German–Rapanui Entanglements

Groundbreaking material-visual history and ethnography of German–Rapanui entanglements.

This book traces German-Rapanui entanglements from past to present through encounters between scholars, missionaries, institutions and Indigenous actors, and through the material and visual traces—objects, photographs, and texts—that continue to shape knowledge and memory of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Moving beyond limiting Eurocentric frames, it highlights how Rapanui people have actively engaged with German and German-speaking individuals and institutions to (re)shape different practices and discourses of ‘Rapanuiness’.

The chapters bring these dynamics to life: from Bavarian Capuchin activities that reached far beyond conversion, to collecting and exhibiting networks linking Altötting in Bavaria to Rapa Nui; from German efforts to record oral traditions and the 1957 German–Chilean expedition, to long-term archaeological collaborations at Ava Ranga Uka A Toroke Hau.

Written by scholars based in Rapa Nui, Germany, Chile, France, and the United States, the volume shows how Rapanui communities have shifted from being marginalised in the management of their heritage to becoming key agents in its interpretation and future. Together, these studies illuminate three centuries of entanglement—and their powerful resonance today.

List of figures
Note on the text
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Cristián Moreno Pakarati, Diego Muñoz and Philipp Schorch

Chapter 1. Framing German–Chilean entanglements with Rapa Nui
H. Glenn Penny

Chapter 2. More than conversion : The Bavarian Capuchins and their scientific activities among the Mapuche and Rapanui peoples in Chile
Markus A. Scholz

Chapter 3. Altötting and Rapa Nui : Capuchin and Indigenous collecting, curating and exhibiting
Diego Muñoz and Philipp Schorch

Chapter 4. Rapanui lore as a vehicle to reconstruct local history : The Germanic collecting of oral traditions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Cristián Moreno Pakarati

Chapter 5. Co-construction of knowledge : Thomas Barthel and Rapanui interlocutors in the field
Andrea Seelenfreund and Théo Milin

Chapter 6. Archaeology, community outreach and transforming perspectives : Seventeen years of German–Rapanui collaboration at Ava Ranga Uka A Toroke Hau
Annette Kühlem

Afterword 1. The ambiguity of entanglements : Germans and Chilean colonialisms on Rapa Nui
Rolf Foerster

Afterword 2. Living entanglements
Noah Paoa Kannegiesser

Contributors

Cristián Moreno Pakarati

Cristián Moreno Pakarati is a historian, independent researcher and founder of Rapanui Pioneers Society in Hanga Roa, Rapa Nui.

Diego Muñoz

Diego Muñoz is a social anthropologist and affiliated researcher at the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie (CREDO-UMR 7308, AMU-CNRS-EHESS), France. He was postdoctoral researcher (2020-2024) in the ERC project 'IndiGen' at LMU Munich, Germany.

Philipp Schorch

Philipp Schorch is Professor of Museum Anthropology at LMU Munich, Germany, and an Honorary Senior Research Associate at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Rolf Foerster González

Noah Paoa Kannegiesser

Annette Kühlem

Théo Milin

Glenn H. Penny

Markus A. Scholz

Andrea Seelenfreund

Cristián Moreno Pakarati

Diego Muñoz

Philipp Schorch