WEBVTT - Why Did Easter Island's Civilization Collapse? 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to Stuff you should know from house Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:12.920 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:18.480 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's over there. 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.799 Wellcome those big stone heads behind you. We must be 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:27.040 on Easter Island. Yeah we are, Chuck. We just started 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.920 every show like that will role play. Who are you 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.160 right now? I don't know I was. I'm not sure 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:35.640 what that was. He started off as me, but then 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.400 it went into Barney Fife or something right, Yeah, there 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.239 you go. Barney Fife on holiday to Eastern Island, or 0:00:42.320 --> 0:00:47.000 Rapa Nui. Mr Limpett yeah, boy, that ages or Mr 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:51.000 Chicken the Ghost of Mr Chicken another good one. I'd say. 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:53.640 S of our listeners are like, who is Barney five? 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.680 Who was Mr Limpett? It was Mr Chicken. Go look 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:01.120 it up. You'll be delighted. Yeah, man, don yeah. He 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.560 He also did great turns on Scooby Doo oh sure 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:08.040 in three Company. Yeah. Man, he had a great career. 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:10.880 I love that guy. R I p don knots is 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:13.600 he not with us? Oh? Yeah yeah. I think he 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.200 died like in the last five, six, ten years. I 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.160 think you never know, man, you know some of those people. 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:23.120 You're like, oh, sure, like a Vagoda. People thought he 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.200 was dead for years. It was like a part of 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.319 pop culture that he was dead. He just died this year. 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.360 I think that's the way. Yeah, it's very sad. Yeah, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:35.720 he's like, fine, here we go. I think that maybe 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.760 that's a good Is that the ultimate compliment or the 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:41.319 ultimate sign of disrespect that when he passed, everyone's like 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.680 I thought they were already dead. Disrespect. Okay, Um, we're 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.240 on East Tryland, that's where we were, That's right, which 0:01:50.320 --> 0:01:55.400 means the big rappa in Polynesian. Yeah in Rapa Nui language. 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.760 Did you know that? Are you alluding to Joe versus 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.040 the volcano? Okay, that's the pony wos. Yeah, the big 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.440 Wou was the volcano. I just thought you were playing 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.160 on that. No. I was looking high and low for 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:12.079 what rapa Nui translates into English, and all I could 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.400 see where jackass As you said that it translates to 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:18.959 Eastern Island. Like, that's not what I mean? Internet? Um 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.160 did you punch the Internet? But it turned out it 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:27.240 was just my last Um. No, the the closest I 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:31.840 found was that rapa Nui means big Rappa r A 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.840 p A no idea what rappa means? Did you see 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:41.119 the movie rap? No? Kevin Reynolds movie? Is that? Who 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.360 made it? Yeah? I think he wrote and directed it. 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:45.200 I know he directed it. I'm pretty sure he wrote 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:46.760 it too. And who is he? What do I know 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.040 that name? Oh, he's done all sorts of stuff, the 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.760 water World. No, that's Kevin Um. Well, no, he was 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.200 in it, but I think he directed to um. Kevin 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:01.480 Reynolds and Kevin Costner's UM careers were very much intertwined. 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.840 May I think got confused a lot. He's done a 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:08.480 lot of great stuff. But we you didn't see Revenue. No. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:14.280 I assume it's a a story, fictional story wrapped in 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.320 the events of probably the decline of the island would 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:24.679 be my guest. Yes, civil war, strife, possibly cannibalism. What's interesting, though, 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.800 is that that fictional story wrapped in the true life events. Yeah, 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.800 it turns out the true life events are probably fictional 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.200 as well. Yeah. This actually and maybe I should give 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:40.960 our own article a break because most people have been 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.840 telling the same story for years, which is basically the 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:49.680 story that author Jared Diamond told in his book In 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.840 two thousand five called collapse. Right, he popularized it. He 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.480 wasn't the first one to come up with this interpretation. No, 0:03:56.680 --> 0:03:58.920 but he's he's the one that really he's the gun 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.000 germs and the old guy, right, one of one of 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:03.840 my heroes. You wrote one of the greatest things I've 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.360 ever read, um, the worst mistake in the history of 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:13.800 the human race. But like a one word book, but her. Yeah, 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:15.400 I was trying to think of something. But that's better 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.359 