The Statues That Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island

Joshua Sandoval

University of Hawaii, Manoa

10/04/16

HIST 481

Book Review 1

(The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island)

When learning about different historical events, society can take what they learn about them in two different ways; they can accept what they have been taught, or raise questions about the specifics of the event. In the book The Statues that Walked, authors Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo originally accepted the history they were taught about the Rapa Nui people but when researching, they started to create a new theory of their own of the Polynesian people. The book gives greater understanding on the moai found on Rapa Nui.  A moai is a large stone figure that was carved by the Rapa Nui people. 

The main subjects of the book are the Rapa Nui people. The Rapa Nui are Easter Island natives. The Rapa Nui people settled on the island somewhere between 1200 AD. The island was visited by many Europeans from 1722 to 1786. A big part of what the Rapa Nui people are known for is there multiple moai creations found on the island.  While researching, Hunt and Lip started revealing possibly a new truth about not only the Moai but the history of the Rapa Nui people and how the community collapsed. The book gives the reader insight not only on the Rapa Nui people but insights on other Pacific islands. The main goal of the book is to unveil the mystery behind Easter Island and its people. The book gives a different theory then the original one created by Jared Diamond in his book titled Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Hunt and Lipo argue that past researchers did not have the whole story. This book review will give the reader a greater understanding on the authors who researched on the theory, the experiment to test the theory, and the conflicting point of view they are arguing against. 

Terry Hunt is not only one of the two writers of the book but an enthusiast of Easter Island history. Hunt began his educational career at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology in 1976. Hunt obtained his Master of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Auckland in 1980. He then continued his education to obtain a Ph. D in Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1989.After completing his education, Hunt went on to teach at the University of Hawaii, while also conducting archeological research in the Pacific islands for about 30 years. He worked in multiple Pacific locations such as the Hawaiian Islands, Fiji, Samoa, New Guinea, and Rapa Nui. In 2001, Hunt shifted his focus more towards archeological research in Rapa Nui. The research examines the role of the colossal monuments or moai in Rapa Nui. Hunt has published in multiple scholarly journals for his research done in pacific islands. Hunt’s work has been published in Journal of Archeological Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Rapa Nui Journal, Journal of the Polynesian Society, and many others. In 2005, Hunt was awarded the University of Hawaii Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching. In Hunt’s most recent work, he released a book with Carl Lipo titled The Statues that Walked which will be discussed later on in this paper. The book won the Society for American Archeology Book of the Year award in 2011.