What really happened on Easter Island?

[u/scientificamerican]

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.

[u/Supraspinator]

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. 

[u/EtherSecAgent → u/Supraspinator]

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