Easter Island: An Introduction

Within a matter of centuries, the people of Easter Island saw their complex society spin into chaos, warfare and cannibalism, they saw their forests destroyed, and their food and animals driven to extinction. How did this happen to the same society that created the famous stone statues, and who built a life on the most uninhabitable place on Earth? The story of Easter Island’s rise and fall is one of both wonder, and warning. 

Walcot and Conrad (2011) suggest that deforestation, population expansion, resource exploitation and warfare are all potential causes for the demise of Easter Island. Could the collapse of Easter Island have been avoided if its people stopped what they were doing - whether it be stopping cutting down their trees  or curbing population increases - or was their fate down to the hands of mother nature. Essentially, was the collapse of Easter Island murder, or suicide?

In a time where resource exploitation, population expansion and unprecedented environmental change threatens our very society, looking back at past societal collapses like Easter Island allows us to investigate the reasons behind their collapse, whether or not it was their own doing, and what we can learn from their mistakes to avoid the same fate.

As this is my first post, I am not going to launch into the nitty gritty of Easter Island now and attempt to answer any of these questions. However, in the following months I intend to unpack some of the mysteries surrounding the collapse of Easter’s society, and the lessons that we can learn from each of the theories of collapse, whether it be deforestion, population expansion, resource exploitation or warfare.  I will leave you with a video that provides a fantastic introduction into the Easter Island story, its geography, people, culture, rise and fall. It sets the scene for the content of my blog in the coming months, and is well worth a watch!