Rapa Nui

For most of its existence, the default for the human race has been to go barefoot. Sometimes weather conditions induce shoe-wearing, but when we look at cultures that live where the weather is relatively benign, temperature-wise, we find that they’ve almost always gone barefoot.

Today I’m going to take a look at Rapa Nui: Easter Island (Isla de Pascua, Île de Pâques).

Easter Island was discovered (actually, of course, “rediscovered”) on Easter Day in 1722 by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen. The natives were barefoot (and mostly naked). And why not? Rapa Nui sits at about the same latitude (except south, not north) as Jupiter, Florida. In addition, its climate is influenced by the fact that there is ocean all around. In recorded history, it’s never dropped below 37°F (3°C) there. The average low even in the winter is around 60°F (15°C). That’s just perfect for going barefoot.

Here’s an early drawing, from 1786.

Islands and Monuments on Easter Island, by Duché de Vancy, 1786

[Click for larger versions of many of these pictures.]

The skirts on the women are an exaggeration. Mainly, they wore tattoos.

Here’s a picture of one of the men, taken from an account of a voyage around the world in 1830-1839.

From Voyage around the World on the Frigate Venus, drawn by Radiguet

Note the topknot of his hair—that’s what the red caps on the Easter Island Moai (statutes) represent. What I also find interesting is the depiction of his feet. Notice the clear separation between his big toe and the rest of his toes. That’s the mark of someone who has not had his feet modified by shoes. (See also my blog entry on uncontacted Amazonians.)

We can also see how standard bare feet (and nakedness) were on this drawing of the natives demonstrating a dance on board the ship.

Dancing the Hagana

Again, we can see the separation of the big toe. There’s another interesting observation one can make here. Notice that all of the ship’s officers (on the right) are shod, while the crew members(on the left) are barefoot. After all, shoes are taken as a mark of authority.

Of course, Europeans had to “civilize” the native Rapanui, introducing them to religion and modesty. By 1877 we have this picture of the queen of Easter Island meeting explorer (and one of the first to suggest that Indians arrived in America via the Bering Strait) Alphone Pinart.

The Queen of Easter Island meets Pinart in 1877

They are no longer really dressed for their weather, but at least they’re still going barefoot.

Where did the Rapanui (the name for native Easter Islanders) come from? They are clearly Polynesian and the language is a variant of Polynesian. However, many of them did have a different look about them, and red hair was fairly common. (If you look at the moai, you’ll notice that the topknots use a redder stone than the bodies.)

Legend said that the first settlers on Rapa Nui came, not from the west, but from the east. Explorer Thor Heyerdahl (of Kon-Tiki fame noted similarities between the moai and statutes in South America and postulated that those first settlers had come from there, with a later arrival of Polynesians. There were also stories of the “Long-Ears” arriving first. They were called Long-Ears because of the practice of extending and puncturing the earlobes so that an ear flare or labret could be inserted. This, by the way, is generally not a Polynesian practice, but an Amerindian practice. The later arrivers were called “Short-Ears”.

Before the first European explorers arrived, the ruling Long-Ears were mostly wiped out by the Short-Ears (who rebelled).

There are hints that Heyerdahl captured at least part of the truth. While archeologists these days think his dates are off (Heyerdahl thought the first discovery was around 400 A.D.; current estimates are around 1000 A.D.), It really does appear as if there was Polynesian/Amerindian contact before the European conquest. For instance, Pizarro, when he conquered the Incan empire, found that chickens (a southeast Asia bird) were already there. Gene analysis of the ancient chicken bones show they came via Polynesia. In addition, sweet potatoes, native to South America, were already in Polynesia before the Europeans. Again, gene analysis confirms the dating (and produce the “tripartite hypothesis”, three dispersals of the sweet potato: the kumara sweet potato was dispersed westward from South America by Polynesians around 1000 A.D. The camote lineage was introduced by Spaniards into the Phillipines around 1500 A.D. And a third lineage, the batata lineage came via the Caribbean.

Polynesian visitors to South America could have then discovered Rapa Nui, bringing with them Amerindian customs . . . and genes. Recent genetic analysis of some Rapanui find Amerindian genes in people of supposedly pure Rapanui descent.

Anyways, in 1955, Thor Heyerdahl launched an archeological expedition to Easter Island, documented in the book Aku-Aku, to find out what he could.

At that time, many of the Rapanui still went barefoot. In fact, there were concerns that those who wore shoes were weakening their feet.

In the following from Aku-Aku, “Father Sebastian” is Sebastian Englert, a Capuchin Franciscan Friar who lived on Easter Island from 1935 until his death in 1969. (I note that, despite being a Capuchin Franciscan, Father Sebastian is shown shod on that Wikipedia page. Did he ever go barefoot? Not that I can tell.)

In the midst of it all the village doctor pushed up to me, wanting to engage me in deep political discussion.

