article

Rapa Nui cupules: voices of a disintegrating society?

Rock art research: the journal of the Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA) and the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations (IFRAO) • 17 (2) • Published In 2000 • Pages: 99-110

By: van Hoek, Maarten.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document

This article is a survey of a certain type of Rapa Nui rock art called cupules—typically hemispherical depressions made on a rock surface—documenting their different shapes and sizes, their locations, and associations with other petroglyphs and rock carvings such as those of birdmen, fish, canoes and the giant [n]moai[/n] statues. The author focuses on smaller, later cupules, superimposed on other carvings in ordered patterns, surmising they were an attempt to re-sacralize older religious artifacts and extract mana from them.

SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF

Visual arts

Sacred objects and places

cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)

Rapa Nui

HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document

2016

RegionThe area the document pertains to

Oceania

Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region

Polynesia

Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs

article

Evaluation

Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.

Ethnologist

Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.

5: Excellent Primary Data

AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection

Ian Skoggard ; 2012

Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document

1999

Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to

1200–1450

Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)

Easter Island, Valparaíso, Chile

NotesAdditional notes

Maarten van Hoek

Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-110)

LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number

sn 88016029

LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings

Easter Island