What makes Easter Island so special?

Easter Island, Spanish Isla de Pascua, also called Rapa Nui, Chilean dependency in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It is the easternmost outpost of the Polynesian island world. It is famous for its giant stone statues.

What is the purpose of Easter Island?

What purpose do the statues of Easter island Have? Archaeologists suggest that the statues were a representation of the Polynesian people’s ancestors. The Moai statues face away from the sea and towards the villages, by way of watching over the people. So here at Ahu Tongariki these Moai look over a flat village site.

Why did society on Easter Island collapse?

Around 1200 A.D., their growing numbers and an obsession with building moai led to increased pressure on the environment. By the end of the 17th century, the Rapanui had deforested the island, triggering war, famine and cultural collapse.

What are the lessons of Easter Island?

The lesson for us all Like Easter Island the Earth has only limited resources to support human society and all its demands. Like the islanders, the human population of the earth has no practical means of escape.

Does Easter Island have a flag?

The flag of Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Te Reva Reimiro) is the flag of Easter Island, a special territory of Chile. It was first flown in public alongside the national flag on 9 May 2006.

Why is Easter Island important today to Chilean culture?

Famous for the towering stone statues known as moai, the island of Rapa Nui holds immense cultural value to its native Rapa Nui clans, a society of Polynesian origin who arrived on the island around 400 A.D. With more than 100,000 visitors annually, tourism sustains the “Easter Island” economy—but management of tourism

Who do the moai represent?

They stand with their backs to the sea and are believed by most archaeologists to represent the spirits of ancestors, chiefs, or other high-ranking males who held important positions in the history of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, the name given by the indigenous people to their island in the 1860s.

Why does Easter Island have statues?

Easter Island is famous for its stone statues of human figures, known as moai (meaning “statue”). The island is known to its inhabitants as Rapa Nui. The moai were probably carved to commemorate important ancestors and were made from around 1000 C.E. until the second half of the seventeenth century.

What are Easter Islands statues called?

Averaging 13 feet (4 meters) high, with a weight of 13 tons, these enormous stone busts–known as moai –were carved out of tuff (the light, porous rock formed by consolidated volcanic ash) and placed atop ceremonial stone platforms called ahus.

Did everyone die Easter Island?

A series of devastating events killed almost the entire population of Easter Island. Jared Diamond suggested that Easter Island’s society so destroyed their environment that, by around 1600, their society fell into a downward spiral of warfare, cannibalism, and population decline.

What happened to Easter Islands ecosystem?

The most striking story of Easter Island, however, is its collapse. Easter Island is one of the most extreme examples of deforestation in the world: the entire forest is gone and all tree species extinct. Evidence suggests forest harvesting started around 900 and peaked in 1400.

Did Easter Island ever have trees?

Easter Island was covered with palm trees for over 30,000 years, but is treeless today. There is good evidence that the trees largely disappeared between 1200 and 1650. For example, deforestation took place on the Hawaiian island of Oahu between 900 and 1100, but there is no evidence of human presence there until 1250.

How is Easter Island a metaphor for our planet?

The Easter Island example can be regarded as a metaphor for global development. Like Easter Island at the time of its first inhabitants, the Earth has limited resources to support human societies and their myriad demands. Like the stranded islanders, the inhabitants of Earth have no realistic means of escape.

What is the lesson of Easter Island quizlet?

What lessons can we learn from the story of Easter Island to help us avoid collapse and disaster? Easter was isolated for the rest of the world, like Earth. When times got tough and resources where scarce, there was no where else to go. We too do not have anywhere to turn.

What is Easter Islands culture?

The Rapa Nui are the indigenous Polynesian people of Easter Island. The easternmost Polynesian culture, the descendants of the original people of Easter Island make up about 60% of the current Easter Island population and have a significant portion of their population residing in mainland Chile.