The Survival of Easter Island
Dwindling Resources and Cultural Resilience

Jan J. Boersema reconstructs the ecological and cultural history of Easter Island and critiques the hitherto accepted theory of its collapse.

Jan J. Boersema (Author), Diane Webb (Translated by)

9781107027701, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 April 2015

308 pages, 44 b/w illus. 4 maps 1 table
23.7 x 16.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.65 kg

'The Survival of Easter Island – Dwindling Resources and Cultural Resilience by Jan J. Boersema is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in the cultural and environmental history of Rapa Nui. Jan J. Boersema, who is Professor of Principles of Environmental Sciences at Leiden University, is known to have been a critic of the wildly popular 'collapse theory' for many years and presents here an impressive body of work once and for all disproving it … Jan J. Boersema is to be commended for presenting such a conclusive body of evidence …' Anette Kühlem, Rapa Nui Journal

In this book, Jan J. Boersema reconstructs the ecological and cultural history of Easter Island and critiques the hitherto accepted theory of the collapse of its civilization. The collapse theory, advanced most recently by Jared Diamond and Clive Ponting, is based on the documented overexploitation of natural resources, particularly woodlands, on which Easter Island culture depended. Deforestation is said to have led to erosion, followed by hunger, conflict, and economic and cultural collapse. Drawing on scientific data and historical sources, including the shipping journals of the Dutch merchant who was the first European to visit the island in 1722, Boersema shows that deforestation did not in fact jeopardize food production and lead to starvation and violence. On the basis of historical and scientific evidence, Boersema demonstrates how Easter Island society responded to cultural and environmental change as it evolved and managed to survive.

1. Easter Island as an icon
2. From the east or the west?
3. The green past
4. Culture appears, nature disappears
5. Makemake, moai, and the tangata manu
6. Resilience and sustainability
7. Foreigners
8. Christianization, sheep breeding, and research
9. The earth and Easter Island: doom and destiny.

Subject Areas: Deforestation [RNPD], Environmental management [RNF], Archaeology by period / region [HDD]