Tiffany
Davis
Dr.
Begert
English
102
20th
November, 2014
1. What
Is my Topic?
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, disease and rats, deforestation and environmental
arguments, and the culture/history/origins of the Easter Islanders.
2. What
was the larger subject area?
I
started out only knowing I wanted to research Easter Island. There are numerous
different conversations regarding Easter Island, everything from cultural
debates, soil analysis, the settlement of Easter Island, and the collapse of
Easter Island.
3. How
did you narrow it?
Knowing
that I had to make my paper argumentative I focused on the issues of Easter
Island that created the most controversy. Those issues were the settlement of
Easter Island (when and by whom) and the collapse of Easter Island (what were
the primary factors). From there I determined that studying the collapse of
Easter Island would be much more interesting to me and my readers, but that I
also needed to show when the Islander’s arrived in order to establish the
timeline for their collapse. I have decided not to enter into the debate over
where the Islander’s came from as it is tangential information for my paper and
I would not have enough space given the project parameters.
4. How
did you search for and collect information?
I
first grabbed a couple of well-known books I had already read in high school by
Jared Diamond. Then I used ProQuest an online database from the local library
and Academic Search Premier in order to find scholarly articles. I used google
once, but I was not pleased with the quality of sources it provided so I
discontinued using it as a search engine. Once I had several sources from
different databases I choose the key ones I found most relevant to my topic,
printed out their bibliographies, and searched for their sources. I also found more sources along the way by searching
for the sources that were quoted within my articles.
5. What
are the main threads in the conversation of ideas?
a. What
are other people saying about the issue?
Some
people are saying Easter Island collapsed due to the European’s arrival and
introduction of rats, diseases and the slave trade. Opposing arguments state
that Easter Island was already doomed before the Europeans arrived on Easter
Island due to deforestation and the overall degradation of their environment.
b. What
are the main areas of investigation or argument?
The main arguments lie around the timeline of the collapse
of Easter Island. Firstly, some argue that the Easter Islanders arrived at a
later date than scientifically shown previously. Then some argue that Easter
Island was not deforested by the time the Europeans got there, and thus the
rats that ate the trees seeds were the cause of deforestation. There are also
debates as to how many people lived on the island, which also influences the
rate of deforestation.
c. What
are the main voices in the field (conversation), or the major groups, parties,
or camps?
Jared Diamond, John
Flenley, Kevin Butler, and Paul Bahn vs. Terry L. Hunt, Carl P. Lipo, and Paul Rainbird.
6.
Is your draft at least
2,500 words in length not including works cited page?
a.
Yes or No?
No.
b.
If so, great! How many
words?
None.
c.
If not what sort of
added depth or detail do you still need to add?
I need to write the paper…
No comments:
Post a Comment