New research however, counters that historical narrative, calling into question the collapse itself with detailed callabrated radiocarbon dates and stable isotopic runs on Rapa Nui among other extensive data, supporting an almost complete opposite of those well-publicized claims of societal collapse which has been one of the assumed narratives regarding pre-Columbian Rapanui prideoration.
The ‘Ecocide’ Theory Fails at the Genetic Level
The standard story of Easter Island’s ‘ecocide’ has been a morality tale about the perils of over-exploiting resources. But, a new study published in the journal Nature is calling that idea into question.
No genetic evidence of sudden population decline in Rapa NuiHundreds of thousands of people left their genomic footprints on Easter Island, hundreds of years ago. Rather, they conclude that the population was in fact large and “increasing between the 13th century and European contact (18th century).
This genetic data runs directly counter to the notion that pre-contact society was about to collapse under its own weight, and demolishes the ecocide story so embedded in our historical accounts since it became mainstream. The team say that this stability is one of the key results from their paper as it shows that the Rapanui were not treating themselves as ‘ecological demons’ in using up all available resources for short-term gain.
Easter Island Is Sowing Sustainable Agriculture
Meanwhile, a different study published in the journal Science Advances opted to focus more on the sustainability of the Rapanui societal system. For a study published in this week’s PLoSONE, researchers turned to rock mulch or rock gardens — an agricultural technique unique to Easter Island where rocks are jumbled together with the soil to keep nutrients in place and retain moisture.
Previously, research had suggested that up to 21 km2 of the tiny island (12% of land) was occupied by these rock gardens, hence requiring large-scale agriculture in place in order to sustain >15,000 people. But the recent study found that less than a square mile of the island actually was rock gardens.
As such, this find supports the idea the Rapanui could have supported a population much smaller than the 15,000 that had been estimated before and nearer to the 3,000 people that were living on the land when European explorers first reached it in the late 18th century. This suggests the Rapanui were able to abstractly balance their scarce resources, which contradicts the ecocide interpretation of the island.
‘If we are going to take a whole culture and treat it like this is the parade example of poor choices or what not to do, then we had better be right because those stereotypes (themselves with powerful affects on people) will fuel,’ said Dylan Davis, who co-authored the Science Advances study. ‘In this particular case the Rapanui survived on one of the most distant spots on earth and, it would appear, they did so quite sustainably until European contact.’
Conclusion
The findings of the study shed a new light on the history of Easter Island and the way we look human resilience and sustainability through time. The results of these studies highlight the possibility that the Rapanui people may have lessons on how to manage limited resources, and thrive in remote, otherwise hostile environments — not just for those working on Easter Island proper but also as a paradigm for testing the long effective ecocide narrative. That is a good reminder for those of us who in academic and non-academic contexts generate simplistic, deterministic narratives about the past, and also when studying ancient civilizations that we need to be cautious and work against our preconceptions being confirmed by affording evidence only selective interpretation.
