The original annotation discusses the 'ecocide' hypothesis that humans were behind the deforestation of Rapa Nui/Easter Island. In recent years this hypothesis has gotten a lot of criticism and the bulk of scholarship (as I understand it) has shifted towards the culprit mainly being rats which came along with the humans and which stressed young and growing trees enough to kill them off and eventually deforest the island, in spite of the people there doing their best to manage them. (Deforestation correlates with introduction of the Polynesian rat quite well, and the drier climate of Easter Island means it would've taken longer for forests to grow back than on islands with a wetter climate where the introduction of rats might not result in permanent deforestation.) Evidence in general points to indigenous Polynesian people being very good at conservation, managing the land, and not overharvesting resources (since doing so on tiny islands in the Pacific is a recipe for disaster). As pointed out on the A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry blog about history, subsistence farmers may not be very book-smart, but they are definitely not dumb; by definition, if a group of people in antiquity have managed to not die out, they know quite a bit about what to it takes to survive.
While this might seem academic, it has a material impact on the lives of modern-day Rapa Nui people, shifting the conversation from "your ancestors were a bunch of dumb short-sighted people who destroyed their own living space" to "your ancestors were good at managing resources (just like their broader Polynesian relatives), until they fell victim to something they couldn't foresee and couldn't do anything about."
While this might seem academic, it has a material impact on the lives of modern-day Rapa Nui people, shifting the conversation from "your ancestors were a bunch of dumb short-sighted people who destroyed their own living space" to "your ancestors were good at managing resources (just like their broader Polynesian relatives), until they fell victim to something they couldn't foresee and couldn't do anything about."
Statistics: Posted by Philadelphus — 19 Apr 2024 18:30