After doing a bit more reading I am a little more convinced by the
argument that a significant cause of the deforestation was to provide
the wood to move the statues. Whether this was religious or not is
unclear, although that is plausible. It may be in part this need for
groups of people to outdo each other. Each Easter Island statue has to
be bigger and better than the last. A bit like our Olympic Games, or the
building of cathedrals. The instinctive drive for growth.
Nigel
On 10/10/2012 07:20, Jeff Berkowitz wrote:
Yes, I agree. I believe that work originated here:
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/feature/rethinking-the-fall-of-easter-island/1
"Feature" article, so apparently not paywalled - I'm not a subscriber, but
I can see it.
Jeff
On Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 2:27 PM, David L Babcock <[email protected]>wrote:
On 10/9/2012 11:53 AM, Nigel Dyer wrote:
I had thought that they destroyed their own environment through
overharvesting and overhunting, ie the population was to large to live
sustainably. This is not a particualrly religious reason. I had also
gathered that the statues etc were an attempt to appease their gods in the
hope that the gods would get them out of the mess that they had got
themselves into. No Gods appeared to wave their magic wands. I've had a
quick look at some of the summaries of "Collapse" and that seems to be what
J Diamond says as well
Nigel
On 09/10/2012 14:36, Jed Rothwell wrote:
<[email protected]> wrote:
The Easter Island society ran out of wood and could not fish. The society
died out.
They did not die out. They were still there a century or two later when
Europeans showed up. Granted, they were in dire straits. They destroyed
their own environment, apparently for religious reasons. See J. Diamond,
"Collapse."
- Jed
Just read, in Nat. Geographic, article on Easter Island. The best going
theory now is apparently that the rats that the first settlers brought with
them (as food stock, probably) were wildly successful. (No natural enemies).
They ate all the tree seeds and the forest died out.
Has the sound of truth.
Ol' Bab
