What do you think is the best way to pick a leader?

It's a question that has bedeviled humanity since the beginning.

Where should power reside?

Should it be shared or should it be concentrated?

In many societies, elders were considered the most wise, and therefore, they either ruled

or they chose who would rule.

In Irrequire Society, councils of clan mothers, or powerful matriarchs, nominated, installed,

and removed chiefs.

While Tibet was still an independent kingdom, the Dalai Lama, who was both a spiritual leader

and a worldly king, was located by a group of monks specifically trained for the task.

The monks had defined the reincarnated spirit of the former Dalai Lama in a child.

Into that end, they had to conduct all sorts of tests.

The College of Cardinals famously votes on one of their cardinal brothers to become the

new Pope once the old Pope passes away, or tucks into a comfy retirement.

But the people of Rapa Nui may have had one of the most wonderfully unique systems of

picking a leader that I have ever encountered.

What I'm referring to is the event that was one part spiritual, ritual, and one part athletic

contest that sometimes gets called the Birdman competition.

At one point in Rapa Nui's history, exactly when is highly debated, but at one point, the

people of Rapa Nui started worshipping a god called Machae Machae, or sometimes called

Rongo.

Machae Machae was depicted in art and stone carvings as a giant bird.

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