Literature Review Final

Tiffany Davis

English 102

11/6/2014

Literature Review

Easter Island has long been a topic of study for scientists around the world. How the people arrived on Easter Island, where they came from, what they brought with them, how they lived, the culture of the island, the famous rock sculptures they built, and how/why their society collapsed. There are many aspects of Easter Island that have been researched thoroughly by numerous scientists and other academics. My research paper however, will focus on the decline of Easter Island. Why did the Island’s society collapse? What were the primary geographic causes of Easter Island’s collapse? What are the differing opinions and studies on those causes? Was it the inhabitant’s destruction of their environment, or other factors, that led to the decline of Easter Island’s civilization? How was their culture related to the collapse of their society? Looking at the primary experts on Easter Island’s collapse and comparing the different arguments will help me show how and why Easter Island collapsed. The majority of my sources fit into three different categories, deforestation and environmental arguments, disease and rats brought by the Europeans, and the culture/history/origins of the Easter Islanders.

            My primary category focuses on the deforestation of the island and several sources fit into this category. Jared Diamond was a crucial source for obtaining evidence for my project. Jarred Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, and a world renowned geographer. With his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Survive, which was published in 2006, and his article “Easter Island Revisited,” which was published in 2006, I can show how Easter Island collapsed due to deforestation. Diamond’s works will be incredibly useful for my argument because his information is backed my scientific data. More recent writers that support Diamond’s works are John Flenley, Kevin Butler, and Paul Bahn with their article, “Respect Versus Contempt for Evidence: Reply to Hunt and Lipo,” published in 2007. John Flenley and Kevin Butler are Emeritus professors from Massey University and Paul Bahn is an archaeologist with a PHD from the University of Cambridge. Their article is more argumentative and responds to opposing arguments from Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo. This article will be very useful for reinforcing my argument and I will use a lot of the information to dispute my opposing arguments. Flenley and Bahn wrote another article on their own that I will use parallel to the one they wrote with Butler, called “Conflicting Views of Easter Island,” also published in 2007. They thoroughly oppose Rainbird and Peiser’s articles that state Easter Island’s collapse was primarily due to visits from Eastern European’s which resulted in the spread of disease and slave trafficking. Flenley and Bahn argue that the community was collapsing even before those incidences due to the deforestation and other effects of the Islander’s inhabitance/practices on that Island. I will use this article to show opposing viewpoints regarding the collapse of Easter Island, and to support my argument that it was deforestation and the islander’s practices that resulted in the collapse of their society, not external factors. Another article that supports my argument that deforestation was primarily due to the people’s destruction of their environment, is written by David K. Foot. Foot’s article, “Easter Island; A Case Study in Non-sustainability,” was published in 2006, and is used by Foot as an example case study showing how deforestation was attributable to overuse and how it resulted in the collapse of Easter Island’s society. David Foot is a professor at the University of Toronto, and I can use his article to further support my argument. On the other hand, Christopher M. Stevenson and four other authors writes their article, “Prehistoric and Early Historic Agriculture at Maunga Orito, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Chile,” published in 2006, which simply delineates scientific data regarding the Islander’s farming practices and circumstances such as deforestation that they had to adapt to. I can use this article to show one of the reasons the Islanders’ deforested their lands (for the sake of agriculture), and to show how the Islanders’ attempts to adapt though valiant were not sufficient enough for their population given their needs.

While still a part of my deforestation category, I have two sources that are tangentially related to the focus of my paper. One is an article by David H. Good and Rafael Reuveny, “The fate of Easter Island: The limits of Resource Management Institutions,” published in 2006. Good and Reuveny are from Indiana University, and though they do not directly oppose my argument, they argue that Easter Island had resource management institutions and that despite these Easter Islands society collapsed anyway. I can use this article to show what resource management institutions they used but it will not help me make my overall argument. Contrary to Good and Reuveny’s article, James A. Brander and Scott M. Taylor argue in their article “The simple Economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus Model of Renewable Resource Use,” published in 1998, that if Easter Island had resource management institutions their society might not have collapse. However, with my other sources in this category I intend to show that one of the causes of deforestation was population expansion beyond what the Island could support. This second article is in opposition to the evidence I have encountered showing that Easter Island did in fact have resource management institutions, and it could be an interesting piece of information for my readers.

