From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui

@article{Peiser2005FromGT,
  title={From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui},
  author={Benny J. Peiser},
  journal={Energy \& Environment},
  year={2005},
  volume={16},
  pages={513 - 539}
}
  • B. Peiser
  • Published 2005
  • Engineering
  • Energy & Environment
The ‘decline and fall’ of Easter Island and its alleged self-destruction has become the poster child of a new environmentalist historiography, a school of thought that goes hand-in-hand with predictions of environmental disaster. Why did this exceptional civilisation crumble? What drove its population to extinction? These are some of the key questions Jared Diamond endeavours to answer in his new book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive. According to Diamond, the people of Easter… Expand
View on SAGE
blc.arizona.edu
58 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
3
Background Citations
20
Methods Citations
2

58 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Revisiting Rapa Nui (Easter Island) “Ecocide”1
TLDR
This paper considers chronology, causes and consequences of deforestation, agricultural strategies, statue transport, and the evidence for ancient population size and its demise, and offers alternative perspectives emerging from a variety of recent research. Expand
Rethinking Easter Island's ecological catastrophe
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has become a paragon for prehistoric human induced ecological catastrophe and cultural collapse. A popular narrative recounts an obsession for monumental statuary that led to… Expand
Survivre aux fins d’un monde
EnglishEaster Island is an emblematic case of socio-ecological collapse in environmental history, where two theories clash. The most famous is the ecocide thesis, which makes the Rapanui people the… Expand
Ecocide and Empire in Jeanette Winterson’s The Stone Gods
ABSTRACT This article argues that Jeanette Winterson enciphers The Stone Gods with allusions to Rapa Nui’s colonial history. Specifically, Winterson’s speculative sections re-enact a forty-year… Expand
Why Easter Island collapsed: an answer for an enduring question
Easter Island is the most isolated inhabited spot on Earth, devoid of heavy timber and most resources. Yet, the first European travellers to the island marvelled at large and delicately carved… Expand
The Blued Trees Symphony as Transdisciplinary Mediation for Environmental Policy
As the devastating impacts of anthropocentric behaviors have emerged in the Anthropocene, the specter of globalized “ecocide” has also emerged, requiring creative policy solutions. The *Blued Trees*… Expand
Natural and anthropogenic drivers of cultural change on Easter Island: Review and new insights
Abstract Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is a remote Pacific island known for its megalithic statues, the moai , built by an ancient culture which disappearance is still debated. Theories claiming for… Expand
AN AUSTRIAN REEXAMINATION OF RECENT THOUGHTS ON THE RISE AND COLLAPSE OF SOCIETIES
IN GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL (1997) and Collapse (2005), Professor Jared Diamond argues that geography and environment are the “ultimate determinants” of the fates of societies. These books can be… Expand
Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory: A thorough review
Abstract Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is well known for the enigmas surrounding its unique megalithic statues, the moai, and the prehistoric (i.e., pre-European contact) Rapanui society that built them.… Expand
Contributions of paleoecology to Easter Island’s prehistory: a thorough review
Easter Island (Rapa Nui) is well known for the enigmas surrounding its unique megalithic statues, the moai, and the prehistoric (i.e., pre-European contact) Rapanui society that built them. These… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 85 REFERENCES
A message for our future? The Rapa Nui (Easter Island) ecodisaster and Pacific island environments
The unique archaeological remains of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in conjunction with its geographical position have led to a special interest in this place. What has become the orthodox understanding of… Expand
'Is Humanity Suicidal?' Are There Clues From Rapa Nui?
INTRODUCTION Bahn and Flenley (1992) suggested that the Rapanui provide a rare example of cultural suicide, in a scenario which had them exploiting their forest ecobase l so heavily that they… Expand
A New Green History of the World: The Environment and the Collapse of Great Civilizations
Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Clive Ponting's book studies the relationship between the environment and human history. It examines world civilisations from Sumeria to ancient Egypt,… Expand
The myth of the noble savage
In this important and original study, the myth of the Noble Savage is an altogether different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was… Expand
Environmental predictors of pre-European deforestation on Pacific islands
TLDR
Comparative analyses of deforestation lend themselves to much more detailed interpretations than previously possible and might be relevant to similar deforestation-associated collapses in Japan and highland New Guinea or the lack thereof elsewhere in the world. Expand
The Idea of Decline in Western History
From Nazism to the Sixties counter-culture, from Britain's Fabian socialists to America's multiculturalists, and from "Dracula" and Freud to Robert Bly and Madonna, this work examines the idea of… Expand
The Oldest Toromiro in the World
Ironically. the best known tree of Easter Island, the Sophora toromiro (Philippi) SKOTTSBERG, or commonly, the torO/1l1ro and sometimes miro, no longer grows there. at lea t not in the wild. The… Expand
Ecological Crises or Marginal Disruptions: the Effects of the First Humans on Pacific Islands
There is considerable debate concerning the effects of the first humans on the environments of the Pacific Islands. Much disagreement has arisen because of the differing techniques used to fix the… Expand
Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture
Since Easter Island (Rapa Nui) was first discovered nearly 300 years ago, its people, culture and monolithic statues have been seen as an unsolvable riddle. At the heart of the so-called mystery… Expand
Easter Island: historical anecdote or warning for the future?
Two standard solutions for the ‘Malthusian Trap’ involve institutional reforms and technological progress. Using Easter Island as an example, we investigate the hypothetical role that technological… Expand
...
1
2
3
4
5
...