LESSONS FROM EASTER ISLAND

By: Clive Ponting

About this text: this is a chapter excerpt from Clive Ponting's “ A Green History of the World:  The Environment and the  Collapse of Great Civilizations”; access www.primitivism.com  click anthropology and then click the writer’s name. Alternatively, just google thetitle and author’s name.

Level of Difficulty:**** (Due to the vocabulary load)

Thanks are due to Oya Özağaç for locating the soft copy of this text and helping with the typing up of the questions

BEFORE YOU READ

·         What do you think the effects of the earth’s rapidly dwindling resources will be on life?           

·         Do you envisage conflict or cooperation in such circumstances?

Now, research Easter Island to discover its location and see the wonderful statues that remain to this day. Then, try and unravel the mystery that surrounds these statues.

QUESTIONS

1.  What sentence in paragraph one sets the tone of the article to follow?

2. On reading paragraph two, we reach the conclusion that the island was characterised by squalor and barbarism. What proof can you find of this claim?

3.   Why exactly did Easter Island become the mystery it did?

4.   Thor Heyerdahl`s contention that the island was first settled from South America is based on the fact that _________________________________________.

5.  What, in your opinion, is the significance of paragraph four for the whole article?

6.  What proof can you offer the claim that the Polynesians were the greatest explorers of their time?

7.  How inhospitable do you consider the conditions on Easter Island to have been? What do you base your opinion on?

8. a. Why were the inhabitants of Easter Island reduced to subsisting on sweet potatoes and chicken?

    b. What additional advantage did the cultivation of the sweet potato have?

9.  What were the two important consequences of the social organization of the Islanders?

10. What proof can you find in the text of the contention that the islanders were highly intellectual people?

11 a. The most difficult hurdle the ıslanders had to overcome concerning the statues was.........................

      b. What was the ultimate significance of the method of transportation resorted to concerning the statues?

12. How did the scientists reach the conclusion that Easter Island was not initially the barren island it later became?

13. Trees were used for various purposes by the islanders. Which of these probably sealed their fate according to the text?

14.  What was the effect on daily life of the sudden lack of trees on homes and on boats?

15. What was the cause of the continual fighting and cannibalism which followed the complete deforestation?

16. What behaviour of the former Islanders seems impossible to comprehend according to the text?

17.  a. What parallelism can you draw between Easter Island and our world?

       b. To what extent do you think our fates will resemble theirs?

VOCABULARY

paragraph	1	Lack of importance
	2	Very small, insufficient (1. half)
	4	That which cannot be altered
	4	To put up with
	5	Include, cover (2nd half)
	6	Survival
	10	Enormous (2nd half)
	11	Very serious (1. half)
	12	To deteriorate (1. half)
	12	Terrible (1. half)
	13	To keep and protect

WRITING TASK; FIRST ALTERNATIVE

Take another look at the last question, determine your position and write an opinion essay detailing your views.

WRITING TASK; SECOND ALTERNATIVE

Write an essay discussing the fatal consequences of deforestation. Use the points below, the text you have just read and notes you make from any additional research you do.

·         Draught

·         Climate change

·         Land slides

·         Loss of habitat

·         Extinction of species

·         Social upheavals and war

·         Loss of essential resources

WRITING TASK; THIRD ALTERNATIVE

Write a problem solution essay discussing how to prevent deforestation and avoid the fatal consequences of this man made disaster. Before you start, do some reading and listening, make notes and use them to write your essay a long with the text you have just read.

·         Outreach programs to raise public awareness( to educate farmers, and other members of the public)

·         The banning of camp fires in forests

·         The deployment of forest rangers

·         Education starting early on

·         The planting of appropriate trees ( for example, not planting pine trees in hot zones)

·         Making the planting and preservation of trees a national policy

·         Using the media to change hearts and minds.

THE LESSONS OF EASTER ISLAND KEY AND TEACHER’S NOTES

This superb text is a chapter out of a book by the author but available online at the address specified above. I originally used the book to prepare the questions and never posted it not being aware that an online edition was available. My friend and colleague Oya Özağaç having discovered it online, I can now share it with you. The true story of Easter Island is a horror story detailing the ultimate consequences of deforestation and the depths to which humanity will sink when it is a matter of life and death. It is a must have in any reading program that stresses environmental concerns.

1.       Yet despite its superficial insignificance, the history of Easter Island is a grim warning to the world

2.       He found a society in a primitive state with about 3000 people living in squalid reed huts or caves, engaged in almost perpetual warfare resorting to cannibalism in a desperate attempt to supplement…

3.       The primitive people living in such poverty stricken and backward conditions when the Europeans first visited the Island could not have been responsible for such a socially advanced and technologically complex task as…

4.       The people inherited a tradition of monumental sculpture and stone work similar to the grat Inca achievements.

5.       It expresses the main point of the article, the reason why it was written in the first place. The second sentence expresses the main idea

6.       Shortest answer: The Polynesians were the most widely spread people on earth encompassing a huge triangle from…

7.       It was inhospitable: drainage was bad, there were no permanent streams on the island, the island had only a few species of plants and animals, the waters around the island contained very few fish.

8.       The climate was too severe for semi-tropical fruits such as breadfruit and coconut and extremely marginal for the usual mainstays of their diet taro and breadfruit. / cultivation of the sweet potato was not very demanding and left plenty of time for other activities.

9.       It was the organization and competition and probably conflict between the clans that produced both the major achievements of Easter Island society and ultimately its collapse.

10.   A number of the ahu have sophisticated astronomical alignments, usually towards one of the solstices or the equinox.

11.   The most challenging problem was to transport the statues; the cause of the collapse and the key to understanding the mysteries of Easter Island was massive environmental degradation brought on by deforestation of the whole island.

12.   Recent scientific work involving analysis of pollen types has shown that at the time of the initial settlement, Easter Island had a dense vegetation cover including extensive woods.

13.   The moving of statues

14.   They resorted to stone shelters cut into the hillside or flimsy reed huts( minimum); only reed boats incapable of long voyages could be made.

15.   Diminishing resources; the amount of protein available fell

16.   They were unable to devise a system that allowed them to find the right balance with their environment. OR, no account was taken of how few trees there were on the island.

17.   Open ended.

VOCABULARY

paragraph	1	Lack of importance	insignificance
	2	Very small, insufficient (1. half)	Meager
	4	That which cannot be altered	Irreversible
	4	To put up with	Withstand
	5	Include, cover (2nd half)	Encompass
	6	Survival	Subsistance
	10	Enormous (2nd half)	Prodigious
	11	Very serious (1. half)	Drastic
	12	To deteriorate (1. half)	Regress
	12	Terrible (1. half)	Devastating
	13	To keep and protect	sustain

REFERALS

1.       It’s: the history of Easter Island’s

2.       This theory: that the island was first settled from South America is sufficient although the rest would be correct too

3.       It : The history of Easter Island

4.       They : The original Polynesians

5.       Which: the extended family

6.       Where: Orongo

7.       It: society

8.       This: moving the large number of enormously heavy statues to ceremonial sites around the island

9.       It: the fact that the islanders painstakingly constructed, over many centuries, one of the most advanced societies of its type in the world