Ritual of Stone

by Jeff Barbour

ISBN: 978-1-84728-183-8

Publisher: Lulu.com

Rights Owner: barbour

Language: English

Country: United States

Edition: Second Edition

Paperback book $14.95
Download $5.88

Printed: 220 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, black and white interior ink

Download: 1 documents, 20325 KB

Description:

Easter Island - Te Pito O Te Henua - "Navel of the World":

For seven centuries, they worked the compressed volcanic ash of Rano Raraku crater. Seven centuries of shaping stone in their father's images. Seven centuries of separating tuff from caldera, tree from root, present from past. Seven centuries of muscling moai from stoney wombs to earthen altars among the high cliffs and low island coastlines. Seven centuries of ever larger and more massive tributes to a pattern laid down by long-dead ancestors.

Seven centuries of the Ritual of Stone...

How did it end?

Why did it ever begin?

What can it teach us today?

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Independent (third Party) Book Review [ No Rating ] 27 Sep 2006 (updated 3 Oct 2006)

by barbour

Ritual of Stone Book Review

In his newest book Ritual of Stone (Golden Phoenix Publishing, 2006) author Jeff Barbour presents his readers with a multidisciplinary study of the history of Easter Island and with it a parable for understanding the human condition.

Barbour weaves together much of what is known and surmised about Easter Island (known by various other names) from disciplines including biology, ecology, geology, anthropology and more. From these facts and theories: the story of Easter Island’s geologic creation, its discovery by stone age Polynesian explorers, the growth, prosperity and evolution of its unique culture that sculpted the moai (stone heads) it is famous for, and its eventual dissolution up to our present time is explained.

"… the island lacked any trees taller than ten feet, and its people were of little technical sophistication, Roggeveen was unable to explain the statues’ existence… it was clear that Het Eiland van Pasen [Easter Island] held a mysterious legacy from a far more glorious past."

However, Ritual in Stone does not limit itself to simply relating the complex and fascinating history of Easter Island as the casual reader of titles might assume. With great cultural respect and sensitivity, Barbour offers us a perspective of the island’s history that becomes an easily understood parable. This parable has much to teach us about what happens when our world becomes increasingly crowded and as the social and ecological networks supporting life come under increasing stress. Our trajectory, we begin to realize, may be similar to that of the island.

"We begin our quest for insight with one main thought: There are limits to everything. To believe otherwise is an act of faith – not reason. Our Earth, like the island of Te Pito Te Henua [Easter Island], can only stretch so thin before rents and tears damage its natural systems irrevocably."

Lest his readers despair, Barbour is optimistic about the future, and even offers some practical suggestions for avoiding the disasters that befell Easter Islanders.

"Our fate and that of the planet is not sealed. We have it within our grasp to seize the moment and redirect the trajectory of the future."

This book will be of great interest to the reader who enjoys anthropology or has ever been interested in the mysteries surrounding the stone idols of Easter Island. Not so much a scientific treatise as a compendium of current knowledge and theory of Easter Island combined with a "handbook for planetary survival". Ritual in Stone provides a fascinating fact-filled historical narrative from which to begin to understand the dilemmas facing us today while offering constructive ideas towards allowing the human species to spend some more time on this, our island planet, Earth.

Review by Bill Fleming of Olympia Washingon, USA

This review has been reformatted for HTML presentation on this website and has been posted by the author (Jeff Barbour) without content modification. Futhermore Bill was encouraged to provide a completely independent assessment of the book Ritual of Stone as possible.

Other Comments by Bill:

The story of Easter Island is one that more parents should know and share with their children.

Bill Fleming

http://home.earthlink.net/~billfleming/

[ 2 responses ]

Re: Independent (third Party) Book Review [ No Rating ] 27 Sep 2006 (updated 28 Sep 2006)

by barbour

I took Bill's comment about parents sharing the story of Easter Island with childen to heart. Here is an abbreviated version of the Easter Island story that - perhaps with some slight modification of language - can be shared with children age 7 and older...

--------------------------------------------------

Part I: Easter Island, Long Ago & Far Away

Once upon a time a Great People traveled by sea in long wooden ships seeking a new home for themselves. Led by a Great Leader, this People-of-the-Sea had left another, older home far behind them.

