Causes Of Collapse And Its Effects On The World's Most Remote Human Outposts

In the early 16th century, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the largest ocean in the world ‘O Mar Pacífico’ meaning peaceful sea. What Magellan didn’t know is that his arrival would mark a fateful new era for the inhabitants of the pacific and forever disrupt whatever peace they had before. In “The Other One-Third of the Globe,” anthropologist Ben Finney explains the history the habitation of the Pacific islands. He looks at the complete human history of the islands, not just the colonial period, which was unusual but very refreshing.

The Once-ler was driven by the short-term benefit he saw in the truffula forest. The behavior of the Once-ler can be rationalized by the statement Garrett Hardin wrote, “As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain” (1244). While the Once-ler was driven by short-term benefit he was blinded to the long-term effects of his action. The people of Easter Island had similar circumstances. They too were blind to the long-term effects of their actions. The people saw great spiritual value in the Moai, as stated by PBS’s quote, “believed by most archaeologists to

280). “The oceanic lands and their offshore waters… furnished little in the way of wild vegetable foods to sustain large settled populations,” (p. 280) meaning that a multitude of skills had to be possessed by the pioneers to enable them to survive. They had to improve technology, and increase their knowledge to create working farms as “fisherman and food gatherers alone could not have flourished in any great numbers in remote Oceania” (p. 280). As years have passed since then, globalization has allowed for more specialization in regions, meaning that most people nowadays have skills specific to their region, such as fishing, farming, engineering, or gathering, in contrast to the settlers who had to possess all four and more. Because of increased technology and communication, people can survive almost anywhere without a broad understanding of farming, gathering, fishing, engineering, e.t.c.. Over the centuries, survival has evolved, and by working together, humans have been able to minimize the amount of knowledge necessary to survive, but maximize the amount of interaction and communication necessary for

The Ancient Hawaiian life was based around the ahupua‘a land management system which is used to maintain human life and protecting the upland resources that extends to the coral reef. Overtime, much of this has changed due to major development and modern technology that were introduced to the Hawaiian Island after the arrival of Captain Cook. The Hawaiians lost their connection to the land by no longer perpetuating the Hawaiian values and the idea of being independent. Furthermore, everyone who lives in Hawai‘i lives in an ahupua‘a. Many of the ahupua‘a original names are being used today, but not many people knows its history about the land they are resided in.

In the article by Jared Diamond, many interesting theories are discussed about Easter Island’s history and decline. Diamond makes connections to the environmental challenges we face today and he compares the catastrophe of Easter Island to our current over consumption of natural resources. While this article makes for an interesting read, much of it is offered from a single perspective and little counter evidence is offered. The author writes in a way that could engage a non-academic audience who may not be interested in counter evidence, or proper referencing. The article lacks credibility due to its narrow scope and conversational diction. At the root of this discussion however, is the notion that the Rapa Nui people were

In the essay “Island Civilization: A Vision for Human Occupancy of Earth in the Fourth Millennium” Roderick R. Nash proposes the idea of clustering population on a planetary scale, in order to reduce detrimental environmental impact and deter humanity’s current course leading to self-destruction. In addition, Nash’s plan for an island utopia is a solution to which, he believes, will end this man-instigated desolation of nature and civilization expanding past sustainable limits. However, Nash’s proposition does not take into consideration all the atrocities and the problems that can result as a consequence of instigating his proposal of an Island Civilization. Altogether, Nash’s island civilization would not be a viable option for the future

Throughout the process of colonization, the Native people in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart, Silas Hagerty’s documentary Dakotah 38, and Phillip Noyce’s film Rabbit-Proof Fence, all cope with the on going struggles of being colonized against their will. All three of these sources tell their own, different stories about their same struggles. In both Things Fall Apart and Dakotah 38, the colonizing people create a sense of doubt in the Natives’ cultures; whereas in Rabbit-Proof Fence, the people fight to hold their beliefs by continuing to practice their own traditions.

Historical studies indicate that the New Guinea was one of the hottest countries, insect infested, and occupied by aggressive people. The Imbonggu community is one of the integral parts of the community. William E. Wormsley drew a special insight into the lives of these people after spending several years with them. In his fascinating book, the author uses an incisive, yet articulate, voice to describe the culture, social structure as well as bride wealth, religion, and magic among these people (Wormsley, 1993). During that period, New Guinea was specially known as a man-eating zone. The local people were reputed as cannibals, nasty and aggressive people. Therefore, as the anthropologist of his time, Wormsley was destined to critically analyze the group on their view of the white man. A study that released results that still struck the world with shock (Wormsley, 1993).

The Hawaiians were further depicted as "thieves" like the rest of the "people in Polynesia," and plagued with the barbaric accusation of committing infanticide. These so called "facts" were enough for the Euro-American forces to send out missionaries to regulate the Hawaiian people and take over their land and all their practices. (Stannard, 381- 417)

To get money, a number of people sold their land or their property. As a result, the Hawaiians had no land to make money or food, and they are now stuck in poverty and homelessness. Additionally, when there is little to no land, the amount of resources are very scarce or even lacking completely. According to a letter of distress by Hio, there land is very tiny, and because of that, they have a very small amount of resources. They have no firewood and lai, and the children have to eat raw potatoes.

Despite very similar climates, the histories of Africa and Australia and its surrounding islands have been very different. Consider the theory presented in the text to explain this reality, and assess how it can be applied to North America. This can be applied to North America, due to the fact that as climates and terrains change and diseases take a toll on population, one must adapt with the environment in which we live in.

The humans living in that period were unable to supplement their previous diet, which was rich in protein, and their culture was devastated as a result; this then, is an example of progress (better hunting methods) that led to the failure of an entire culture as its problems were left unsolved. In his third chapter, Wright examines two particular civilizations that thrived but eventually declined due to resource depletion. What is interesting is the similarities that can be drawn from the examples of Easter Island and Sumer, like the widespread ignorance of the masses to actively prevent the abrasion of their land, the perpetual idleness of people to not do anything even when there was enough time to stop the tragic collapse, to current-day situations of people who even flat-out deny climate change and claim it to be part of the left-wing agenda. On Easter Island, it was over-logging that led to their collapse, since as their ecosystem withered away, logging became scarce, and wars broke out for those sparse resources. In Sumer similar environmental destruction occurred (i.e. overgrazing, land clearing), which should alarm the world population of today of what may become of the high levels

Jared Diamond is a professor of Geography at UCLA and a world traveler. He believes that in the past 13,000 years of human history, agriculture has lead humans to conquer, develop and prosper and therefore cause the rise of civilizations. In 1972 he was in New Guinea when he met a local named Yali who asked him a simple question that took years for Diamond to answer. Yali said “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo [goods] and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own”. [Work cited 7] Diamond was profoundly puzzled and couldn’t answer right away. In fact it took him many years to come up with what he thinks is the right answer. ‘Yali’s question’ plays a central role in Professor Diamond’s enquiry into ‘a short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years’, leading him into a wide-ranging discussion of the history of human evolution and diversity through a study of migration, socio-economic and cultural adaptation to environmental conditions, and technological diffusion. (Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel, p. 22-23)

A new land mass was recently discovered with people on it that have a culture unlike any other before it.these people call themselves the ASU people. The ASU people have many behaviors that differ greatly from other cultures. Many habitits performed by the people of this community are destructive and have negative effects. Some of these dreadful effects are long-term and irreversible. This lead the researchers to question why the ASU people would still practice these specific actions habitually.

Analyse the impact of European contact in Māori between 1642 and prior to the sighing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.