{"collection":"Sacred Texts -- Pacific Islander Religions","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei62_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei62_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_pac_ei_ei62_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/ei62.htm","summary":"This is an English-to-Rapa Nui vocabulary list compiled by William J. Thompson as part of his 1891 documentary report on Easter Island (Te Pito Te Henua). The list contains several hundred entries organized alphabetically by English word, covering everyday vocabulary including body parts, natural features, animals, tools, actions, and social roles. It represents one of the earliest systematic attempts to document the Rapa Nui language for an English-speaking audience, reflecting the late 19th-century ethnographic tradition of cataloguing indigenous languages alongside broader surveys of Pacific Island cultures. Notable entries include culturally specific terms such as \"moai\" (image/statue), \"rongorongo\" (the island's undeciphered script system, rendered as \"write: motu rongo-rongo\"), and \"kai tangata\" (cannibal), gesturing at Easter Island's distinctive archaeological and cultural features. The list also includes anatomical and sexual terminology recorded with unusual frankness for its era. As a primary source, it is most useful to linguists, historians of Polynesian languages, or researchers studying how 19th-century naval officers and ethnographers documented Pacific cultures \u2014 it makes no argument but serves as raw lexical data from a contact-period documentation effort.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island: Vocabulary","tradition":"Sacred Texts -- Pacific Islander Religions","translated_text":null,"word_count":1137}