Easter Island is known for its Moai statues, but for nearly two decades the people who built them were thought to have disappeared due to ecocide, or habitat destruction brought on by human use. However, experts now say that genetic data points to another cause of their disappearance.
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00:00Easter Island is known for its Moai statues, but for nearly two decades, the people who
00:08built them were thought to have disappeared due to ecocide.
00:11With author Jared Diamond writing in his book about it, in just a few centuries, the people
00:15of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their plants and animals to extinction, and
00:20saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism.
00:24However, experts now say the genetic data points to another cause of their demise, colonization
00:29and slavery.
00:30The report outlines that in the 1600s, the Rapa Nui people were not completely isolated,
00:35but their civilization was quite small, only around 1,500 to 3,000 people.
00:39In fact, their population was growing until the mid-1800s, when Peruvians began coming
00:44to the island to kidnap slaves.
00:46This is also around the time when colonists from Europe brought new diseases that killed
00:50nearly everyone.
00:51In the end, the new research unveils, there were only around 110 of the Rapa Nui people
00:55left.
00:56But recent research has also suggested that the same people reached the Americas before
01:00their European counterparts.
01:02According to the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs, today some 1,500 indigenous
01:07Rapa Nui people live on Easter Island.