ANCR-601 Lessons

Professor Wessex is once again in the front of the class today, though she is still far from a welcome committee. She sits at her desk, largely ignoring her students’ existence in favor of scratching her quill across parchment. As the clock tolls the hour, she rolls the parchment up and attaches it to the leg of a miniscule owl which immediately departs, heading in the direction of the History of Magic office.

With a flick of her wand, the doors are spelled closed as usual. However, the petite blonde continues to slash her wand through the air with precision, muttering an incantation under her breath. Curious at the new development, the students turn to see a glyph taking shape on the doors in fiery red marks which correspond to slashes from the professor’s wand. When finished, she slips the wand into her sleeve without explanation and walks around to the front of her desk to begin the lesson.

Introduction
Last week, we only hinted at some of the misfortune that befell the Rapanui civilization. This week, we will be looking more closely at some historical events that shaped the culture, the magic, and the magical scripts of these people. We will also be investigating some of the general cultural practices of the Rapanui. When we have as little information as we do on a script, the civilization and peoples that used the script can be a wealth of information and context to use as jumping-off point. Much of the history and culture we will cover today will have a specific focus on the script and its use, as Professor Morgan will touch on this area of the world this year as well.

Cultural Phenomena
Before any recorded history of Rapanui civilization, its people are assumed to have conducted their day-to-day lives much like any other ancient magical civilization: they worshipped gods, their magical practitioners were usually in the top tiers of their social hierarchy, and their magic functioned on a very ritualized level. However, because of Rapa Nui's isolation from other areas of the world -- a common theme in Polynesia, and indeed most smaller islands in Oceania -- they have quite a few unique practices.

Magical Practitioners
We know there were most certainly magic users in the Rapanui civilization because of the mysteries they left behind that cannot be explained by Muggles, the residual magic found in many areas (particularly linked with Rongorongo), and the fact that their oral traditions tell us so. From what magihistorians and magianthroplogists have gathered, the witches and wizards of Rapa Nui were called “tangata,” with a qualifier applied to indicate the specific type or area of magic with which they dealt. Two different groups, also called “cults,” were known as tangata manu and tangata rongorongo. It is highly possible that many other cults existed aside from these two, most notably a group of seers or those who practiced specific forms of divination. However, the names and specific descriptions of these or any other cults have been lost to time.

Tangata rongorongo was the cult or group of the scribes, generally. From various descriptions and understanding of cultural values, it has been extrapolated that this group made up the majority of all literate Rapanui. There may have been some other magic users who were literate -- in part or in whole -- but the sphinx’s share of writing was done by this group. This responsibility covered a wide variety of tasks. They were in charge of recording genealogies, -- one of the ways they preserved their history -- creating the artefacts that utilized script-based magic, and recording magical practices. However, due to reasons we will get into later, very few of these records remain.

The tangata manu, on the other hand, were a more hands-on branch of magic users. In modern day terms, these users would be considered experts in transfiguration, many devoting their whole lives to the study. As you may or may not have discussed in your Transfiguration class, human transfiguration was actually quite common in ancient civilizations, despite the fact that it was, and is, very challenging. The tangata manu are examples of this. The majority of the cult was based around perfecting Animagi transformations.

Birdman Cult
By foreigners and outsiders, the tangata manu are termed to be part of the “birdman cult” -- a rather oversimplified name created by Europeans wizards and Muggles. This cult was involved in many different practices that had the ultimate goal of promoting a successful transformation into a frigatebird. Much of the specifics of why this group of people all had the same Animagus form is lost, but some scholars point to the fact that a person's Animagus form is almost always an animal from their native land. In the case of the Rapanui people, a frigatebird Animagus was more likely due to the limited ecological diversity on an island (when compared to larger, less isolated areas). Additionally, others posit that after the establishment of the tangata manu as only transforming into frigatebirds, this may have become an expectation in the Animagi’s mind, and therefore became a self-fulfilling prophecy, even to the point where it became a mental block to those that had different forms, physically keeping them from transforming.

There are quite a few cultural practices that have been ascribed to this cult, the first of which is the ritualistic gathering of eggs. It is unknown what the name of this practice was, but we know the purpose that it served and some of the details about it. The eggs, or potentially part of the embryo, were used in an early, rudimentary potion (also termed a “proto-potion”) that aided the transformation. Interestingly, this proto-potion is another of the many factors that magihistorians point to as a reason for the large number of frigatebird transformations, as the eggs used in the potion were specifically from the frigatebird. Hopefuls -- usually indicated by true dreams from seers or picked by pre-existing tangata manu -- would participate in the hopes of gaining a frigatebird egg in order to be used as part of the proto-potion to help with the transformation.

Although, by “participate,” I do mean “find a non-magical stand-in to participate for them.” The challenge was actually quite dangerous, and included swimming long distances and climbing steep cliffs. It was not considered to be in the hopeful’s best interest to perform the ritual themselves. Instead, they would spend the time during the competition ritualistically chanting ancient spells to aid their representative. Should they win and retrieve the egg, the hopeful was able to craft the aforementioned potion, given many lavish gifts, awarded sole rights to frigatebird eggs and the birds themselves for that year, and usually spent many months in silent contemplation attempting the transformation.

