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"Easter Island Civilization."
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The Survival of Easter Island : Dwindling Resources and Cultural Resilience
\"In this book, Jan J. Boersema reconstructs the ecological and cultural history of Easter Island and critiques the hitherto accepted theory of the collapse of its civilization. The collapse theory, advanced most recently by Jared Diamond and Clive Ponting, is based on the documented overexploitation of natural resources, particularly woodlands, on which Easter Island culture depended. Deforestation is said to have led to erosion, followed by hunger, conflict, and economic and cultural collapse. Drawing on scientific data and historical sources, including the shipping journals of the Dutch merchant who was the first European to visit the island in 1722, Boersema shows that deforestation did not in fact jeopardize food production and lead to starvation and violence. On the basis of historical and scientific evidence, Boersema demonstrates how Easter Island society responded to cultural and environmental change as it evolved and managed to survive\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
RETURNING TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF AMERINDIAN SETTLEMENT ON RAPA NUI (EASTER ISLAND)
The hypothesis of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) colonisation by Amerindian voyagers has been largely dismissed archaeologically since the mid-twentiethcentury controversy generated by Thor Heyerdahl’s American Indians in the Pacific. The orthodox hypothesis today is that Rapa Nui was settled exclusively by Polynesians who, however, brought the sweet potato and a few other items from South America by return voyaging. This view is challenged by recent evidence that widespread admixture of Amerindian and East Polynesian DNA in East Polynesia, dated to the twelfth to fourteenth century AD, could represent Amerindian landfalls. Reconsideration, here, of putative Amerindian archaeological remains on Rapa Nui—notably the facade of the ceremonial platform known as Ahu Tahiri, circular stone structures known as tupa, and birdman motifs—in the light of recent, largely contextual, research also appears to offer more support for the hypothesis than hitherto. However, the argument is heavily constrained by the long absence of systematic analytical research designed to test such indications, perhaps because marginalising the Amerindian hypothesis suits archaeological perspectives on both sides of the southeast Pacific. The purpose of this review is to encourage new research on the archaeological material in question.
Journal Article
The Simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use
This paper presents a general equilibrium model of renewable resource and population dynamics related to the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model, with man as the predator and the resource base as the prey. We apply the model to the rise and fall of Easter Island, showing that plausible parameter values generate a \"feast and famine\" pattern of cyclical adjustment in population and resource stocks. Near-monotonic adjustment arises for higher values of a resource regeneration parameter, as might apply elsewhere in Polynesia. We also describe other civilizations that might have declined because of population overshooting and endogenous resource degradation.
Journal Article
FROM GENOCIDE TO ECOCIDE: THE RAPE OF \RAPA NUI\
The 'decline and fall' of Easter Island and its alleged self-destruction has become the poster child of a new environmentalist historiography, a school of thought that goes hand-in-hand with predictions of environmental disaster. Why did this exceptional civilisation crumble? What drove its population to extinction? These are some of the key questions Jared Diamond endeavours to answer in his new book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. According to Diamond, the people of Easter Island destroyed their forest, degraded the island's topsoil, wiped out their plants and drove their animals to extinction. As a result of this self-inflicted environmental devastation, its complex society collapsed, descending into civil war, cannibalism and self-destruction. While his theory of ecocide has become almost paradigmatic in environmental circles, a dark and gory secret hangs over the premise of Easter Island's self-destruction: an actual genocide terminated Rapa Nui's indigenous populace and its culture. Diamond, however, ignores and fails to address the true reasons behind Rapa Nui's collapse. Why has he turned the victims of cultural and physical extermination into the perpetrators of their own demise? This paper is a first attempt to address this disquieting quandary. It describes the foundation of Diamond's environmental revisionism and explains why it does not hold up to scientific scrutiny.