than anything I could have thought of. No, he was 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:20.800 saying that he made the case that moving from hunting 0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:23.520 and gathering to agriculture was the worst mistake humans have 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:25.960 ever made. Great, it's all over the internet if you 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.800 want to go read it. Really great easy read. Um 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.720 and life changing change my life? Is that why you 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:37.880 stalk buffalo today? By hand? Raise my own crops? You 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.280 come home, You're like, you mean skin that thing? I 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.640 need a pelt. She's like, I just got done skinning 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.960 the last one from me yesterday. Uh, you skin it 0:04:47.960 --> 0:04:52.720 and you go okay. Um, where were we We were 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:56.040 talking about Kevin Reynolds rep New Week and there we 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.000 were saying that um. And by the way, Kevin Reynolds 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.599 did direct water World. It did Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:05.080 a lot of Kevin Costner movies with the Postman too. No, 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.640 he did Fandango. That was a good one. Um, he's 0:05:09.640 --> 0:05:11.640 done a bunch of stuff, all right. So I think 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.400 I remember where I was, which is, um, we should 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.440 take it easy on our article a little bit. I 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.120 was a little annoyed that this article didn't say theorized 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:22.000 things like that. It kind of just said, like, no, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.359 this is what happened, and and it was really judgy, 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.000 Like the thing that it bought into is an extremely 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.680 judgy interpretation of things, and it bought it as fact. 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.839 It's the judgest article on the whole site. Well what 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:39.280 about the one I sent you earlier today? Yeah, how 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.159 did you deal with brown Nosers? Yeah? An article on 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.479 our site called how the Deal with Brown Nosers? Four pages? Yep, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.480 if you're looking for advice, go check it out. Good 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:53.479 miss me, um, weird times my friend. Uh so, Yeah, 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:55.400 I was a little annoyed that it kind of treated 0:05:55.480 --> 0:06:00.000 us all as absolute scientific fact when it certainly isn't. Um. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:01.599 It just seems like one of those things that like 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:03.960 someone said it, someone else wrote a popular book, and 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:06.360 then everyone's like, oh, well, that's what happened, right, and 0:06:06.400 --> 0:06:12.479 that's really unusual for anthropology and archaeology. Frankly, Jared Diamond 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.840 should have known better. Um, he's really taken a lot 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.920 of heat. Um, his star was pretty high at the time. 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.120 He had like a neat geo show. I think he 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.719 wrote guns, Germs and Steel. He wrote this book Collapse, 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:28.760 How civilizations decide to choose or choose to succeed or fail, 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.080 And like even the wording in that title, like how 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.559 is a society chooses to fail? You know, it's really 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:39.960 judging in and of itself. So his he he definitely 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:42.960 you know fell There are a lot of um plays 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.400 on the word collapse and Jared Diamond collapsing as a result. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:48.200 So now he goes in that geo and knocks on 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.160 the door and like everyone's like, light up, No, if 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.040 we turn it off, 'll see that, right. But Yeah, 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.320 the point is is that there is a a set 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:03.400 of fact related to Rappannui to Easter Island that when 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:07.080 you put together, form a mystery, a mystery that's basically 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.520 been around since the first Europeans set foot fann Easter 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.080 Island then came back and brought news of this place 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.119 to the rest of the world. People have puzzled over 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.440 what happened there, and Um the problem is, is the 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:25.200 oral traditions that came along or that that came from 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.440 Rapanui from Easter Island, Um came along in like the 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.360 eighteen eighties, a good hundred and fifty years after Europeans 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.119 came and christianized everybody, when the population had been down 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:42.040 to like a hundred people. And even today anthropologists and 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:46.440 archaeologists say like, we don't really trust the oral tradition 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:50.040 from Rapanui at all, Like it's not a they don't 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.560 it's not a trustworthy source of information, even like in 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.920 a folkloric way. We're saying, like the basics of it 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:59.720 might not even be correct. So they're having to go back, 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.720 which is very weird. That's a very unusual position to 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:07.240 be in UM, both for the people from the indigenous 0:08:07.280 --> 0:08:09.400 culture and the people who are trying to figure out 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:14.160 what happened UM. But so the challenges