Anarchy on the Easter Islands: Caused or Constituted?
Introduction
Several researchers have gathered credible analysis on various approaches to explain different causes and complexities that fall on communities that lived in the Easter Island Rapa Nui, which led them to near extinction. Cultivating on their study, however, many unresolved questions still hamper their minds concerning this Island. Two logical arguments have been used to stimulate reasons why and how the anarchy may have been constituted or caused to near extinction. Rationalist holds that the anarchy resulted from a change in capabilities or materials resources while constructivist take on the idea that the anarchy resulted from changed ideas, values, or norms. These established logics have discussed diverse levels before conclusive evidence on the same.
Results
Rationalists contend that the idea that Easter Island anarchy and the genesis of changing capabilities and material possessions were a result of rapid population growth. According to Good and Reuveny (2006), after the Island became overpopulated, people began to misuse the available resources and ecosystem, leading to their depletion. Over time, the continued misuse resulted in scrabble over the remaining resources such as water and food that finally led to a division of individuals to form groups that would fight for their sustenance. The scrabble affairs resulted in a more intense crisis and escalated the struggles. More negative results were seen when they deliberately destroyed the Moai statutes by pushing them and braking them. Later, disastrous famine struck the whole Island. By that time, people were engaging in the fights; therefore, they did not plant nor attend to their firms. Their capabilities to earn food and water changed and thus became cannibalism. Researchers argue that intense hunger propelled them to eat animals and people. They further created weapons and designed them to advance the war. This evidence concealed the evidence of the anarchy’s changing factors in scrabble for resources and the effects that came from the increasing population.
Constructivism, on the other hand, contends that the anarchy first emanated from the European explorers. According to Brown and McLeman (2009), the smallpox disease outbreak wiped a good number of them. Also, they involved themselves in the slavery of the people they caught nearby. European explorers had mixed cultures that influenced change in norms and wiped their original ideals leading to a major division of the civilized in the Island. Other scholars argue that a rising number of rets accompanied the explorers from the volcanic Island due to surplus amounts of palm tree seeds. The rats invaded their firms eating vegetables at a great pace. The more European explorers came into the Island, the more the trees were being cleared to create room for more farming land. They needed food and firewood hence the mass destruction of the forest. Deforestation changed the beauty of its serene environment and adverse changes in the ecosystem, causing a disintegration of the Moai statues and the bare nature of the land.
Assessing the two logics, constructivism views the cause and implications to have come from the environmental calamity they created, causing their demise. Researchers suggest a strong possibility was a result of the ailment from smallpox, slavery, and the European explorers that led to the destruction of the environment for their habitat and fires. Again, rats could have caused great destruction of their vegetables and farm inputs, causing severe hunger and deaths to people. All this analysis makes constructivism strong evidence for the great demise and near extinction causes in the Easter Island (Stevenson& Haoa, 2009).
Conclusion
Although the two logics give us substantial evidence to the arguments that the Rationalist believes in the cause result from changes in capabilities or materials resources and constructivist take on the idea that the anarchy resulted from changed ideas, values, or norms, a clear picture has shown a reliable cause for this study. In general, extinction was subdued by the tendency of the actions of the people on the Island.
References
Brown, O., & McLeman, R. (2009). Recurring anarchy? The emergence of climate change as a threat to international peace and security: Analysis. Conflict, security & development, 9(3), 289-305.
Good, D. H., & Reuveny, R. (2006). The fate of Easter Island: the limits of resource management institutions. Ecological Economics, 58(3), 473-490.
Mulrooney, M. A., Ladefoged, T. N., Stevenson, C. M., & Haoa, S. (2009). The myth of AD 1680: new evidence from Hanga Ho’onu, Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Rapa Nui Journal, 23(2), 94-105.