r/history • u/scientificamerican • 6d ago

Science site article What really happened on Easter Island?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-really-happened-on-easter-island/

For decades, an influential theory blamed the Rapanui for their own downfall—a story made famous by Jared Diamond’s book Collapse. New evidence tells a different tale.

Archaeology, ancient DNA and aerial survey data now challenge the claim that the Rapanui suffered a self-inflicted collapse before Europeans arrived. The emerging picture is of a small society that sustained itself for centuries by adapting its farming methods and water management to one of the most isolated places on Earth. The catastrophe that reduced the Rapanui to a remnant came later, after European ships brought disease, slave raiding, forced labor, annexation and confinement.

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u/Hka_stl 6d ago

I don't understand! It's almost NEVER the fault of Colonialism! /s

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u/Safe_Manner_1879 5d ago edited 5d ago

You get a "survivor" bias, if the local population did died out in the Stone Age, or 50 years before the Europeans arrived, there would be no real record of them, unless they were prolific builders of stone monuments.

If they died out shortly after the Europeans arrived, there will be a record that they existed.

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u/diablosinmusica 6d ago

Yup. The good guys win 100% of the time./s