to take what 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.240 we do know for a fact about Rapa Nui and 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:21.320 then interpret it correctly and not in a way that's 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:23.240 like this is it. This is the end all, be 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.240 all explanations, which seems to be this weird thing that 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:31.280 rapa Nui has over academics who should know better. They say, 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.559 this is it. And the part about Jared Diamond, the 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.400 reason he felt so hard is that his interpretation, or 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.800 the interpretation that he glomped onto and like popularized in 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:47.480 his book was really really judge, really judgey, really like 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:52.400 these people screwed up with their stupid faith and some 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:58.120 wacky tiki god and um and look what brought him. 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:00.199 And now we all need to learn the lesson because 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.480 we're going down the same road and that's just not 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:05.280 thought and you're not supposed to do that, all right, 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.160 So why don't we do it this way? We'll we'll 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.439 give you the story as has been theorized and popularized 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.920 for many years, and then we'll hold off till the 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:18.040 end for some new insights. They give away too much. No, 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.560 I don't think so just judge, I was judge? No, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.800 okay uh. Just because you say the word judge doesn't 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.079 make you judge, is that right? I think? So? Okay uh? 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:30.880 And also just want to tease us. We have a 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:35.240 very special listener mail later too. How about that? Lots 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.240 of reasons to stick around, all right, so you keep 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.199 saying these words like Easter Island and Rapa Nui like 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:45.600 they're the same thing, because they are. Rapa Nui also 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:49.480 called East the Pasqua, which means Easter Island in Spanish. Right, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.080 that's right, Easter Island. It's actually named, of course, when 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.120 it doesn't matter what your islands called. When the Dutch 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.040 or the British or the Spaniards would come a call 0:09:58.120 --> 0:09:59.800 and they would say, oh no, no, no, here's what 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.600 we'll call. It doesn't matter what you say. So we'll 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:06.080 call it Easter Island. Because I'm a Dutch admiral name uh, 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:10.400 Jacob rogue Vine, And um, it's Easter when I landed 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.800 here in seventeen two, So what a great name. Obviously 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.880 it's Easter Island. Rogue Vine also gets credit for discovering 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.880 Easter Island. Um. Actually he was looking for an island 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.560 that was Easter Island that had been described by a 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.720 pirate named Edward Davis in seven Davis didn't come ashore, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.160 but um, even rogue Vine was convinced that Easter Island 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.880 was the island that Davis had described. Did he say 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.120 they're large stone heads? No, he didn't. He didn't mention 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.200 the heads at all. Well, of course, weird Easter Island 0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.800 is I'm sure everybody knows this, but we should say 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:48.600 right away that they are very well known and most 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.880 well known for their mo i m o ai. These 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:59.280 um beautiful, enormous carved stone statues, not just stone heads 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:03.079 and that whole boy, it's annoying the internet thing. It 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.640 still pops up like once a year when people like, look, 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:10.600 there were bodies too. It's not just heads. They've discovered 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:13.840 their bodies are buried underground, like they've known that since 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.560 like the early nineteen hundreds. But its this, it's this 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.000 weird look up snopes, like, it's this weird internet thing 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.840 where every couple of years, the same stinking article gets 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:27.160 shared the shows all these archaeologists like have dug down 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.319 and discovered their bodies beneath the earth, even though we've 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:35.319 known this forever. So anyway, these beautiful, beautiful statues, which 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.760 we're gonna talk about in greater detail, but let's talk 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.440 a little bit about the how the original island was, 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.480 uh well what it was like. They're who these people were, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:51.880 the originally calling yeah, the Wapoos, which to the island 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.320 is Rappa Newi towards and the inhabitants of the island 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.840 are called the Rapa Nui clean simple, I love it, right, 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.920 So the rap and we they think we're probably a 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:07.160 single family. Um that was headed up by a guy 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:10.800 who was considered the first chief of the island um 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:16.560 His name was Hotu Matua or the great parent. Hold on. 