The Forgotten History of Easter Island – A Provocative Archaeological Study of Colonial Legacy, Indigenous Reclamation, and the Collapse Myth
Interview with Mike Pitts about his book Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island – A Provocative Archaeological Study of Colonial Legacy, Indigenous Reclamation, and the Collapse Myth. Backgrounds that Rapa Nui was settled around 1200 AD by sophisticated Polynesian navigators, and its iconic Moai statues were carved from sacred-coloured rock. Argues the island’s unique Rongorongo script was likely inspired by European writing, not a spontaneous invention. Attributes Rapa Nui’s devastating decline not to indigenous environmental mismanagement, cannibalism, or warfare, but to a series of external shocks: Peruvian slave raids, subsequent disease, and colonial exploitation by ranchers and missionaries, which erased its vibrant culture and decimated its population.
See also other episodes on Easter Island, especially Easter Island – Where Giants Walked.