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The Tangata manu ("bird-man," from tangata "human beings" + manu "bird") was the winner of a traditional ritual competition on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to collect the first sooty tern egg of the season from the nearby islet of Motu Nui, swim back to Rapa Nui, and climb the sea cliffs of Rano Kau to the clifftop village of Orongo.
Makemake with two birdmen, carved from red scoria. Makemake (also written as Make-make; pronounced [ˈmakeˈmake] in Rapa Nui [1]) in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the "Tangata manu" or bird-man sect (this sect succeeded the island's more famous Moai era).
In the cult of the birdman (Rapa Nui: tangata manu), a competition was established in which every year a representative of each clan, chosen by the leaders, would swim across shark-infested waters to Motu Nui, a nearby islet, to search for the season's first egg laid by a manutara .
According to Rapa Nui mythology Hotu Matuꞌa was the legendary first settler and ariki mau ("supreme chief" or "king") of Easter Island. [1] Hotu Matu'a and his two-canoe (or one double-hulled canoe) colonising party were Polynesians from the now unknown land of Hiva Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Fatu Hiva, Mount Oave, Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Fenua.
Motu Nui (large island in the Rapa Nui language) is the largest of three islets just south of Easter Island and is the westernmost place in Chile. All three islets have seabirds, but Motu Nui was also an essential location for the Tangata manu ("Bird Man") cult which was the island religion between the moai era and the Christian era (the people ...
Precise reading of these designs varies. The birdmen are popularly interpreted as Makemake, a fertility god and chief god of the birdman cult. [40] This cult, said to have replaced the older statue cult, was recorded by early European visitors. [41] It involved an annual competition to retrieve the first egg laid by migrating sooty terns.
The Rapa Nui people were devastated by raids of slave traders who visited the island in 1862. Within a year, the individuals who remained on the island were sick or injured, and lacking leadership. The survivors of the slave raids had new company from missionaries, who converted the remaining populace to Christianity.
In Rapa Nui language, ana means cave and tangata means man, but kai could have several meanings. [3] American archaeologist, Georgia Lee, proposed that the name means "cave where men eat", "cave where men are eaten", or "cave that eats men". [1] [2] This name may be related to legends that cannibalism occurred in the cave, but evidence is lacking.