Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is best known for its monumental stone images, but the Polynesian sculptors of this remote island also created smaller, wooden figures. Among the rarest of these are the "moai tangata," stocky male figures with somewhat oversized heads, which may depict important human ancestors. Less than a dozen moai tangata are known to exist. Because much of Rapa Nui culture and religion was destroyed through slave raids and missionary activity in the 1860s, little is known of the precise nature or use of these enigmatic images. Wooden images were generally kept in the home, where they may have been used for private devotion. Some examples have holes at the back of their necks and may have been worn as pendants during harvest celebrations. The significance of the mythical creatures that appear in place of hair on the scalps of this and other wooden images is unknown.
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<P>Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is best known for its monumental stone images, but the Polynesian sculptors of this remote island also created smaller, wooden figures. Among the rarest of these are the "moai tangata," stocky male figures with somewhat oversized heads, which may depict important human ancestors. Less than a dozen moai tangata are known to exist. Because much of Rapa Nui culture and religion was destroyed through slave raids and missionary activity in the 1860s, little is known of the precise nature or use of these enigmatic images. Wooden images were generally kept in the home, where they may have been used for private devotion. Some examples have holes at the back of their necks and may have been worn as pendants during harvest celebrations. The significance of the mythical creatures that appear in place of hair on the scalps of this and other wooden images is unknown.</P>
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