0198566123.pdf

PATTERNS OF LOSS ACROSS ISLAND TAXA 311

already occurred, although the repercussions of this
event were ongoing, and in fact, some statues were
still standing, with the last European mention of an
erect statue being in AD1838 (Diamond 2005). The
coup happened around AD1680, led by military
leaders called matatoa. After this event, a new cul-
ture and some degree of order had developed
around the Birdman cult, which appeared to pro-
vide a mechanism for the distribution of resources
amongst the people of Easter Island. However, it
was a much altered society, in which human strife
and cannibalism were now prevalent features of a
society that had once been so stable and well pro-
vided for that it was able to devote surplus labour
to the quarrying, carving, transportation and erec-
tion of statues weighing between 10 and 90 tons.
Possibly hundreds of people would have been
involved in some of these operations, and they

would have required large timbers for the sleds,

ladders, levers, and ropes needed for the move-

ment of the statues. At the time of European con-

tact, the human population was estimated at about

3000, a figure at which it may or may not have sta-

bilized (Erickson and Gowdy 2000). Unfortunately,

the interaction of this society with the outside

world generated a further collapse, this time

fuelled by introduced diseases (e.g. smallpox

epidemics, Diamond 2005). In 1862, slave traders

forcibly removed about 1500 people, approximately

one third of the population at the time. They were

transported to Peru and sold at auction to work

in guano mines and other menial jobs. Most

soon died, but under international pressure, Peru

repatriated a dozen survivors in the following year.

The survivors brought with them another smallpox

epidemic. By 1872, the population of Easter Island

Forest clearance

for agriculture

and firewood

Warfare

Human

population

growth

Insufficient

good land

Crop

destruction

More food

needed

Soil

exhaustion

and erosion

immigrationHuman Forest

Introduction

of rodents

Eating of

bird eggs

by rodents

Eating of

palm fruits

by rodents

Sea Bird

Resource

Direct culling

of sea birds

Reduction

of sea bird

resource

Felling palms

for statue-

moving and canoes

More land

needed for

agriculture

Food

Prevention shortage

of palm

regeneration

Decline and

loss of palm

tree

Decline of

fishing and

rodents

Rodent

population

growth

Cessation

of statue

building

Human

population

decline

Figure 11.5A hypothetical model to indicate the possible course of events on Easter Island as deduced largely from palaeo-ecological data.
(Modified from Bahn and Flenley 1992, Fig. 191.)