Easter Island : Historical Analysis

“Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future.”

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

Waimea Valley located on the North Shore of O’ahu is deeply rooted in the Hawaiian cultures, history, flora and fauna, and more importantly one of a few places in Hawaii that’s untouched by time. In Ancient Hawaiian time, as early as 1092 A.D Waimea was chosen to be an award to the Kahuna Nui in perpetuity due to its lush valley’s and abundant resources. In Hawaiian culture Kahuna Nui were apparently experts in this type of field. Because of that Waimea was home to many in the Kahuna class, thus was now known as “The Valley of the Priests”

The earliest people believed to come to the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesians from the Marquesas and they came between 500 and 750 A.D. Later, in 1000 A. D., the Tahiti came. The Tahiti brought over the belief in gods and social hierarchy, resulting in the hawaiian people following a Kapu system. In `1778, James cook, the first westerner to reach the Hawaiian Islands, paved the way for other explorers to come. James cook name the Islands the “Sandwich Islands” so show gratitude for the Earl of Sandwich. Cook dies a year later because of Hawaiian conflicts on Kealakekua Bay. In 1795, King Kamehameha led a campaign through the Hawaiian Islands, capturing and uniting all the islands under his monarchy in 1810. During his conquest, many ships anchored

The earliest settlements in the Hawaiian Islands were made by Polynesians who traveled to Hawaii using large double-hulled canoes. They brought with them pigs, dogs, chickens, taro, sweet potatoes, coconut, banana, and sugarcane.

Adaptive Failure: Easter's End was written by Jared Diamond and was featured in Discover Magazine in August of 1995, this article was mainly written to discuss the rise and fall of the Easter Island civilization. Easter Island is the world's most isolated habitable land, more than 2,200 miles from the nearest continent (South America), and 1,400 miles from the nearest habitable island (Pitcairn). Diamond concluded that the rise of the Easter Island civilization was around 400 A.D. when the Polynesian ancestors of the Easter Island people.

     The people of Easter Island came over to their new land, and recognized that it was ideal for them to settle. The land was lush; the sea was providing a bounty of fresh fish, and other seafood. The earth was dark brown, and very rich. Everything was just the way it needed to be to support a growing community of people.

On Easter Day in 1722, Jacob Roggeveen would become the first European to discover what is now known as Easter Island . Before the Dutch explorer first set foot on the island, around the fourth century the first inhabitants arrived . As time goes on, the island ecology decreases rapidly because the population drastically increased. This situation connects to the broad topic of humans and the environment because humans tend to overuse their resources, whether it be plants or animals, to the point where they are unable to recover or to the point of extinction. Mass extinction brought on by the overconsumption of the animals and plants by the Polynesian people who inhabited Easter Island caused the collapse of the society and the land unable to

Stony sentry’s, carved years ago by Polynesian craftsmen, gaze over one of the most remote places in the world. With their land enlarged by overuse, islanders now draw on a revival of their culture to attract visitors. I intend to tell about this small island off the coast of Chile named Easter Island.

The common premise of both Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and his scholarly article Easter’s End present rather porous arguments that consist of a few over-looked quirks in his reasoning for self-induced environmental degradation. The first problem to consider is the heavily unreliable use of the Rapa Nui people’s oral tradition, which Diamond has credulously considered to be a source of unquestionable references to base many of his claims that he posits in his works as “facts”. The passages Diamond used to enforce his argument for the Rapa Nui peoples socio-environmental collapse seem to have been twisted in a convenient way to help him get his point across without

Although there are no written accounts of Aruba’s early history, much has been determined by archeological excavation. The first known settlers of the island were a tribe of Arawak natives called the Caiquetios. These people were initially located on the South American mainland, and it is assumed that the Caiquetios migrated from Venezuela to Aruba. Due to its lack of natural resources, it can be assumed that Aruba was merely a stopover for a succession of tribes. They were a peaceful people, living under the guidance of a shaman or priest, who also served as the village-chief. The transient nature of Aruba’s population kept the size of the villages small, usually under fifty individuals. The Caiquetios consumed only

Easter Island’s colossally international identity is mainly associated with its mysterious moai (the island’s statues); however, more recently, Easter Island is being recognized for its depleting resources and wildlife. Apart from the tourism generated by the moai, Easter Island is a popular destination for scuba divers due to its pristine, clear waters. There is concern about Easter Island’s ocean life as it is home to nearly one hundred fifty unique marines species that are gradually disappearing. These aquatic species make up the island’s food source as there are no large, indigenous mammals. In addition to tourism, these fish make up the rest of Easter Island’s economy. Even though humans have played a role in devastating the flora and fauna, Easter Island’s very location works against the native life forms.

When most scientist here, “Tragedy of the Commons” they instantly think about Easter Island and the devistating turn of events that wiped out a whole civilization but for those who have never heard of the tragedy of the commons we first need to understand its meaning beforewe think of Easter island.Tragedy of the commons is basically a Theory in which a group of people sharing a common resource will act selfish in order to guarantee their own survival and not taking into consideration the effect it may have on the said resource. [http://www.uwyo.edu/uw/news/2017/01/new-book-summarizes-decades-of-easter-island-research-by-uw-scientists,-others.html]. We as class tested this theory by creating a “ community of 4 people”. These 4 people don’t

Geologically, Easter Island is one of the youngest inhabited territories on the earth. Its inhabitants, the Rapu Nui, have endured epidemics or disease, famines, slave raids, civil war, cannibalism, and have seen their population crash on more than one occasion. Easter Island is famous for its statues, the Moai. Easter Island is a Chilean territory located in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. It has a population of six thousand and has an area of 163.6 km2 .Easter Island is famous for its 200 stone statues. The Moai as they’re known were made by the local people from basalt stone picks and hard volcano ash. They were made to show remembrance to their gods and ancestors. I will be exploring what caused the downfall of Easter island.

From 1300 CE to roughly the time of colonization was known as the Stonework Era, where the population had fully returned to the shores and stony areas. It was marked by large stone structures and a turn to subsistence agriculture based on pondfield cultivation. Oral history tells that the tarraced and leveled archetecture of the Earthworks and Stoneworks eras were used so that the gods may travel between the upper and lower worlds with ease. Consequently, it was seen that those that built their villages higher would be closer to the gods. The various structures have been given creation stories devoted to certain gods depending on the clan (Liston and Miko 2011). There is a wealth of petroglyphs in Palau left behind by ancestral Palauans, such as one on Ulong island that is 66 feet long which contain boats, human figures, and other more abstract marks which has been connected to the cultural hero Orachel (Parmentier 1987). The islands also were marked by rather constant fighting between various clans in the pre-colonial period. These conflicts were split into two primary groups: raids that involved small parties seeking the head of a single individual or all out wars that would often conclude in the destruction of villages. Headhunting was a common occurrence, and claiming the head of a rival was seen as a way to gain political power and glory. There was a series of