Moderator:
1) What is Easter Island’s society like, how was it set up? What role do you personally play in your tribe on Easter Island? (chiefs and commoners)
I selected this question because from the reading, the society they had set up played a major role in the decline of the civilizations on Easter Island. These roles created conflicts with other tribe leaders.
2) How did you manage to transport the massive stone statues? What did they mean to you and your culture at that time?
I chose to ask this specific question because this is what we have all been wondering. How is it possible to move extremely heavy stones with no modern technology? I want to discuss everyone’s thoughts on this topic.
3) What crops did you grow on your farms, and how did you get them? How do you protect them? (bananas, taro, sweet potato, sugarcane, and paper mulberry, chickens) (carried products from their homelands) & (using lava rocks to shield plants from strong winds, dry, and cool climates)
I picked this question because it is not something I or others have thought about when talking about Easter Island. It is important to talk about because it had an impact on the downfall of the society and resources on this island.
4) How has deforestation impacted your livelihood and safety on Easter Island? What do you think caused it?
This is another question/topic that is important to note when it comes to what happened to the individuals on Easter Island. It relates to the collapse of the civilization that Diamond talked about in chapter 2.
5) What do you think needs to be done to reduce the issue at hand? Do you think it’s possible to save your society?
This question concludes what could be done to have prevented the downfall of Easter Island. It gives panelists the opportunity to discuss ideas that would have helped.
Character 1:
Character Description: I am a decedent of the great Polynesian Chief Hotu Matu’a (‘the great parent’). His life has been orally preserved through generations, explaining his great expedition on canoes. Around A.D 900, he predicted a new island’s location by winds, currents and particularly flocks of nesting seabirds. Our ancestors gathered species of crops and livestock, among taro and bananas. Brought pigs, dogs, and chickens to our new home, Easter Island. Our nearest neighbor, Polynesia’s Pitcairn Islands 1,300 miles to the west. We always felt alone, we were the first and last to live on Easter Island.
Brief Essay: It was said that Easter was a paradise of native birds, trees, and fertile grounds. They say when Hotu Matu’a arrived, the Island was the richest breeding site in all the Pacific. Now we do not even see a flying bird, but we did have lots of chickens and rats. Only those two survived the expedition. And the ideal haven of breeding site, is now full of invasive species such us and rats.
We were of 12 territories, each having different resources, and each having to get permission from the other to cross territories. We did live in harmony at first, and only competing peacefully through who can build the biggest statues (moai), houses for the elite and temples. I was the chief of Tongariki territory (called Hotu Iti) we contained the sources of Rano Raraku crater and moss for caulking canoes. I made sure to work my farmers to clear trees for agriculture. I commanded for more chicken houses (hare moa) to sustain our lifestyle and feed our working men. There was more hare moa than moai.
I needed to provide enough food for my men to continue transporting the statues. Even when my farmers complained, I commanded them to keep harvesting, this lead to deforestation and soil erosion. Our trees were unable to grow quickly to sustain rainfall, still I did not listen. Our ancestors spoke of Easter as the most fragile land unlike other Pacific Islands, but we continued to live without honoring it.
I invested all our resources in building statues, my reputation was far more important. Indeed, the Rano Raraku tuff is the best stone in the Pacific for carving, so carving we did. We have turned a subtropical forest of tall tees and woody bushes into wasteland. Our wood resources have diminished to the extent that we could not keep warm or continue our cultural ceremony of cremating. We drank sugarcane juice due to the limited source of fresh water on the island. We had no coral reefs to provide a less carbohydrate diet, so we ate what was left, rats.
Things got bad fast. My people were hungry and cold. I broke my promises of protecting them and finding bountiful harvests from the Gods. Their anger grew, an epidemic of civil war was just the beginning. The military leaders matatoa overthrew me. The other chiefs were murdered…the last of my days are spent in a cave, hiding.
Please forgive me, Easter.