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.560 You know what just occurred to me. Vagoda was the 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:24.160 leader of the Yeah, all right, God, was there a 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.440 better movie than that one. It's one of my faiths. 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.080 We've talked about it a lot. Yeah, it's Kevin reynolds masterpiece. 0:12:31.600 --> 0:12:36.199 So Hotu Matua is originally the first chief of um 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:40.560 A Repnue, and he allegedly came with just his family. 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:44.840 They don't know exactly what they were doing out in 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.960 their canoes, but they had seaworthy canoes because they hailed 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:55.120 from Polynesia and they were great, great sailors, very experienced 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.520 and hardy at sea. Yes, so I mean and they 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.040 this would have been a longstanding edition trying out setting 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:06.479 out for new unknown islands because they believe that Polynesians 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:11.920 are descended from Southeast Asians who somewhere between thirty four 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.120 thousand years ago left Southeast Asia started moving eastward um 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:20.600 toward the western coast of South America in that general direction, 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.360 and would come across an island, stay there, popular populated, 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.760 move on to another one populated, And that's how Polynesia 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:32.200 got populated. Rapa Nui I believe is the easternmost island 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:36.800 in Polynesia. So they think that that was settled last. Yeah, 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.200 go to Google Earth if you're in front of your 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.640 computer and just type in Easter Island and then it'll 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:48.160 pop up this little triangular shaped island and uh then 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.960 just start zooming out and keep zooming out and you'll 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:55.760 see a lot of blue. And it's amazing to think 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.680 that people got there in a canoe. Yeah, yeah, because 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:03.280 it's like through eight thousand or thirty five hundred miles 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:11.480 from from Tahiti, right, Yeah, like miles from right but 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.960 Chile is not where they came from, so they would 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.760 have traveled by canoe. But that's the closest land that 0:14:16.960 --> 0:14:20.600 right is still away. It's amazing, Yeah, our remote, but 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:24.960 they traveled like three thousand thirty miles in a canoe. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.880 Unbelievable to get from one one island to another, and 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:31.720 probably less. I think there's probably islands between Tahiti and 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.760 Easter Island. But even still they traveled a very substantial distance. 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.400 And then they clearly were intending to either make it 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:44.800 to another island or to colonize Rapanui because they brought 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.760 with them supplies, right, they brought with them plants to plant, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.320 like the Tarot route, which is like, I believe a 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:54.800 cousin of the sweet potato. It's like a purple sweet potato. 0:14:55.280 --> 0:15:00.360 That is correct, uh, Nanners and Tarot and this whole 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.640 sweet potato thing too. Was there was somebody who put 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:05.960 out there that thor hired All, Yeah, maybe they came 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.360 from South America because that's that's where the sweet potato 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.840 comes from. And then other people have since said, no, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:15.560 there's a lot of evidence that suggests us not true. Right, well, Thorie, Yeah, 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:18.640 thor hired All said, hey, they're sweet potatoes here. Sweet 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:24.840 potatoes are indigenous to South America, therefore they're from South America. Yeah, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:26.720 he didn't really put a lot of thought into that. 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.320 And well, he was an explorer, you know, that's what 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.040 he did. He explored. He built a raft contiki and 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:37.120 saled it himself from South America to Eastern Island back 0:15:37.120 --> 0:15:39.280 in the fifties. I mean it was cool, but he 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.360 was a doer, a little more than a thinker. Right, 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.480 And I believe they've concluded that the sweet potato actually 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:51.280 originated in Southeast Asia, which just lends support even more. Um. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.920 But yeah, so they came here, they settled this island, 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.960 they landed on. The shore it's tiny, it is. It's 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.520 about three times the size of Manhattan. Yeah, it's a 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:03.400 sixty four square miles. Like I said, it's triangular. And 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:06.920 it was created, like a lot of the islands, um 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:12.240 from volcanic eruptions, which also come to play with these statues, 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:16.320 as we will see. Yea and uh. When they landed, 0:16:16.520 --> 0:16:21.840 his family said, well, we're family, but we better get 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:28.160 to populating the place. So here's some wine, here's some 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.680 taro root, let's get to it. Right. The island they 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.320 landed on, though, was potentially, they think, much different than 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.440 the island that