Journal Article
Eastern Europe in Icelandic Sagas
Based on the material of the Old Norse Icelandic sources written down in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, this book demonstrates how medieval Scandinavians imagined Eastern Europe. It reconstructs the system of medieval Scandinavian perception of space in general, and the eastern part of the oecumene in particular. It also examines the unique information of these sources, of which the Russian chronicles were unaware.
eBook
DIE SCHRIFTTAFELN DER OSTERINSEL
Die Schrifttafeln der Osterinsel, die unter dem Namen Rongorongo bekannt sind, gelten als nicht entziffert, weil die Lesung durch die Osterinsulaner Metoro und Ure Vaeiko keinen Zusammenhang ergeben oder nicht erkennbar ist, auf welche Tafeln und Zeichen sie sich beziehen. Wenn aber das Thema einer Tafel bekannt ist, werden auch die Namen der Zeichen verständlich, wie sie von den Osterinsulanern genannt werden, und Widersprüche, die unvermeidlich sind, können durch die Untersuchung der Struktur der Zeichen ausgeräumt werden. Das Thema ergibt sich aus dem Zusammenhang und aus der teilweise bekannten mündlichen Überlieferung der Gesänge der Osterinsel. Ihre Grundlage ist die religiöse Gemeinschaft, in die die Jugendlichen durch Initiation aufgenommen wurden, wie es auch aus anderen Stammes- und Hochkulturen bekannt ist. Um die Überlieferung kennen zu lernen, ist es nötig, die heute fast ausgestorbene Sprache der Osterinsel zu lernen, die heute nach dem Namen der Osterinsel Rapa Nui Rapanui genannt wird, und in ihrem ursprünglichen Wortbestand und ihrer Grammatik nur noch in den Schrifttafeln erhalten ist. Außerdem sollte man frei sein von kultureller Voreingenommenheit, die auch als Eurozentrismus bekannt ist, da man sonst nicht in die geheime Innenwelt der Osterinsulaner gelangen kann. Egbert Richter wurde 1938 in Bremen geboren und hat vor und neben dem Studium der westlichen und indischen Philosophie, der Religionswissenschaft und Ethnologie Sanskrit und andere europäische und orientalische Sprachen und Schriften studiert. Seit 1988 hat er an der Entzifferung der Indus-Schrift und der minoischen Schrift gearbeitet, für die er durch die Schriftzeichen der Osterinsel wesentliche Anregungen erhalten hat. Mit dem Zusatz Ushanas zu seinem Autorennamen weist er auf seine langjährige Beziehung zur indischen Tradition hin, die mit der Überlieferung der Osterinsel ebenso verwandt ist wie mit der Kultur der indischen Urbevölkerung.
eBook
Voyage to Polynesia's land's end
Evidence that the earliest settlers on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) may have come from Mangareva and its outlying islands in Central East Polynesia is supported by the journey of the experimental voyaging canoe Hōkūle'a from Mangareva to Rapa Nui.
Journal Article
Easter Island: A Case Study in Non-sustainability
Easter Island is a lonely island on Earth, much like Earth is isolated in the universe. Environmental practices on Easter Island can, therefore, provide useful lessons for environmental stewardship on planet Earth. Despite the isolation, the population of Easter Island thrived, much as it has on Earth. The islanders developed a sophisticated culture that left a legacy of giant stone statues. Yet modern explorers in the 18th century found the statues smashed and a people apparently headed toward civil war. What went wrong? While numerous explanations have been proposed, the most plausible is the non-sustainable use of a crucial renewable resource. Wood was obtained from a slow-growing, subtropical palm and was the pervasive eco-resource supporting the islanders' food (nuts, birds, boats for fish), economy (cooking, heating, housing materials) and culture (moving statues). Documented deforestation, attributable to overuse, resulted in the rapid collapse of the society. This historical example of non-sustainable environmental behaviour by a sophisticated society has many advantages as a case study for the current teaching of relevant lessons in sustainability.
Journal Article
An Ancient Statue's Homecoming
\"A rare stone head is being returned to its home on Chile's Easter Island A huge stone head carved from volcanic ash is turning heads this week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 7-foot sculpture is called a Moai. That is the name given to ancient stone heads on Chile's Easter Island.\" (Time for Kids) Learn about the mysterious Moai of Easter Island. The statue's 70-year journey and homecoming are described.
Web Resource
Velasco, Rosa with Moai Sculpture
one photo of Rosa Velasco with Moai sculpture by Natacha Pisarenko, AP
Web Resource