Character 2:
Character Description: I am a craftsman and fishermen on easter island. I spend my days using the wood to help keep together my canoe and fishing out to feed the local village and my family. I have six children with the oldest being thireteen. I help to feed the community and also provide different fisherman with materials to make their own canoe.
Brief Essay: One of Diamond five factors that would be responded to would be Friendly neighbors — Trade. There are less trees for me to construct of canoes with. I worry because I have less to trade with my tribe for food or clothes. Even with my canoe needing its repairs I have nothing to fix for it and get at least fish for my family to cook and eat. The others around me have the same problem because I can’t trade fish, they can’t trade their own items. Neither can other fisherman who needed to repair their own canoes. We don’t know what will become and we are having trouble working. I am looking to see if anyone needs help around the village now to see if I can still trade for some more food.
My wife is working as well on sewing some clothes for our six children but with less trees less people our trading. We are trying to pray to the gods that we won’t starve. My oldest has now stared to help with what little collecting of food we can do. Our neighbors our trying to still fish but they are unable to go deep enough in the water to find some. My brother says that fishing may not be possible now. We must now rely on the plants though, with the rocks that are on the paths and the fact that there was not many crops we may not live long enough to survive this cruel winter. We are now huddling together for warmth with my brothers’ seven children as our wives still attempt to get some food for our children and us.
Character 3:
Character Description: I’m a farmer and there used to be more of us than just me and grandmother, but when war broke out between camps it was just us in the end. After fleeing our destroyed camp and overthrown chief with a hastily packed sack of tools, fabric, and seeds, I found an abandoned burrow, dug it out until both of us could fit comfortably, and filled in the entrance so there was barely enough space for us to move in and out. The following days I had gathered sturdy stones, created a rickety chicken house, and went to stake out a near by camp. After stealing three chickens and five eggs, I brought them back and stocked the chicken house. I then sectioned off a part of the ground with rocks and began to turn the soil with a carved tool from my pack. With the garden ready I removed the container of seeds and old potatoes I had snatched in the knick of time from our old camp, and plunged them into the earth, spacing them out evenly. Unable to stave off hunger any longer, I slaughtered one of the chickens, cooked it over the fire and shared it with grandmother and we ate until our bellies were aching. Since we set up camp here I have gone out every single day, scouting for threats and hunting the wild rats that scurry between bush like trees.
Brief Essay: Sitting in a damp, dark cave with a watery trickle of light I listen to my mothers mother describe how she used to live and sleep on a flat slab of rock with the stars as her blanket. She tells me how her parents had a grand stone chicken house as big as a canoe, and how she would go foraging for taro, sweet potatoes, and the occasional rat with her siblings. She described the salty and scaly taste of fish and the rarity of finding any with her toothless smile. How I would give anything to try this fish delicacy she raves about. Now, huddled in the confines of this cave, it has been about four seasons since we fled from our camp and family, having eaten a sliver of rat for dinner with a glass of sugarcane water I cannot imagine the grandeur of grandmothers life before. We stitch needle work in the cave and tend to the dilapidated chicken house a few paces from the entrance, crumbling with age. Near the chicken house a garden lined with slabs of rocks houses herbs, potatoes, and sugarcane with a small tree at the edge of the stones. I stare at the small tree that mirrors ever other tree on this island in size. My grandmother told me how maru trees stood as tall as the guardians atop the mountain; now only barren land and the occasional shrub and small tree graces the mountain. She tells me about the forests of maru stretching their arms towards the skies and how all of their ancestors chopped them down for making rope, fuel, and structures. I wonder why they chopped all of them down, leaving none for future generations of families. Grandmother tells me that they did not care nor did a thought of that cross their mind when clear cutting all of the trees. I sigh, and stretch back onto the dirt earth wall of the cavern thinking about how different our lives would be now if our ancestors had been more responsible, more conscious. Perhaps the wind wouldn’t press us so hard, perhaps landslides and erosion wouldn’t carry away homes and farms, perhaps each clan would not have turned against one another and instead lived in harmony. Now our days consist of fear. Fear of neighboring peoples who had once been family coming to steal and hurt, fear of the loss of crop due to exhausted soil and the colder climate, and the new fear of outsiders coming onto the island. Grandmother says the Maoai will protect us. She still thinks the giant stone guardians that her fathers fathers father helped the last of walk across the terrain with the bark rope she still has remnants hidden in a sack in the back corner of the cave will save us. I roll my eyes, those statues are only good for garden fodder and these days, most have fallen over or have been destroyed by angry people or the island herself. The guardians did not stop my ancestors from cutting down the last tree, neither did they protect us when food became scarce and friendly neighboring tribes turned warring and extinct, they didn’t protect us from the sicknesses spead from the newcomers and they won’t protect us now. I do not say this to grandmother. I let her hold onto the past, onto the ghosts of maru trees, onto the taste of extinct coastal fish, and onto the prestige of the guardians as our world crumbles around us.