The home the People-of-the-Sea left behind had been found many years earlier by another Great Leader who, with his people, had also traveled across the ocean in long wooden ships. Though many years separated the two Leaders, both looked for the same thing - a place for the People-of-the-Sea to live, grow, and prosper.

Both peoples left their old lands for one very good reason: Each land had grown old and could no longer provide everything needed. The islands aged because the People-of-the-Sea and their Great Leaders did not know how to prosper themselves without taking too much from the land they lived on.

The People's old island was dying. Their new island would die too.

Like other leaders before him, the Great Leader did find a new home for his people. The island itself told him where to find it. For it is known among the People-of-the-Sea that birds fly many miles out to sea, eat well, then return home. Following the birds back was the Great Leader, his friends, and their families in their great ocean-going canoes. In those canoes the People-of-the-Sea carried everything needed to begin anew.

Yet there was one thing missing from those canoes - wisdom...

To start again, the People-of-the-Sea needed fresh water, food, clothing, shelter, and warmth. It was the island that would provide all these things. But the island could only give so much, for only so many, for only so long. Eventually the People-of-the-Sea, now become the People-of-the-Island, did what had been done to the old island left behind long ago - they took everything the new island had to give.

In this way, the new island died even as the old one had.

The People-of-the-Island did not take without giving something back. For the People made many large and wondrous stone statues and worked very hard to move the statues many miles across the island. There the People stood the statues tall and serene near the sea. As ocean waves broke against the high stony cliffs, the Great Statues kept watch over the Island and its People.

What did these Great Stone Statues see?

Continued as Part II

Re: Re: Independent (third Party) Book Review [ No Rating ] 27 Sep 2006 (updated 28 Sep 2006)

by barbour

Part II: Easter Island, Long Ago & Far Away

They saw the People quarry, shape, and move ever more statues like themselves. These too were placed with their backs to the sea alongside the Old Ones on sacred sites. Together Old Statues and New watched as the islanders increased their number and prospered as a People. Together, they watched as tree after tree fell to the woodsman's axe and as the wind carried the fertile soil of the island far out to sea. Together, they saw the islanders destroy the very island that nurtured and prospered them as a Great People.

What the Stone Statues did not see was a new Great Leader stand up and speak saying: "Enough of statues. Let us take heart of our island even as we revere the Statues overseeing us. Let us work to make our island young once again. Let us grow back the trees. Let us carve new canoes that this newfound wisdom may travel with us to new lands. Let us prosper not only ourselves, but all the world!"

Because such a Leader's Voice went unheard, the island died and with that death came that of a once Great People.

The few islanders that remained were later found by an even Greater People-of-the-Seas. This People had traveled across two Great Oceans in Tall Ships filled with Incomprehensible Things. These ships were constructed of fine and highly crafted wood, admirably graced with brass and iron trimming. Their numerous sails billowed white and proud in the gleaming sun. This New People wore fine clothes and carried knowledge of a much greater world. They looked upon the Stone Statues in wonder. "How could such a poor people create such Great Things?” Puzzled, but pressed to find other lands without thought of dwelling thereon, the New People boarded their Tall Ships and took their leave.

After watching the fine sails of the Tall Ships sink below a distant horizon, the islanders looked upon the Stone Statues who had watched without comment as the ancestors killed the island, and as an even Greater People moved among them and looked upon the island's desolation.

Then the islanders did what had been done after the last Great Statue was placed on the high cliffs. They made war. And with war they threw down the many statues wrought by the ancestors. The island, weary and beaten, could no longer even make claim to any virtue whatsoever for all its suffering...

Today, the People from across the Two Great Seas prosper - even as the world grows old. The Tall Buildings they came to erect listen mutely for a Great Leader to say, "Enough of Tall Buildings. Let us take heart of our Earth even as we revere our many Great Accomplishments. Let us work to make our Earth young once again. Let us grow trees. Let us carve out of this world New Canoes that we may carry our Newfound Wisdom to new island-Earths awaiting us in the Great Ocean of Space."

The End

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