The Easter Islanders Rise And Fall Essay example

The original inhabitants of Easter Island serve to show us what the ingenuity of the human spirit can accomplish and the follies that can accompany them. The first islanders were the Polynesians that arrived around 400 AD from south-east Asia. It is estimated that their were between twenty and thirty individuals that made the colossal journey. By the innovation of the double canoe it allowed them to travel a great distance to an island where they could establish a brilliant civilization. There civilization was based on being the best one can be which fostered intense competition between the different clans. Competition brought out the best and the worst in the people over their greed for the resources that the island provided. The†¦show more content†¦In order to advance the islanders society, they began cutting down the vegetation and wooded areas of the island. They found this necessary because by cutting down the trees it allowed for more space for agriculture that t he inhabitants needed to satisfy the flourishing population. It was also necessary because the trees were used for canoes, heating, houses, cooking and poles. The greatest abuse of the wooded area came from the need to move the stone statues from the quarry to different sites on the island. Islanders used the tree trunks as rollers since they had to rely on human power to move them. Excessive use of wooded areas resulted in over six hundred large stone statues being made and most of the forest disappearing by the 1600s. The disappearance of the wooded areas brought about great changes to the islanders way of life. One change was that the islanders could no longer build houses out of wood and instead had to find new places to live. They began living in shelters dug out from the hillside and making reed huts made from the remaining vegetation that grew near the water. The lack of woodlands brought an end to long journeys since the canoes were made of wood. Only reed boats were a possibility that could only travel a short distance. Gathering food from the sea was made harder too. Since nets for fishing were made from the mulberry tree that was no longer available. The diminishing resources resultedShow MoreRelatedCollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond3203 Words   |  13 Pageseveryday life of humanity. These ancient peoples were the building blocks for trial and error, contributing to modern day care and how we govern today’s most successful societies. Surprisingly enough, they were great educators of how societies can rise with control and authority but, even more; on how societies can weaken and crumble when negligent to the environment. In the quotation above by American writer and naturalist Joseph Krutch, we see how his personal perspective on mankind’s desire