Finally, when speaking of the tangata manu, there is the mystery of the frigatebird glyphs that are very prevalent throughout the island, inscribed on rock faces, in caves, and later, even on the sacred moai. While I will not go into why there were so many of these glyphs just yet, I will talk about their use and meaning. The frigatebird glyph -- a replica of which I temporarily inscribed on the door earlier -- is a phenomenon which has puzzled Muggles for centuries. However, we know that it was one of the many ways that a successful tangata manu showed his or her achievement. It is unsure whether this glyph was used as part of a spell to help the Animagi focus on their form, or was simply a mark of status and rite of passage, but each mark is said to correspond with a new tangata manu successfully achieving transformation.

Foci
Lastly, we have the topic of foci. You will have discussed this subject in your Charms, Divination, and History of Magic classes, to name a few, and we have also touched on the topic slightly. The use of foci, as well as the forms that foci take, can vary widely from culture to culture. Many African peoples, for example, do not use foci at all, while others use staves, song, gems, or even bones.

It is generally hypothesized that for everyday magic, no foci were used on Rapa Nui at all, much like in African civilizations. However, when the need or desire for foci did occur, the tablets inscribed with Rongorongo glyphs served this purpose. These foci would have been non-specific to a person, very much unlike our wands, and instead would have been designed for a specific purpose -- for example, promoting crop growth. Anyone who wanted to cast a spell to promote crop growth would have used that particular tablet, and it would have passed through many hands in its lifetime. The material from which the tablets were fashioned was incredibly specific and it is generally agreed upon that the tablets were exclusively carved on toromiro wood, though eventually, once those trees became extinct, pacific rosewood was used as a substitute. The type of wood was important just as the type of wood used in your wands is important, though they did not have the wide variety of woods like we do in modern Europe.

Reimiro, also called rei miro, were another possible form of foci and another surface upon which Rongorongo was customarily inscribed. These elaborately carved ornaments were worn on the chest, and have been hypothesized to be a more personal sort of foci, attuned to a specific person and potentially even worn daily to aid in day-to-day magic, standing in opposition to the theory that the Rapanui did not use any foci at all,. However, it is pertinent to note that these reimiro would only have been worn by the most powerful and prominent tangata.

Some Background
Until now, you have only seen a few threads of the tapestry of Rapa Nui history. These pieces will aid you in understanding the importance of some of the historical events that have occurred in this island’s past. In its heyday, Rapa Nui is presumed to have been home to a thriving magical civilization rivaling Egypt or the Greco-Roman Empire, which is all the more impressive when you consider its small size and isolation. However, the present day situation and the numerous unsolved mysteries surrounding the island allude to the fact that at some point in the island’s history, the situation drastically changed. While this may not be your typical history lesson -- as names of dates and people are largely guesswork and the order of things is not entirely certain -- we will be going over the many events in Rapanui history that occurred to bring us to the present day.

Beginnings
According to magihistorians and magianthropologists, the first inhabitants of the island were very likely to have come over from surrounding Polynesian islands sometime just before the end of ancient history, around 300 to 400 C.E. Legend tells of a mythical king, Hotu Matu’a, who led his people there in a canoe after one of his followers had a prophetic dream. As the legend goes, he ruled the island until his death, at which time his sons developed their own separate clans.

While there were tribal disagreements and feuds, in general, the society was a very magically open one, weaving magic into the culture seamlessly. Rapa Nui, from what we can tell and from the stories that have been repeated, was the center of much magical experimentation and progress. The island produced witches and wizards of great skill and knowledge, particularly for their time. However, somewhere prior to 1500 C.E., that began to change. The toll of voracious magical exploration and experimentation began to show on the small, isolated island. Due to numerous reasons which we can only guess at, their resources began to run dry and be unable to be replenished, either due to overpopulation and careless use, war tactics, or natural disaster.

Whatever the case, by 1640, the last tree on the island was cut down -- which can be discerned via ecological disturbances -- devestating the entire ecosystem and the system of magic. There was no more wood to use for spell tablets -- their foci. Additionally, there was no more wood for canoes to travel elsewhere to find supplies. Equally harmful -- as you will likely know from Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures -- it upset the ecosystem and food chain and had quite the domino effect. Other plants, which relied on the shade the trees produced, died out or were over-harvested for food, depleting those as well. The animals native to the island started to die out too, with the frigatebird, many species of turtle, and fish as notable examples.

Blackbirding
Civilization as it had been for the Rapanui was not possible, and suddenly (magianthropologists hypothesize) the Rapanui began what would be a long battle for survival. No more were they a beacon of magical experimentation. They had no time for such frivolities. Skirmishes broke out among tribes for what little resources were left which only worsened things. By 1700, nearly all native plants were gone. The complete extinction of what is estimated to be at least half of all native animal species followed. Infighting escalated, and by roughly the 1860s, the island was a completely lawless, orderless wasteland.  

