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doublec | 2 years ago

The “Easter Islanders cut down all their trees and collapsed society” as posited by Jared Diamond has long been disproven https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rethinking-easter...

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brabel|2 years ago

Your article says: "It’s therefore possible that it was the newcomers from Europe who contributed to the island’s societal collapse in the years to come."

Right, as usual, the evil Europeans were the cause of the collapse, and the fact that there were no trees left on the island for hundreds of years prior, and therefore no wood for building things, had absolutely nothing to do with the collapse. This modern rewriting of history according to modern sensitivities is incredible in a society that preaches to value reason and science rather than wishful thinking.

doublec|2 years ago

Like it or not, it's what current research - the science you appeal to -- appears to show. As stated here:

"...the researchers determined that the island experienced steady population growth from its initial settlement until European contact in 1722. After that date, two models show a possible population plateau, while another two models show possible decline."

and

"Current research shows that deforestation was prolonged and didn’t result in catastrophic erosion; the trees were ultimately replaced by gardens mulched with stone that increased agricultural productivity. During times of drought, the people may have relied on freshwater coastal seeps." [1]

"Evil Europeans" is your term in an attempt to make it seem as if the European culture is being attacked. There is no "modern rewriting of history according to modern sensitivities", it's rewriting of history taking into account new knowledge that Pacific peoples weren't stupid, had spread across the Pacific using navigation methods unknown to Europeans for thousands of years and recognising the effects of the introduction of outside cultures - disease, slavery and theft.

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/3155/resilience-not-co...

Log_out_|2 years ago

Diamond argued for a environment caused degradation + diverse factors of their society and thus indirectly attacked the west-"centric-diabolist meat pots.

These papers are a attempt to reconquer lost funding by the very same academics who happily ignore other cultures atrocities, be they in the past:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultanate_of_Zanzibar

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-african-h...

Or in the present: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/09/23/russia-partial-military...

Its extraordinary that such a blatantly racist (west centric diabolism) and ideological charged movement is still recognized as academia.

huytersd|2 years ago

Sure, but we have a modern day example in Haiti. It’s also common sense in some regards.