Easter Island is famous for its large stone statues called moai. Moai (like toy) represented deified ancestors and were believed to possess mystical qualities known as mana. The population expended much energy and resources carving, moving, and erecting hundreds of them over several centuries. In 1722, when Dutch explorer Roeggeveen became the first European to encounter Easter Island, moai were in place on the ahus where they were erected.
In 1774, British explorer James Cook visited Easter Island. At that time, he reported that the moai looked neglected and some had fallen over. An expedition in 1838 was the last to report seeing standing moai. By the 1860s no upright moai remained, and the people of Rapa Nui were practicing a wierd cult and social system based on the birdman competition. The birdman cult was one of the strange things about Easter Island that made me think about stuff I usually don’t…
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