It was in this moment -- when the Rapanui civilization was teetering on the edge of complete collapse -- that the blackbirding ships first came to Rapa Nui. The Peruvian slave ships landed on the shores of the beleaguered island beginning in 1862. Muggles record these ships as attempting to gather slaves to work on plantations back in Peru and, at least partially speaking, they are correct. However, what is not noted in the mundane histories is the real reason these blackbirding ships were sent to Polynesia, particularly the island of Rapa Nui. Word had reached the Peruvians of the society’s skill and prowess in magic, and the current viceroy of Peru -- Melchor de Navarra -- was a wizard who wanted to harness that prowess for his country’s benefit. Slaving ships, usually sailed by European entrepreneurs, swept the seas of Polynesia for just one year, departing by 1863. By then, however, the damage was done. In the beginning, some of these people even left willingly, hoping to escape the near barren, war-torn island. Though they were not aware of the true intentions of the captain nor the craft and would soon regret the decision.

The magical workers were mostly utilized for monument building and weapon crafting, though occasionally they would be put to work alongside their Muggle brethren as well, as magical persons were thought to be more hardy and better workers. The non-magical persons who were accidentally taken were simply used as forced labor on plantations or in mines. Eventually, after much bad publicity and public outcry from the Peruvian commoners, the practice stopped, and non-magical slaves who had been taken were returned to their homes. However, only a few dozen ever returned, and they brought back European diseases that further decimated the island’s population. More, the Peruvian viceroyalty kept nearly all the magical laborers, as they had been safely hidden out of the non-magical public’s eye. Those few wizards and witches who knew of the magical slaves’ existence could not rally the general Peruvian population to free them without calling attention to magic, which was not a very popular thing to do so close to the signing of the International Statute of Secrecy. All in all, it is estimated that roughly 94% of the entire Rapa Nui population either died in the struggle or of illnesses by the end of 1683, and no magical persons remained at all.¹

Breaking Point
For Rapa Nui this was the final nail in the coffin. The slaving raids had left them more or less defenseless and resourceless, and they had nothing with which to combat the new, deadly disease of smallpox. Their situation was bleak, and those survivors attempted desperately to leave, hoping to find a new island to populate just like their legendary king had done so long ago. However, without timber for canoes or other watercraft, they could not hope to do so. Many of the remaining turned to the teachings of the tangata manu of old in order to flee the island, but few succeeded. In times prior to the blackbirding ships, knowledge of the Animagi transformation is hypothesized to have fallen into disuse in favor of battle magic and general hand to hand combat. More, those few that had kept the traditions and knowledge of the tangata manu had been taken by the ships and had never returned. The survivors had only myths on which to base their attempted transformations.

They remembered the egg-gathering ceremonies of old, but the frigatebirds had long ago died out. While it had not been an immediate problem for the tangata manu of earlier years, other birds’ eggs simply did not have the same magical properties. What was more, the exact recipe for the potion could no longer be recalled. With nothing else left to guide them, the stragglers latched onto the practice of inscribing the frigatebird glyph. In an attempt to channel the old magics, the hopefuls carved the symbol in the rocks over and over again -- in caves, on toppled moai, on any surface they could find. It was all to no avail. Anyone who had the ability had already been taken.

Because few of the European explorers saw much use in discovering anything about the natives’ culture, history, myths, or writing, there were no records apart from those which had been held by the Rapanui keepers of history who had perished with the rest of the tangata. By the time the few explorers who did show interest arrived, they could not truly get the whole story or a very accurate picture.² By that point, so much had been lost, the natives themselves could not even be sure.

Closing
While this lesson may have seemed better suited to a History of Magic class, the background and context of a culture is absolutely crucial to understanding the language and script of any given society. This is particularly true in cases where we know as little as we do about the Rapanui. You will need to keep this information in mind over the next three weeks as we discuss the meanings of the signs themselves as well as the few artefacts that have been left behind. Before next week, you have a few assignments to complete, namely an essay to ensure you absorbed the long lecture on history, and a quiz to test your general comprehension.

Footnotes
1. There are likely to have been some Squibs, however, or perhaps there might have been a few children below the age of seven that had not shown signs of magic, but would eventually. Magihistorians suspect this due to the resurgence in the magical population that has occurred in the last hundred years.
2. Despite the fact that the island was visited by European explorers prior to the blackbirding ships, none of these expeditions showed much interest in anything other than personal gain. As an example, the “discovery” of Rongorongo did not occur until 1869, when a Catholic missionary called Eugène Eyraud came to stay on the island just a year after the devastation of the society there.

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Vocabulary
Blackbirding: The practice of kidnapping and/or enticing natives to work as slaves. The moniker “blackbirding” comes from the fact that this -- blackbird -- was a nickname for the various inhabitants of the Polynesian and Micronesian Islands.
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Original lesson written by Professor Venita Wessex
Image credits here, here, and here