Character 4:
Character Description: I am a young woman from Easter Island and my family lives in the Vinapu territory. I am the oldest of 12 children and it is my job to help tend to the family farm and caring after my eleven siblings.
Brief Essay: As the years went on more and more of our village became devoted to monument building, this consumed their days. Their main goals were to outdo neighboring villages and make their statues look the nest and be the biggest regardless of the consequences inflicted upon our homes. To make more room for these huge constructions they began clearing the land surrounding our homes, soon there were almost no trees in our entire village. I noticed that as there were more trees disappearing, I saw less birds flying around and we were not able to hint enough to eat them either. I don’t know how but the clearing of our trees lead to our farm suffering, but the crops were never as plentiful as it had been a few years back. We were barely growing enough to feed the family let alone barter with them. A few months later due to the lack in food, some of our neighbors started getting sick and some even died. My family was not spared from this experience, we were running out of food and resources and our youngest kids died of starvation. The fishing activities came to a complete halt as more and more trees were being destroyed, so no more canoes can be made also limiting travel too. Our villages were destroyed because of their obsessive devotion to build more and more Moai. The men did not care about how their actions were devastating our villages and making it hard for us to survive with the very limited resources we already had.
As our resources were depleted and fishing coming to a halt our home was becoming so different from what I remembered when I was young. The people looked sickly, and travelling put to catch fish and get provisions for our homes was a thing of the past. With limited canoes we didn’t have any way to escape the impending doom I foresaw; we were trapped without resources and no way to replenish them. We were faced with many questions about our future, where do we go from here?
Character 5:
Character Description: My character’s role in society is to work as a stone carver in the quarry near the Ahu Tongariki platform. My family has worked as carvers for the entire duration we have lived on Easter Island.
Brief Essay: There is a lot of environmental damage from chopping down trees to create our carving tools, carving, and moving our finished statues across the island. Climate change can make it difficult to work, especially in the heat; we carved small spots to stand and hang our flasks within the quarry. It has become more difficult now that there are no seagoing canoes, and we must rely on crops grown and the chickens. I worry that the food supply will continue to dwindle away until there is nothing left.
The location of our island is so remote we do not get many visitors at all we do not have to worry much about having neighbors, hostile or friendly. The number of chickens has dwindled significantly and there are not many crops left. My family and I have moved to a cave near my workstation for our safety. The matatoa started to riot and have taken down many of the statues we have worked on; Paro is still standing but I fear that will fall soon. We are low on food but too afraid to venture out for supplies; my cousin’s family hiding in a cave near us was eaten by cannibals.
Character 6:
Character Description: My name is Maleia, I am a chicken farmer who works hard to provide for my family and village. My land has many large hare moa, stone chicken houses to prevent my precious chickens from escaping or being stolen. I also have a rock garden, where I have built tall walls out of lava rocks around my banana crops to protect them from being dried out by strong winds and to hold moisture in the soil. I live in a small house inland, far away from the beautiful coastal zone where the chiefs live.
