Articulating Rapa Nui : Polynesian Cultural Politics in a Latin American Nation-State / Riet Delsing.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Delsing, Riet, Author.

Contributor:

De Gruyter.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rapa Nui (Easter Island people)--Ethnic identity.

Rapa Nui (Easter Island people).

Rapa Nui (Easter Island people)--Politics and government.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 pages) : 11 illustrations, 1 map

Contained In:

De Gruyter Plus.

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, [2015]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

text file PDF

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One. Challenging the Nation- State

Chapter 1. Chilean Colonization and Rapanui Resilience

Chapter 2. Integration into the Nation- State and the Beginnings of a Rapanui Identity Discourse

Chapter 3. The Road to Self- determination

Part Two. Polynesian Cultural Politics and Global Imaginaries

Chapter 4. Rapanui Appropriations and Re sis tance

Chapter 5. Performing Culture

Chapter 6. Vanaŋa Rapanui

Chapter 7. Kaiŋa Rapanui

Chapter 8. The Polynesian Homeland: A Sea of Islands

Chapter 9. Rapa Nui as Fantasy and Commodity

Conclusion

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)

ISBN:

9780824854614

OCLC:

1013946134

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.