Synopsis
This handsome volume is the story of Thor Heyerdahl's love of a mystery--and of an island and its people. Over thirty years ago (from 1989), the man who did such important, pioneering work in Kon-Tiki wrote another best-selling book, Aku-Aku, about Easter Island. More recently, Heyerdahl was invited to return to Easter Island and there confronted the conundrum of the famous, haunting statues that stud the lovely island, massive and mysterious. How were they made? How were they moved? What did the natives mean when they had said, those many years earlier, that "the statues walked"? Who made them--and where did the Easter Islanders themselves come from? What did earlier visitors discover--or believe? It is characteristic of Dr. Heyerdahl's many explorations that his research, his theories, his conclusions all are entwined with objectives greater than mere adventure. Just as his expeditions have been partly in pursuit and proof of his theories that early man traveled further (and faster) than others had previously suspected, and that the peoples of many cultures can work together peacefully, his probes into the past are coupled with an enduring, endearing conviction--never before displayed better than in this volume--that just as we must avoid prejudice in the present, we should not look down on the peoples of the past--for they and we have more in common than it might seem.
Reviews
The title of this book is somewhat redundant, for in 1955 Heyerdahl made his first trip to Easter Island and wrote Aku-Aku: The Secret of Easter Island ( LJ 9/1/58), a popular account of his excavation of the remote Pacific island with its now famous monumental stone statues. In this new book, the occasion for his return to Easter Island after 30 years, Heyerdahl tells the history of the island through the eyes of explorers and travelers, from its discovery by the Dutch in 1722, through Heyerdahl's latest visit in 1986, during which he and his staff resumed limited excavations, and aided by residents and their recall of ancient myths, resolved the puzzle of how the statues had "walked" from the quarries to their places on the island. This book emphasizes the validity of oral tradition in reconstructing the history of a culture and gives due respect to the Easter Islanders and their ancestors. Richly illustrated, it belongs in appropriate history and archaelogy collections.
- Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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