Why is Rapanui argued by many to be an example of Polynesian culture that went wild?

Question

this is for my anthro class

Answer 1

This is the Easter Island culture famous for their stone heads. The island is some 2200 miles from the South American coast and 1,400 miles southeast of Pitcairn Island. It's called the most remote inhabited island in the world.

The isolated island was reached by Polynesian seafarers.about 1200CE (based on some recent carbon-14 testing) Other estimates place settlement at 400CE.

"When Easter Island was first visited by Europeans in 1722, it was a barren landscape with no trees over ten feet in height. The small number of inhabitants, around 2000, lived in a state of civil disorder and were thin and emaciated. Virtually no animals besides rats inhabited the island and the local people—descended from a great line of seafarers, the Polynesians—lacked sea-worthy boats. "

http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0313-easte...

The population was at it's peak estimated to have been 9,000 people. The question then is "how" such deforestation and exploitation of resources occurred in a 500, or 1300 year period.

It appears the hardwoods, used in canoe building, and required for continued trade and contact with the outside world, were all cut down. This left the inhabitants with reed rafts for in shore fishing but cut them off from the rest of Polynesian society.

"The collapse of the culture is usually attributed to a combination of overpopulation, overuse of the land and the cutting of all trees for firewood and log rollers for moving the statues. Dr. William S. Ayres, an archeologist at the University of Oregon who has studied the island agriculture, has found evidence that many of the large fields were abandoned in the 1600's and the people increasingly had to subsist on the produce of small household gardens. Their numbers diminished. "

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.ht...

Basically, the people, or their rulers, got overly fixated on carving stone statues and exhausted their resources in the quest to make more and bigger ones.

Answer 2

More like 'went wrong' than 'went wild'. They cut down the trees and this allowed the topsoil to wash away, leaving the inhabitants starving on a barren rock. This lead to a very nasty conflict, and the population was down to a handful of survivors living in squalor when the Europeans arrived.

They lost any understanding of how they needed to preserve their environment.