Looking from today's world, and integrated economy hardly seems
unusual. In fact, that's the goal of globalisation. But remember that
in Europe at the time (c 1200-1600 AD), the economy was far from
integrated, and there were dozens of small and often warring kingdoms
still amalgamating into nations. Effectively little trade occurred
across borders in Europe, while Easter Island had clear evidence of
strong trading. One reason for this may have been the role of the
statue building culture in society. One question we have to ask is
whether clear collapse of the statue building culture represented a
true collapse of society. While evidence exists for warfare and
violence, difficulty remains in determining if the collapse of the
statue building culture coincided exactly with a complete societal
collapse. It appears, for example, that the Birdman (Manu Tangaata)
cult may have served as a new cultural basis for society. Clearly,
there was some difficulty making the transition from an integrated
economy based on statue building to a later one based on the Birdman
cult.
This could be very similar to the rise of conflict and Fascism around
the time of the Great Depression, a result that today's world leaders
hope to avoid despite the seriousness of the current financial crisis.
A crisis becomes increasingly serious as it moves from the loss of
luxuries to the loss of basic needs, such as food. Ultimately, our
project is trying to learn about whether fertility, food and
population were at the root of a crisis causing the collapse of the
integrated economy that existed here on Easter Island about four
centuries ago.