            There are several articles that argue that disease and rats brought by the Europeans were the primary causes of population decline and deforestation. One source that argues this is Terry L. Hunt in his article, “Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island,” published in 2014. Terry L. Hunt is a professor at the University of Hawai’i. In his article Hunt attempts to discredit Diamond’s works on Easter Island and Hunt states that the collapse of Easter Island occurred much later than previously believed. I will use this article to show controversy regarding the cause of Easter Island’s collapse. In addition, Terry Hunt pairs with Carl P. Lipo to write two more articles, “Revisiting Rapa Nui (Easter Island); ‘Ecocide’ 1,” published in 2009, and “Chronology, Deforestation, and ‘Collapse.’ Evidence vs. Faith in Rapa Nui Prehistory,” also published in 2009. Carl Lipo is from California State University. In these two articles Hunt and Lipo continue to attempt to discredit Jared Diamond’s works while they argue that Easter Island did not collapse until the European’s arrival. I will use these articles above to clearly delineate the opposing argument and to structure my argument showing that deforestation was the primary cause of the island’s collapse. These articles are useful because they clearly groups together two different ‘sides’ in the debate regarding Easter Islands collapse, Hunt and Lipo align themselves with Rainbird, and they oppose Jared Diamond, John Flenley, and Paul Bahn as a group. In Paul Rainbird’s article, “A Message for Our Future? The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Ecodisaster and Pacific Island Environments,” published in 2002, Rainbird states that we cannot know what happened prior to the European’s arrival, and that the disease and material goods that the European’s introduced to the Easter Islanders was one of the main causes of their societies collapse. Ironically, though Rainbird is grouped with Lipo and Hunt in terms of his argument, after citing them in his paper Hunt and Lipo attempt to discredit him, further validating my argument. The last source I have discussing the impacts of the European’s introduction is very neutral. Lorelei Koss gives mathematical examples in her article, “Sustainability in a Differential Equations Course: A Case Study of Easter Island,” published in 2011, to show how disease could have spread through Easter Island. However, Koss takes no argumentative stance, instead she simply uses simple differential equations to investigate possible sustainability issues as well as other issues the Islanders may have faced. This article will be useful as it provides no argument or biased opinion, it gives a few hard facts and some differential equations for the questions she cannot answer.

            My third category delves into the culture, history, and origins of the Easter Island people. Jared Diamond mentions when Easter Island began in his book Guns Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years, published in 2005 and edited/republished in 1997. This book of Diamond’s is a little broad for my paper’s focus but it does provide a good starting point for determining when Easter Island was inhabited. J.D. Hughes goes much further with his article, “Easter Island: Model for Environmental History?” Hughes states when the inhabitants arrived, what they brought with them, and where they came from which is key to the collapse timeline. I will use this article primarily as a timeline of what happened when so that I can show deforestation was the main cause of the Island’s collapse. I will also use this article to show what the Islanders had in the beginning, because without knowing what they started with, my audience wouldn’t understand what they destroyed. Helene Martinsson-Wallin and Susan J. Crockford further expand on just the question of when the Easter Islanders arrived in their article, “Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island),” published in 2001. They review soil samples, carbon dates, and other scientific data to prove the Easter Islanders arrived when they did. The Islanders arrival date is important because it shows how much time the Islanders had to deforest their island and expand their population before the European’s arrived. Many opposing arguments that believe the Europeans were the cause of Easter Island’s collapse also believe that the Islanders arrived later than they did.

            I have two sources that do not discuss when they arrived, but focus more on what the Islander’s did when they lived there. The first is an article written by Sue Hamilton, Mike Seager Thomas, and Ruth Whitehouse called, “Say it with Stone, Constructing with Stones on Easter Island,” published in 2011. Stone statues were an incredibly important part of Easter Island’s culture. I will use this article to show that the availability of pine trees increasingly declined from AD 1500 and was partially due to the introduction of these famous statues. This article does not go as in depth as I need, however, it also includes various maps of the island that I may use as a visual aid in my own document. Another author that writes more about the cultural aspects of the Island is Paul Trachtman who wrote, “The Secrets of Easter Island,” published in 2002. This article goes along with Jarred Diamonds arguments in terms of the information it provides, however, the only evidence it provides is supported through a verbally transmitted history. This article will not be very useful because it is about what could have been, not necessarily what was. I might use it to quote Trachtman’s personal interview with a surviving descendant because that could provide a useful insight to my readers. 

            Finally, for the conclusion of my third category, I have two sources that discuss the origins of the Easter Islanders. These two articles are tangential to my paper’s focus. First I have Ben Finney’s article, “Voyage to Polynesia’s Land’s End,” published in 2001. Finney discusses where the Easter Islanders moved from, which would be useful, however, it is congruent with the information I already have regarding where the Islanders originated from, and thus only useful to support what I already know. On the other hand, Thor Heyerdahl’s book The Kon-Tiki Expedition: Raft Across the South Seas, published in 1950, has been disproven. I may use this article to show more controversy on the subject, however, at this point it is not a central part of my argument.