{"collection":"Sacred Texts -- Pacific Islander Religions","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei55_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei55_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei55_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/pac/ei/ei55.htm","summary":"This is a late 19th-century ethnographic account by U.S. Navy paymaster William J. Thompson, drawn from oral traditions he recorded during an 1886 expedition to Easter Island; it belongs to the colonial-era tradition of transcribing indigenous myth as historical chronicle. The text narrates the founding of Easter Island: King Hotu-Matua flees his homeland after his brother's elopement triggers a blood feud, sails west guided by the spirit Meke-Meke, and establishes a dynastic order by dividing the island among his six sons. It then traces successive generations of internal warfare, culminating in the extermination of a distinct \"long-eared race\" who had coexisted with Hotu-Matua's descendants \u2014 a claim that anticipates later (contested) archaeological debates about distinct population groups on the island. The account offers a notably specific origin story for Easter Island cannibalism, attributing it not to tradition or necessity but to a particular siege and a petty dispute over the distribution of captives. The narrative voice treats oral tradition as sequential history, complete with named individuals, battle tactics, and even a subplot of domestic intrigue, making it valuable as a record of how 19th-century Rapanui people presented their own past, though readers should approach its historicity with caution.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island: Tradition in Regard to the Origin of The Islanders.","tradition":"Sacred Texts -- Pacific Islander Religions","translated_text":null,"word_count":3062}