home they love. The first part of the book offers the reader a concise outline of the latest discoveries in the prehistory and history of Rapanui. The later chapters on contemporary life flow around the familiar concepts of family and group, belief, earning a living, relations with one's kin and with strangers. The final chapter describes the most recent changes on Rapanui and concludes with ideas about what the next millennium might bring to the people of the world's most remote island.

197 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1981