urbpan | Part 7, the Bird-man, or Tangata Manu

The bird-man cult or Tangata Manu

The ecological demands of the moai were great. In order to keep producing and transporting larger and larger monuments, trees and shrubs had to be made into tools. A huge work force needed to be fed. The shrubs used to make rope also held the soil together to help make the huge palm forests possible. The great palm trees were harvested to make sea-going canoes, and probably the moai-moving apparatuses. After the trees used to make sea-going canoes were gone, the Rapanui had no way to take to the ocean to fish for tuna and dolphin. The damage to the soil made crops-production more difficult. All the birds that lived on the island were gone, as well as the larger shore animals.

The monarchic rule of the moai culture collapsed. A bloody period of conflicts over territory and resources followed, but eventually the culture stabilized. The people developed new ways of surviving, and of governing themselves. Instead of rule by the king (who came from one clan) being passed through his descendents, rule was dictated by the ritual of the bird-man or "Tangata manu."

Representatives from all the clans of the island gathered at Orongo a site that had always been sacred, on the lip of the Rano Kau volcano. The site overlooks three small islets just off the coast. The representatives gathered just before seabird nesting season. When the first seabirds were seen to land on the islets (as they had for hundreds of thousands of years) the competition was on. The contestants, athletes called “hopu manu,” would have to descend the 1000 foot cliff to the rough water, swim over a mile to the islets, and probably wrestle one another for the best positions at the birds’ nesting areas. The hopu manu waited for the eggs to be laid, and once one was in hand (and put into a carrying basket strapped to the neck or forehead), then he had to swim back to the shore, scale the cliff, and present the egg to his sponsor. The clan whose hopu manu was the first to give an egg to his sponsor would rule the island for the year.

Though it sounds brutal (and led to the depletion of yet another resource), it is thought of as a cultural adaptation from purely lineage-based rule to more of a merit based system.

The Tangata manu is depicted as a man with the neck and head of a Frigate Bird. I got some mixed information about this, from the book, from Dale, and from the Museum on the Island. It seems that the eggs they were stealing came from nesting Sooty Terns. The petroglyphs clearly show Frigate Bird features. Perhaps both birds nested on the islets and the Frigate Bird is more evocative. My creative explanation (backed by nothing whatsoever) is that the chimeric birdman uses frigate bird parts because frigate birds are long distance flyers, and are kleptoparasitic: they feed by stealing fish from other birds (like terns). In other words, the birdman image combines the man with the attributes (stamina, thievery) of the frigate bird. Like it? I made it up.

These are the islets that the hopu manu would swim to.

These are the houses (reconstructed in 1974) that the different clan representatives would sleep in, during the ritual period. They are about five feet high, and the openings to them are about twelve or fifteen inches wide. For sleeping only!

Other things were done more or less in the open. This is a birthing stone, designed so that the delivering mother would face the ahu (and so that the baby could be held up for the moai, and assembled crowd, to see).

Looking up toward the ceremonial village, a gnarled tree has grown (and died? or is it just winter?) Amidst the stones. At the risk of drifting into pop culture, it reminded me of the white tree in LOTR.

I couldn't help but notice life continuing on, as it always does.

This is the only mushroom I saw while on the island, growing out of the ever-present horse manure.

This plastic material that the park department has installed to keep foot traffic erosion to a minimum ensures that only certain species of weeds can grow here (small root structures necessary). If I were in New England, I'd say it's chickweed, but I'm really not sure what it is.