Language at the End of the World (2017)

Language at the End of the World

A crescent-shaped, wooden neck ornament from Easter Island made some time in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Rapanui chiefs signed the document as best they could, with sketches of vulvas and frigate birds, signs familiar from the island’s abundant rock art. Katherine Routledge, a pioneering ethnographer of Easter Island life, was told by her informants that the Rapanui would use these earth ships to “gather and act the part of a European crew, one taking the lead and giving orders to the other.”

Source: www.cabinetmagazine.org