EARLY SCHOLARSHIP... From the days of Reason

Plate XII, Figures 20, Figure 21, Figure 22, Figure 23, Figure 24, Figure 25, Figure 26, and Figure 28. Skulls of ancient inhabitants of Easter Island from (20 and 22) the Smithsonian Institution, (21) Routledge, (25) Lafaille Museum in La Rochelle (brought back by Delabaude), (23 and 24) the same museum, and (26) from Thomson. Some of these skulls have no engraving (23 and 24), while the others are decorated with geometric or zoomorphic designs (such skulls were known as paoko-Iu). If we compare the skull that is photographed in profile in Figure 25 and from the front in Figure 24, which resembles osteologically the skulls in Figures 20, 21 and 22 (with the only difference being that it retains the lower jaw), with, for example, the skull in Figure 23, which is the skull of a Marquesas Islander, it is easy to see that the ancient Easter Islanders, who belonged to a different race from the maoris, had a skull that was much longer, with very developed maxillary bones and a very protruding lower jaw, all of which give it a certain acromegalic look. Comparison with Figure 28 (which shows the Easter Islander “Te Haha” of the Miru Clan and is taken from Figure 213 in Routledge’s book) reveals what these skulls looked like when they had their teeth and were covered with skin and flesh. The skull in Figure 21, which comes from the Miru Clan, is decorated with a stylized manutara bird. The decoration on the skull in Figure 26 (on the left) shows the same bird in full flight, but even more stylized (a similar stylization can be found on the Solomon Islands). This same motif, repeated twice (forming a sort of “W”) can also be seen in Figure 20, carved over another antero-posterior decoration. (See: Easter Island And Its Mysteries, by Chauvet).
http://www.chauvet-translation.com/figurelegends.htm

MODERN SCHOLARSHIP ... From the days of Political Correctness & Expediency.

"In short, blood typing alone is meanigless for comparison of two groups of people whose other physical features are as dissimilar as the 'short, coppery, barrel-chested Peruvian with round head, straight hair and slightly hooked nose' is from the 'tall, brown, stocky Polynesian, with a wide range of head shape, wavy black hair and a rather flat, wide nose'.
Heyerdahl's attempt to link the islander's crania with those of the American continent using George Gill's analysis is a complete misrepresentation of Gill's results: Ameridian skulls display a flat jaw-base, a broad, flat nasal root, and a straight suture of the palate, and it is Polynesian skulls that have the rocker jaw, a deeply depressed nasal root, and a jagged arched suture of the palate. Indeed, the rocker jaw is the most charecteristically Polynesian skeletal trait known to physical anthropology, one that is considered virtually diagnostic of Polynesian ancestry. Its frequency of occurrence on almost all islands, from New Zealand to Hawai'i ranges from 70 to 90 per cent, but is extremely rare amongst Amerindians.
The Easter Island skeletal material Gill has examined so far is of Polynesian type in all these and other features, though its percentages of rocker jaws is comparitively low (48.5 per cent) indeed the lowest known in Polynesia.

See: The Enigmas of Easter Island: Island on the Edge, by John Flenley & Paul Bahn

Whereas the earlier scholarship devoted to a study of ancient skulls found at Easter Island compared "apples with apples", modern scholarship would have us believe that "apples are bananas".

In the earlier era of analysis, un threatened by political correctness, the anthropologists were able to conclude: '.... it is easy to see that the ancient Easter Islanders, who belonged to a different race from the maoris, had a skull that was much longer, with very developed maxillary bones and a very protruding lower jaw, all of which give it a certain acromegalic look.'

In stark contrast to this we now have Flenley et al ignoring the earlier gathered specimens that languish in museums. Tactics are employed that can only be described as "sleight of hand" magician's tricks to distract us from the truth related to the physical anthropology concerning the earliest Easter Islanders (the ones who built the statues in their own likeness and image). So let's explore Flenley's twisted logic.

1. If, in most regions of Polynesia, the incidence of the "Rocker-Jaw" approaches 92%, why didn't the carvers of the great statues include rocker-jaws to accurately depict their revered ancestors.

2. Polynesian physiology can be just about anything you want it to be, as it's an overlay of all manner of admixtures ranging from Micronesia and Asian regions, through Melanesia, the Malay Peninsula and extending all the way to the Marquesas and the Northwest Pacific Coast of America. For this reason, any physical anthropologist, like Flenley, can label virtually anyone he likes as being "Polynesian" with murky academic impunity. The first pre-colonial explorers to New Zealand observed that the Polynesian Maoris had a very high incidence of Caucasoid traits and that many were white with red hair. Maori oral traditions are replete with references to the white skinned stonebuilders who were found in New Zealand when the first Polynesians arrived.

3. In playing out his role as the great "Defender of the Faith", Flenley takes a poke at Thor Heyerdahl and misrepresents his written views. Heyerdahl devoted a large section of his book, American Indians in the Pacific to analysis concerning the many thousands of well-preserved mummies found at Nazca & Paracas, Peru or further north around Lima, as well as in many other regions of South & Central America. He correctly points out that these long-faced, tall people found in the ornate mummy bags were Caucasoid (Europeans), with hair coloration that was blond, red, auburn, brown or hues consistent with Europeans. Analysis of the distictively thin hair (averaging 30% thinner than Inca hair), as well as their blood groups and general physiology, showed that they were Europeans (much taller on average than the latter Incas, who were very racially different). To see some examples, CLICK HERE
These people lived contemporaneously to the creation of the Nazca lines or the construction of the great cities and complexes preceding the epoch of the Incas or Aztecs. Most of the great works extending through Bolivia to Peru and onwards to Mexico can be attributed to these people, who left many statues, motifs or temple murals displaying bearded, white individuals of distinct Caucasoid physiology.
This was the particular strain of "Amerindians" or physical type Heyerdahl was most focused on in his study of the moai statues, artefacts and ancient physical-anthropological evidence from Easter Island, which linked it racially and culturally to the South American mainland.
As can be seen from the photos of very ancient skulls located at Easter Island, there was a definite Caucasoid presence at an early era and the physical type displayed is consistent with recognisable European physiology carved into the multitude of ancient moai statues.

4. Perhaps it's time for Flenley et al to begin listening to and taking seriously the ages-old oral traditions concerning the history of Easter Island, recounted by the elders for the benefit of waves of very inquisitive explorers and scientists visiting the island from the 1700's onwards. These histories spoke with clarity about the tall, red headed, long eared European-types who were found to be living on the island when the first Polynesians arrived. Flenley et al deliberately omit to mention the skeletal evidence and physical specimens gathered by scientists of past centuries. Beyond the lengths of these old specimen dolicephalic skulls, they are invited to look at such features as the squareness of the eye sockets and the triangular or pyramidial-shaped nose cavity, etc., as distinctively Caucasoid crainiofacial features.