Easter Island: A Tale of Wonder

Through deforestation, resource depletion and population explosion, it is easy to see how Easter Island is a tale of warning, as investigated by the previous few posts. However, many tend to overlook the fact that Easter Island is also a tale of wonder. Against great odds (the most inhabitable and isolated place on Earth, with few resources), the islanders had painstakingly constructed over several centuries, one of the most advanced societies of its type in the world. From the time of settlement to its peak population, they sustained a way of life that not only allowed them to survive, but also to flourish. The moai statues are an incredible example of this, and demonstrated the islander’s triumph of human ingenuity and an apparent victory over a difficult environment.

Meith and Bork’s (2005) study of soil profile on the Poike Peninsula suggested that the Islander’s were practising sustainable agriculture from their time of settlement until A.D. 1300. Even after A.D. 1300 when agriculture became unsustainable due to population growth and soil erosion, there were still example of some settlements using planting pits, which were the most effective and sustainable method of farming.

The Islanders were responsible for the carving, transport and erection of 800 moai statues, suggesting a socially and technologically advanced society. Both the moai construction and the survival of the islanders depended on the resources scattered round the island. A highly complex society would have been required to organise these resources in a way that its society could flourish and create the moai statues. 

If you support the view that the European’s introduction of foreign diseases and slave-trading were the cause behind Easter’s collapse, then Easter would seem even more a tale of wonder, rather than warning. Easter’s society were not the reason behind its collapse, rather it was another society, one that was more socially and technologically advanced than Easter’s, that caused its demise. Benny Peiser (2005) quotes that:

“Yet in spite of exceptionally challenging conditions, the indigenous population chose to survive – and they did…What they could not endure, however, and what most of them did not survive, was something altogether different: the systematic destruction of their society, their people and their culture.”

So if Easter is a parable for today’s society, then maybe we should be flattered that we are being compared to such a socially and technologically advanced society for its time, one that flourished on one of the most inhabitable places and isolated places on Earth, and one that held devoted cultural and religious beliefs. I think this is perfectly summed up in this quote by Mark Lynas (2011):

“Resilience and sustainability are just as likely outcomes, even over the longer term. This, I think, is the true lesson of Easter Island.”