“My aim is to open the window of the world for these people,” he said.

A good thing too, I thought, for there would soon be no air left in the room. But he did not mean it like that, and I had to resign myself to going outside and listening to his earnest words.

He and the schoolmaster were in opposition to the other white people on the island.

“We have Indian blood in our veins,” he said, pointing to two flashing black eyes. “We want the natives to get away from this island and learn to know the world on the mainland.”

And Father Sebastian doesn’t want that, I thought. For he is afraid of their drinking themselves out of their senses when they get to a place where they have unrestricted access to alcohol. He is afraid of their being exploited and going to the dogs.

“We want to raise the standard of living to a modern level,” the doctor continued. “We want those who now go barefoot to wear shoes.”

And Father Sebastian thinks that’s a mistake, I thought. For I had once heard him say that natives who had never worn shoes fared best, both ashore and at sea, on this island where footwear was quickly worn out by the sharp lava stones. Those who had begun to wear white man’s shoes got thin skin on their leathery soles, and cut themselves to ribbons every time their shoes gave way. No, I thought, there are two sides to all these questions, and Father Sebastian has had a generation in which to think the matter over, while the young doctor had come with the last warship.

This gives you an idea of what (at least some of) the older folks wore on the island, with bare feet being normal for them.

Elders with Thor Heyerdahl in 1955

Those are the Pakarati brothers talking to Thor.

One of the things Thor’s expedition did was learn from the Rapanui how the placed the moai upright. Yes, the workers did it barefoot.

This looked deadly dangerous. Anette was no longer allowed to push her doll buggy up to the statue with pebbles for the mayor. Now only strong men came staggering along barefoot, like Neanderthal men, with heavy boulders in their arms. The mayor was extremely careful, checking the position of every stone. The weight of the colossus was so great that some of the stones cracked under the pressure like lumps of sugar: a single carelessly placed stone could mean catastrophe. But it all had been thoroughly thought out, every little move was pre- cisely and logically calculated. We stood with our hearts in our mouths as we saw the men pushing their bare toes in between the stones while clambering up the pile with more big blocks to be placed in position.

I like the description of how bare toes came into play and being used for extra grip and leverage. Here’s a picture from Aku-Aku of that process; you can see the bare feet on (most of) the Rapanui men.

How to Put a Moai Upright

But shoes were starting to take over. You can see them in this picture, also from Aku-Aku.

Old Statue, Father Sebastian, and Rapanui

Thor Heyerdahl went back to Rapa Nui in 1988. As part of further explorations, they discovered parts of an older, small moai that had been “repurposed” and used as part stonework of the ahu platforms. And at that point they discoved the head that went with the torso they had taken back to Norway in 1955. So, the body was repatriated to Rapa Nui. (Actually, you might say, since it was a female torso, they “rematriated” it.)

This was done with a fair bit of ceremony, and that ceremony included the Rapa Nui escorts dressing in traditional Rapa Nui style.

Escorting the Torso

Of course that meant bare feet.

Such traditional dress and bare feet now happen annually, at the week-long Tapiti Festival in early February. This has been going on since 1975. There are a number of athletic contests, including a duathalon involving crossing a volcanic lake on a reed pora and then racing around the lip carrying 50 pounds of bananas. Here’s a depiction of that from the March, 1993 National Geographic.

The Banana Race

Bare feet (and minimal dress) are still part of the festival today.

Waiting for the Haka Pei Banana Trunk Slide

However, barefootedness is dying out. At the festival you’ll see a mix of footwear, with almost all the bare feet on the contestants.

Ready to March in the Parade

Or look at this video of the parade.

Minimal, (somewhat) original dress is quite common. But for some reason so many people seem to think that they need footwear. It rather reminds me of some nudists.

The thing about feet is that you need to keep using them as feet, not as shoe scaffolding, or they forgot how to work as feet.

I’ve also seen pictures of kids playing soccer. About half are wearing shoes and about half are going barefoot. You can see this transition with the curanto stone oven used during the Tapiti.

This picture is from Thor Heyerdahl’s visit in 1988.

Curanto 1988

And here’s a recent one.

Recent Curanto

They do know how to do it right (barefoot), though. As part of the tourist show, they show it with more traditional dress.

Demonstration Curanto

[Photo from tripadvisor.com.]

It sure appears to me as if bare feet are “celebrated”; they’re just not used much any more.

Barefoot Rapanui Boy

Sure, they remember their heritage (which is a lot better than I can say about the United States), but it appears they have been lured into going for the temporary ease of footwear that weakens the foot overall and makes it harder and harder to go barefoot when you might want to.

One hopes that they also aren’t acquiring the USan perception that there is something wrong with bare feet except in the context of Tapiti or honoring their ancestors. How would a barefooter be perceived by today’s Rapanui?

It might be an interesting trip to go there to find out. (Well, that, and all the interesting moai and culture and people and caves and volcanoes . . .)