Educate Rats

For years the West has assumed the Easter Island abandonment, in the face of the obvious sculptural and engineering success, to be evidence of a colossal societal failure. The thesis goes that the island was deforested by slash and burn farming and the society simply outgrew its resources. This is especially appealing in the academic world where mismanagement of resources is seen as a metaphor for current times.

There is a different, if grossly unpalatable, view from two anthropologists, Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo, from the University of Hawaii. In a new book they argue there is no evidence for land-clearing fire at all. Instead, an unlikely energy circle developed: Rats from ships fed off the tree trunks and were locally successful. The natives ate the rats. After time, the rats grew so successful they killed off the trees.

So the rats mismanaged their resources. This led to their decline and the decline of the natives who farmed them.

Wendell Berry says that the evidence for disorder is overwhelming; one should always flee those who offer patterns as explanations. I will find my solace there.