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Source

© Larry Low

Folklore Table of Contents

In James Clavell's masterpiece, Shogun, the shipwrecked navigator is of interest to the Shogun because these feudal leaders had overseas ambitions. Blackthorne is soon taken captive and after a softening up stint is taken to a remote village where a house has been built for him.

The villagers are informed in no uncertain terms that if Blackthorne is unable to converse in Japanese at the end of six months, not only will all the villagers be slaughtered, something far worse than mere death will take place. The village will be razed. Trees will be planted. There will be no sign that a community had ever occupied the locale. Their history will be obliterated.

Consequently, the villagers were mindful of the Shogun's admonitions. Blackthorne was subjected to Japanese lessons eighteen hours a day.

The need to have at least somebody recognize that we as a people, whomever we might be,lived, worked, loved and died. This need for someone to understand, how imperfectly, their ancestors experience, is part and parcel of being human.

This need to know the past, perhaps in some measure, explains the source of tremendous dedication and motivation of Sebastian Englert, a Bavarian Capuchin, who was, over a period of thirty-four years, a devoted student of the history and culture of one of the world's most isolated islands. In fact the island was so isolated that it had been termed the Navel of the World.

From a viewpoint, you can look in the direction of all the points on the compass and see nothing but water, which is understandable when you come to realize that South America lies 2,300 miles to the east and Pitcairn Island lies 1,400 miles to the west. The island of Mangareva lies about 1,800 hundred miles to the north-west, but more about that later.

Easter Island is one of the most isolated islands in the world. Its isolation accounts for one of the more challenging anthropological puzzles anywhere on the globe. What we do know with a reasonable measure of certainty is that approximately 1,200 years ago one or more double-hulled canoes filled with seafarers from a distant culture landed upon its shores. Over the centuries that followed a remarkable society developed in isolation. Some historians believe that cultures that remain isolated tend to suffer from this lack of outside influence, resulting in stagnation due to a paucity of new ideas and perhaps even challenges.