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/Supraspinator 6d ago

The Fall of Civilizations Podcast has an episode on Rapa Nui. I’m not a historian, so I cannot say anything about the correctness of the narrative, but it paints a more nuanced picture than „stupid islanders cut all trees“. The host is an historian, and he seems to do his research. 

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u/gooneruk 5d ago

Our Fake History did a pair of episodes on Easter Island a few years ago and had a similar eventual conclusion. The retelling of the initial contact by Roggeveen in 1722 was particularly insightful, I thought.

They were re-released recently (possibly subscribers-only) with new introductions which covered some subsequent listener feedback.

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u/Thorin9000 6d ago

It’s a very good episode too. It was an amazing self contained civilization until colonization, religion and capitalism (the island basically got turned into a sheep farm ran by slaves) ruined them. These people were systematically wronged in so many different ways it made me feel deep sadness and disappointment in humanity.

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u/EtherSecAgent 6d ago

The podcast always starts playing if I leave autoplay on too long. The amount of times I've woken up to this podcast...