rough draft kinda

Tiffany Davis

Dr. Sonia Apgar Begert

English 102

25^th November, 2014

The Collapse of Easter Island

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 the Island’s society collapsed, what the primary geographic causes of Easter Island’s collapse were and what the differing opinions and studies on those causes are. Studying Easter Island’s collapse is important because with todays’ environmental problems we need examples of societies that failed so that we can learn from their mistakes. With all the global warming concerns, we need to see where past societies went wrong, so that we do not perpetuate their mistakes.

Easter Island’s society collapsed due to deforestation and environmental degradation that was caused partially by environmental fragility but primarily by the island’s expanding population, agricultural methods, and cultural beliefs. I show this by first showing when Easter Island was settled, because without knowing when they started one has no time frame for how long it took to destroy their fragile environment. Then I will present my main argument and show that deforestation happened before the European arrival. This will help me then present and argue against my opposing argument that Easter Island collapsed due to the European’s arrival.

The original settlement date of Easter Island has been disputed by a handful of scientists. Terry L. Hunt states in his article, “Rethinking the Fall of Easter Island,” that there are not enough radiocarbon dates to show that Easter Island was settled before 1200AD, and thus it must not have been settled until 1200AD.

However, the majority of the scientific community have come to the consensus that Easter Island was settled no later than 800AD (Flenley and Butler, 101). This timeframe is supported by dating “… burned charcoal, annual sediment layers, swamp cores, appearance of rat bones, and declines in numbers of bones of native birds killed by settlers (Diamond, “Easter Island  Revisited,” 1693). Helene Martinsson-Wallin and Susan J. Crockford further expand on the question of when the Easter Islanders arrived in their article, “Early Settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island),” by further analyzing the soil samples, carbon dates, burned charcoal, and bones found on the island. 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.

The Easter Islanders’ deforested their island almost entirely before the European’s arrived in 1700 AD (Diamond). They were cutting down trees for agricultural needs, burning trees for fuel and heat, and cutting down trees to move their giant stone statues. Replacement trees did not have enough time to grow.

 Jared Diamond was a crucial source for obtaining evidence that Easter Island collapsed due to deforestation as opposed to the European’s arrival as some would argue. Jarred Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, and a world renowned geographer whom has studied Easter Island extensively. With Diamond’s book, Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Survive, which was published in 2006, and his article “Easter Island Revisited,” which was also published in 2006, he shows that deforestation began almost immediately after settlement of the island occurred, reached its peak around 1400AD, and was complete by approximately 1600AD (Collapse, 107). Thus, the Europeans did not arrive until after Easter Island was already deforested and doomed to collapse. More recently scientists such as John Flenley, Kevin Butler, and Paul Bahn have been supporting Diamond’s works by reinforcing his evidence by disproving the information used in an attempt to discredit him by Terry L. Hunt and Carl P. Lipo.

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

More recent writers that support Diamond’s works are 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.

Rats were not the primary cause of deforestation as they arrived with the Europeans, and they did not eat the trees. They only ate the seeds, someone had to cut down that last tree. Disease was also not the primary cause of the collapse of Easter Island, as the diseases, slave trade, and other European impacts did not occur until after the Islanders had already destroyed their environment.