Post #76951 by christiki295 on Thu, Feb 19, 2004 7:05 PM

Good point, Tiki Bars, and thank you for using the original name of Easter Island, Te Pito o Te.

There seems to be a general consensus of approximately just over 100 native Rapa Nui by approximately 1990, which raises ineresting geneology questions. [111 is the number in the site referenced by Polypop].

However, the LA Times article suggests that the original traditional last names of the 39 original clans remain, albeit threatened by intermarriage, etc., which suggests that possibly one can still draw a link to the original descendants of Hotu Matu'a.

True, Jo Anne van Tilburg, her husband and others have discredited Thor Heyerdahl's (RIP) theory that Easter Island was settled from South America [and I suppose it makes a better story to do moving the moai tests using descendants of the original moai carvers].

You, again, raise a most interesting footnote that the Kon-Tiki cruise may have provided the inspiration for Polynesean Pop trend.

I suppose I just like to think that the lineage has not been entirely estiguished, sort of like the question of what is a true Hawaiian.