Påsköns stenstatyer, moai : Vilket genus representerar de?

Sammanfattning: Abstract. The question in this analysis is which gender moai, the big statues on Rapa Nui, represent. My hypothesis is that they have developed from visual symbols to metaphores in mythologies from an polynesian context. That these statues were symbols for human origin and creation of ancestors ideological power, and gods in consideration male gender. In the long isolation, in both time and space, the mytologies in Rapa Nui was changed, and the pictures got a new meaning. These changes depended on clearing of wood and big trees and the following difficult situation in farming. It led to difficult exposure to climatchanges and much more hard work in the cultivation. This happened in the same time as rapanuis life became more dependent on what the earth could producece because of bad fishing and a growing population. The cult of fertility get a more central place in rapanuis religious life. The male metaphore changes to female when the mother of earth, papa, became the most important spiritual force concerning food supply. I mean that moai follow the mythologies change, and developed in both form, size and contents. The theories behind this discussion is the analysis of Karen Armstrong, in how mythologhies change when human go from hunting- to cultivating society, and where she explain how the gender of gods changes from male to female. I also use theories from structuralism that say that human thinking and building mythologies follow an arcetypical pattern, for us to make our world understandable and organized. This analysis, and changed interpretation of moai from male to female representation, is a critical studie of traditional interpretation to “primitiv” art from aborigines and prehistorical humans. I mean the common interpretation of prehistorical pictures in Rapa Nui have a basic europeen code where an abstract male is standard. My theoretical support here is the analysis of Yvonne Hirdmans of gender from a historical perspective. The most important sources I have use in this work comes from archaeology, ethnology and art analythic work on Rapa Nui, with litterature from Jo Anne Van Tilburg, Georgia Lee and more scientist search from the island. I have also made field studies of my own. I hope this analys can contribute toward a critical view of a stereotypical european norm in interpretation of “primitive” and prehistorical art.