Settlement and Cultural Evolution:

The extreme isolation of Rapanui, was not obstacle so that the human being discovers and it colonized, its small size and limited natural resources, contrast with the spectacular cultural development reached by its inhabitants; what has stimulated the emergence of varied and imaginative interpretations that the lessen the merits reached by this human group, reflecting the ignorance and the prejudices of many Westerners regarding this culture.

Leaving aside these explanations concentrates on the current scientific evidences and informations contributed by the oral tradition Rapanui. Indeed, the comparison of the linguistic elements of the Rapanui, they point out us that it comes from the oriental Protopolinesio, it leaves of the great family of austronesian languages, spoken from Madagascar and the Malay archipelago that enter Polynesian with their first residents through Tonga and Samoa and they populate Polynesian from Marquises and Tahiti to New Zealand, Hawai and Rapa Nui.

Also investigations in Archaeology, physical, and cultural Anthropology support their population's polynesian origin. According to these toward the century V of our age coming settlers probably of the Marquises islands they settled down in Rapa Nui, beginning the establishment in the territory, the establishment of cultivations with vegetable species introduced from Polynesian, the construction of ceremonial altars (Ahu) and the megalithic statues (Moai), concepts that although they exist in the Polynesian area, in Rapa Nui they reach monumental dimensions.

According to an interesting version of the oral tradition, The territory of the Ariki (King) in the land Maori of Hiva, called Marae Renga, as well as their second residence, Marae Tohia, began to be flooded of sea (I te aua ia a Roroi i pari mai ai te vai ki runga ki te kainga), in times of the Ariki Roroi A Tiki Hati; the fourth in the genealogical line of 10 kings ("Ariki Motogi") that culminates with Hotu A Matu'a (Son of Matu'a), the king settler of Rapa Nui that today knows how Hotu Matu'a.

Hotu Matu´a requests the fortune-teller Haumaka, member of his court, the search of a new land to save his people, in an astral trip the spirit of Haumaka moved toward the East going by a series of islands, until reaching an eighth earth. There he identifies to "Ko nga Kope Ririva Tutuu Vai A Te Taanga" (the beautiful son of Taanga that are on the water) referring to the three islands in front of the Rano Kau, (Motu Kao kao - Motu Nui - Motu Iti). The spirit of Haumaka traveled by the Island identifying a total of 28 places with its names, until arriving to the bay of Hanga Rau (Anakena), identifying it as the worthy place for the King's landing.

Seven browsers are correspondents to discover the new land and to prepare the arrival of the settlers, establishing the first cultivations of Uhi (yam) in the crater Te Manavai (Rano Kau). Finally the King's arrival takes place Hotu Matu´a and the Queen Avareipua, in Hiro Moko and Hanga Ohiro, respectively (both ends of the Bay of Anakena).

When comparing the legends with the scientific evidences, it stands out the coincidence that locates the origin of Rapa Nui them in Polynesian, when referring to the country of Hotu Matu´a how Maori, and to be identified as Hiva, existing several islands in the Marquises with that name (Hiva Oa, Nuku Hiva, Fatu Hiva).

Following the legends of the Island, once settled down in their new homeland, Hotu Matu´a commends the Maorí (sage) Ngatavake to establish the division of the territory and the location of the main establishments, contributing this way to humanize the space, even the unknown moment. It is necessary to highlight that recent investigations have demonstrated the probable employment of astronomical and geometry knowledge in the location of the first establishments, especially in the imaginary triangle conformed by Anakena (place of arrival of Hotu Matu´a and Avareipua), with Akahanga (place of the tomb of Hotu Matu´a) and Ahu Te Peu (place of the Queen's tomb Avareipua).

In the following millennium, well-known as phase of the Ahu Moai, the population increases gradually, as well as the number of establishments, the Ahu is enlarged and Moai receives every time of more size, the society becomes more complex and stratified, and the clans compete in being able to, toward the end of this period of cultural development, these they unite in two confederations; while the Clans of the northwest half form the "Mata Tu´u Aro ko te Mata Nui" with its center of power in Anakena, and the clans of the south this they conform the "Mata Tu´u Hotu Iti Ko te Mata Iti" with its center of power in Rano Raraku - Tongariki. This period culminates with the deforestation of the Island and the exhaustion of the ground, the wooden lack impacts the fishing of high sea, for the impossibility of building crafts.

This crisis unchains a series of wars among the two confederations that weaken the power of the Ariki Henua (King) and the descending aristocracy of Hotu Matu´a (Ariki Paka), increasing the power of the Warriors (Matato´a). Parallelly the pull down of the Moai, and the abandonment begins from the cult to the deified ancestors that they represented for the statues, this dark period, well-known as Huri Moai, culminates with the emergence of the cult to the Tangata Manu (Birdman) that determines the new order of the power, when being exercised by the boss of the conquering clan by one year, this last autarchical phase of cultural development culminates in the decade of 1860 with the pro-slavery expeditions, the arrival of missionaries and the epidemics that determine the end of the old culture and they take to its population near to the extinction.

In the following decades the population survivor is forced to abandon their ancestral establishments, and they are confined in Hanga Roa, being dedicated the rest to the cattle exploitation for foreign companies, the Annexation to Chile doesn't change the situation of exploitation and isolation in that the Rapanui people lives, those that were not in the practice considered as Chilean citizens, without right of leaving Hanga Roa and less than the Island, newly the Chile will react in 1965, pressed by the rebellion headed by the teacher Alfonso Rapu, dictating a Law that will incorporate to the island to the country and it will finish with the isolation of Rapa Nui, however the land will continue being controlled in its bigger part of the the state until the present.