Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script. History, Traditions, Texts.

Rongorongo: The Easter Island Script. History, Traditions, Texts. (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics Anthropological linguistics is the study of the relations between language and culture, and the relations between human biology, cognition and language. This strongly overlaps the field of linguistic anthropology, which is the branch of anthropology that studies humans ). By Steven RogerFisher For other people named Roger Fisher, see Roger Fisher (disambiguation). Roger Fisher (born May 28, 1922) is Samuel Williston Professor of Law emeritus at Harvard Law School and director of the Harvard Negotiation Project. . Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1997. Pp. v+ 714. This volume comes across more as a documentation of the history andtraditions of Easter Island research than of the history and traditionsof Easter Island itself. Given the scarcity of information concerningthe enigmatic script, interpretation of which is the analytic focus ofFisher's book, this choice is understandable. The work is dividedinto three main sections: history, traditions and texts. The first partcontains a comprehensive review of the research relating to therongorongo script. This account is, for this reader at least, somewhatmarred by the author's prolific use of adjectives such as'eminent', 'honest', 'bizarre', and'outre' to describe other researchers' personalities. Inthis section is included the, not previously published, fieldnotes ofthe ethnologist eth��nol��o��gy?n.1. The science that analyzes and compares human cultures, as in social structure, language, religion, and technology; cultural anthropology.2. Katherine Pease Routledge. This material allows us anintriguing glimpse into Rapanui society of the beginning of thiscentury, along with an image of the obstacles confronting a womanresearcher at the time. In this section is also included what Fisher claims to be the:'first scientifically verifiable reading of the structure of mostrongorongo inscriptions' (p. viii). His approach of relying mainlyon internal analysis of the script seems sound, and on this basis hereaches a classification of it as being a combination of logography andsemasiography. That is, the script seems to employ simultaneouslyprinciples of pictorial representation and more abstract signs such asaffixation Noun 1. affixation - the result of adding an affix to a root wordsound structure, syllable structure, word structure, morphology - the admissible arrangement of sounds in words2. , compounding, and order. On the basis of his insights intothe possible workings of this type of script, the author proposes areading of the inscriptions RR 8v, 10 and 11 (p. 258). He reads them ascosmogonic cos��mog��o��ny?n. pl. cos��mog��o��nies1. The astrophysical study of the origin and evolution of the universe.2. A specific theory or model of the origin and evolution of the universe. chants, with the structure 'x copulated with y: thereissued forth z', thus resembling other creation chants such as theHawai'ian Kumulipo. As Fisher mentions elsewhere (in Reading Rapanui's Rongorongo,1997, Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on EasterIsland and East Polynesia), he announced what he terms as hisbreakthrough in reading the script at the Seventh InternationalConference on Austronesian Linguistics. What he describes as receivingan 'immediate and enthusiastic endorsement of the world'sleading Austronesian linguists', could equally well be described(as a member of that audience, though not counting myself as an experton the subject matter) as the silence that follows when nobody quiteknows what to say. This however is not to say that there are weightyreasons to deem Fishers interpretation as off mark, the point is thatthere is simply not enough material on which to base the judgement. The second part called 'traditions' contains muchinformation of great interest about Rapanui society and culture at aperiod of great transition. There is however a tendency to dismissaspects of this information, out of an adherence to a view of culturecontact as identical with contamination. Although source material shouldbe approached with a critical attitude, I believe that there is more tobe gained from a heightened awareness of local communicative practicesthan from dismissing so-called informants as not reliable sources ofinformation. The presentation of what constitutes the main basis for probableinterpretations of the script, that is, the old Rapanui language, isbased on earlier writings. The description of contemporary Rapanuirelies heavily on Veronica De Feu's analysis. As Ulrike Mosel (inOceanic Linguistics, Vol. 36, No. 1), points out, a striking feature ofRapanui is its showing traces of ergativity ergativityTendency of a language to pair the subject, or agent, of an intransitive verb with the object, or patient, of a transitive verb. This contrasts with the situation in nominative-accusative languages such as Latin or English, in which the subjects of both transitive (a feature most commonlyassociated with West Polynesian languages). I mention this aspect, asthis linguistic feature (1), used in combination with (2) tense/aspectmarkers and deixis deix��is?n.The function of a deictic word in specifying its referent in a given context.[Greek, display, demonstrative reference, from deiknunai, to show; see deik- is commonly employed in Polynesian narratives to(1)mark agency, that is, lay down the implicational lines betweenactants, and (2) to anchor the narrative in space/time. The second pointmay be of relevance to the interpretation of the shifting positioning ofthe glyphs, or again it may not. It is easy to get hooked onspeculations in this field of research. Finally, the issue of chronology is important and may be contestedby archaeological findings which were accessible at the time ofpublication. On pages 366-67, Fisher posits the possible date for thearrival of people to the Easter Island as approximately 100 AD. Recentexcavations down to bedrock level at Anakena, led by Prof. ArneSkjoldsvold at the KonTiki Museum in Oslo, demonstrates no certaindatings before the year 1000 AD. Current consensus among Austronesianlinguists is that the 'proto-Rapanui' left Marquesasapproximately 100 AD, and some hypothesise Verb 1. hypothesise - to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds; "Scientists supposed that large dinosaurs lived in swamps"conjecture, hypothesize, speculate, theorise, theorize, hypothecate, suppose that the intermittent yearsmay have been spent on Mangareva. This issue is of relevance, not onlyas it concerns the reliability of data Fisher's chronology is basedupon, it also bears upon the issue of tradition and cultural'purity' mentioned earlier. If Mangarevan society wasresponsible for contributing to what may be described as'pure', old Rapanui, why should such influence be dismissed ascontamination in the interpretation of later periods? To conclude, the complex aesthetics and morality which have servedto lend the particular shape to Easter-Island's Rongorongo may begleaned occasionally with the help of the information gathered in thisvolume. For that, this reader is more than grateful. Ingjerd Hoem University of Oslo The University of Oslo (Norwegian: Universitetet i Oslo, Latin: Universitas Osloensis) was founded in 1811 as Universitas Regia Fredericiana (the Royal Frederick University