Cut-off: 2:00 PM Friday, February 26
- Consider the title. Naturally, we could interpret the title to literally mean “the end of Easter Island,” but Diamond is clearly making the title ambiguous. What other connotations does “Easter’s end” suggest, and why use it as a title?
- European explorers landed on Easter Island, claimed it, but never colonized or subjugated it. Why not?
- Why does Polynesia (Hawaii, Fiji, etc.) represent “paradise” to many people? What fantasies does it represent?
- If Easter Island was inhabited by Polynesians who came from someplace else (perhaps Hawaii or Tahiti) then why didn’t they just leave when resources became scarce? Why didn’t they just go back to where their ancestors had come from?
- The Polynesians are known to be the greatest seafaring people in Earth’s history. So why couldn’t the Easter Islanders built decent canoes (there were only three or four on the entire island – pg. 27)
- Speculate: Why make statutes of heads and not whole bodies, as is the case with other ancient civilizations.)?
- If resources were becoming scarce, why would Easter Islanders continue to spend their time building and transporting statues rather than focusing on more life-sustaining tasks?
- Thor Heyderdahl and Erich Von Daniken did not believe that Polynesians could have settled the islands of the pacific and construct the heads on Easter Island. What factors may contribute to these European researchers assumptions?
- Radiocarbon dating seems to be an important tool in science. Why? What essential information does it provide researcher?
- Clearly, Diamond has written this article as sort of cautionary tale for those of us living in the modern world. In what specific ways are we like the Easter Islanders? In what ways are we fundamentally different?