Brief Essay: I am extremely disturbed by the severe deforestation occurring in my village. The vast forest that we once relied on for wood and resources is now almost completely gone, a husk of what it once was. My family originally had begun cutting down trees to expand our farmland, and we were pleased to see our property expand. However, I soon saw my crop yields decline. The soil began to erode by the rain and wind, damaging the palm trees I had planted to provide shade and protect my soil and crops from the hot sun, strong wind, and heavy rain. The soil started burying my neighbor’s homes downhill, and we were forced to abandon our home and farm. Without food for my family, we began to go hungry. I watched as some people grew feral with hunger, resorting to killing and eating their neighbors. We could never do that. I feared for my life. We now made our home in a small cave near the coast, where we always hoped to live. But now, I would do anything to go back inland to my small banana and chicken farm.
Chaos has ensued on our once peaceful island. A civil war has begun, with the matatoa using their military strength to overthrow the chiefs. We hide in our cave for safety. Why can’t they see that this violence won’t solve the loss of harvest? Why can’t they see that it isn’t those stupid gods that have abandoned our chiefs, punishing us by taking away our crops, but that it is us that have destroyed our own home?
Character 7:
Character Description: My character’s role is a farmer on the Easter Island. The island is small just due to their not being any native land animals except domestic chickens, the island’s people rely heavily on the food that is grown and produced through farming.
Brief Essay: The “discovers” of what they call “Easter Island” landed on April 5th, 1722. They came and asked no questions to us. They observed and came to their own conclusions about our island’s history. As they wonder through our lands documenting everything that is wrong, everything that can only be explained by unworldly beings, I wonder if they consider how their “discovery” of our island has brought chaos to this once peaceful island. Our complex history is one that deals with living with the complications of forest destruction and the misguided actions of previous islanders. I can only imagine what these new discovers will bring us, especially considering they have named our island some so foreign to me.
Character 8:
Character Description: I live in the Anasazi tribe which at its height numbered about 4,000 people. I am a laborer responsible for gathering and transporting building materials and clearing land. We cut trees and transport logs up to 16 feet long and weighing up to 700 pounds.
Brief Essay: Assess which of Diamond’s five factors your character might have observed and write about them in the first person from their perspective. What would they say to someone who asked them what their life was like? (1-2 paragraphs, 4.5 points
Our land is a dry and the climate is hot. To a newcomer it looks like a wasteland, but we know the land and vegetation well. We harvest pinyon nuts and irrigate our crops and we have created an oasis in the desert. The other laborers and I frequent the forests in Chaco Canyon to harvest pinyon nuts and to cut down trees for our buildings. My job is hard work and over time it only became harder. We cut trees and transport logs up to 16 feet long weighing up to 700 pounds. I take pride in my work. Over time, our population began to grow and we had to find ways to feed and house our children. It was my job to cut down the pinyon pines and juniper trees to build more stories onto our buildings.
Eventually, we began to return to the forests to cut down more trees than we had ever cut before. As time passed I could see the forests diminishing. Soon we laborers began to travel long and far to find more trees to cut down. When the trees began to diminish so did our major source of food, the pinyon nuts. Instead, the farmers in the community increased the agricultural fields to feed more people. Our climate is hot and dry and we rely on irrigation from ground water to water our fields.
Soon, the dry years came and the famers were noticing that the groundwater was dried up. They could no longer irrigate our crops to feed our exploding population. Before, we could harvest pinyon nuts and live off our harvests. But now, the trees are cut down and there are more people to feed. And still, the rain is not coming. Eventually, the rain came and filled the water table enough for us to irrigate. The rain saved us, but our environment and tribe was never the same. The forests were gone and members of the tribe were finding new ways to adapt to the changes.
Every day my job is to go out to search for trees and building materials to house our population. We transport thousands of logs down the mountains and over 50+ miles back to Chaco Canyon. During these long journeys I didn’t notice the changes in the land until I returned. Nor did I have any control over how to adapt to these changes because I was occupied with building structures to house our population.