纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 070复活节岛雕像（7）（在线收听）

So, a populous island, effectively organised, practising religion in a carefully structured, competitive way, and then, quite suddenly, around 1600, the monolith-making stopped. No-one has a very clear idea why. Certainly all islands like this are fragile ecosystems, and this one was being pushed beyond what was comfortably sustainable. The islanders had gradually cut down most of the trees, and had hunted land birds almost to extinction. The sea birds moved away, to nest on safer offshore rocks and islands. It must have seemed as if the favour of the gods was being withdrawn.

The islanders responded by changing their religious practices, turning to a ritual that, not surprisingly, was all about the scarce resources. The Birdman cult focused on an annual competition to collect the first egg of the migrating sooty tern from a neighboring islet. The man who pulled off the feat of bringing an egg back, unbroken, through the sea and over the cliffs, would for a year become the Birdman. Invested with sacred power, he would live in isolation, grow his nails like bird talons, and wield a ceremonial paddle as a symbol of prestige. And surprisingly, we can tell this story too, through our sculpture. Rather than being abandoned along with the other monoliths, Hoa Hakananai'a was moved, placed in a hut, and entered a new phase of his life, now part of the Birdman cult.

如此说来，这个岛屿人丁兴旺，组织有效，还有精心架构、充满活力的宗教仪式。但到了公元一千六百年左右，雕像制作突然停止了。没有人知道具体原因。不过有一点很明显，所有类似岛屿的生态系统都十分脆弱，而复活节岛上的状况已经恶化到了无法让人类舒适生活的地步。岛上居民逐渐把植被砍伐殆尽，将鸟类捕杀绝迹。而海鸟，尤其是乌燕鸥则迁到了更安全的岩石和岛屿上筑巢。在他们看来，这一切必定是因为神灵收回了眷顾。

当君士坦丁堡人通过回顾古老的宗教事件来应对眼前的危机时，拉帕努伊的居民发明了一种新的宗教尝试，自然转向了一种完全与稀缺资源有关的仪式，后世称为“鸟人崇拜”。这种仪式以一年一度的竞赛为主，参赛者要去邻近的岛屿收集迁居的乌燕鸥本年下的第一枚鸟蛋。能够穿过海洋和峭壁将鸟蛋完整带回来的男人便成为这一年的鸟人，被赋予神圣的能力，必须独自居住，将指甲留长模仿鸟爪，并挂一根仪式用的船桨作为地位的象征。我们现在能讲出这个故事以及岛上宗教仪式的变迁，全靠我们的何瓦何卡纳奈阿。它没有像其他雕像一样被遗弃，而是参与了鸟人仪式，被搬到一间棚屋中放置，从此进入了生命的新篇章。