we know today. Um, if you go 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.280 there today, it's it's you're gonna see some white sandy 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.280 beaches and not a lot of trees. Um. They believed 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:47.760 that there could have been as many a sixteen million 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.800 palm trees at first, just like rife with palm trees. Yeah, 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.440 like so many of the islands, like god damn with 0:16:55.520 --> 0:16:59.000 the palm trees whenever another one grows. Yeah, And it 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:03.160 wasn't the most Uh, it wasn't the friendliest. I mean 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:06.679 I say friendly. It was friendly, but it wasn't hospitable. Yeah, 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.479 that's the word. There wasn't like just food everywhere, and 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.800 like tons of seafood. Like apparently the waters around there 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.880 are lower nutrients, so no coral reefs, and that means 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.080 not a lot of fish. So you had some lizards, 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.280 you had some molluski, had some insects, and there was 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.200 if you went fishing, you had to go deep sea fishing, 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.479 like away from the island. But again like get a dolphin, 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:33.680 right dolphin, that's um, which which they could do because 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:38.439 they had really great canoes. Um. But they they it 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:40.800 was it was, it was in ordeal. They had a 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:45.960 lot of vegetables basically, and a lot of those they planted, so, um, 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:51.320 they're living this way. This article says they settled about 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:58.199 four sea right um, which was what years ago I 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.760 saw elsewhere from are reliable sources. Most people think it 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:05.720 was about a thousand years ago instead of six hundred, 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.840 so about one thousand. See, they settled the island and 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.800 the population starts to grow pretty quickly. Apparently having six 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:18.960 toes was a fairly normal trait among Rapa Nui originally 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.800 because they might be in bread sure um and uh, 0:18:22.920 --> 0:18:25.960 everything was going kind of honky dorry. They started they 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:31.400 started ostensibly slashing and burning trees to clear land for fields, 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.880 um and uh they made they made their way. Yeah. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.280 They were very spiritual people. They believed in the idea 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.040 of mana, a sense of mana, which is uh, this 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:47.440 spiritual and political authority. And they uh they instilled this 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:51.200 through their arts, through cave drawings and through these statues 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:55.359 which still haven't really gotten to and through carvings, music, dance, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:57.760 and it was it was a big deal. At meant 0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:02.480 a lot to them, right. So they the Repanuians followed 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:07.680 the traditional Polynesian um structure of governance, which was there 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.399 was a different clans right um and then there was 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:16.399 one head chief, one tribal leader um that was in 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.480 charge of everybody, right basically like a vogoda. Who else 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.080 would you want? And the authority of that chief came 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.280 from de sease ancestors, other chiefs that had lived and 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:31.280 died and were now venerated as basically idol, supernatural idols 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.119 by the people who lived on the island. And this 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:39.719 power came through the came from these ancestors to the 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.200 living chiefs in the form of this manner the spiritual 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:46.680 power and one of the most um but one of 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.399 the most focused, laser focused ways Manna was emanated was 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.560 through the moai. That's a great place to take a break, 0:19:53.640 --> 0:20:17.760 my friend. Hey, Chuck, Blue Apron is an amazing way 0:20:18.000 --> 0:20:23.440 to cook at home, using amazing fresh, amazingly great ingredients, 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:25.439 and they're on a mission to bring it to as 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.720 many people as they can. That's right. 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So don't wait, that's blue Apron dot 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:25.600 com slash s t U f F blue Apron a 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:42.600 better way to cook? All right? These mo i, which 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.480 you refer to as heads because you believe that internet 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:49.440 mean well, it's not so much that it's a lot 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:54.000 ahead to the body. Yes, proportionately speaking, it's almost all ahead, 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:56.399 that's right. Which some people think that one of the 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:00.000 reasons is because they were meant to be a fallast. Yeah, 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:02.560 and of course that's taken as literal fact by the 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.200 how stuff Works article. That's right. All right, So um, 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:09.960 these uh moai, these beautiful statues that it's not something 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:11.960 that you will only find on Easter Island. If you 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:16.080 go to Hawaii or Tahiti, you will see similar type things. Uh. 0:22:16.080 --> 0:22:17.760 And this was, like you said, this was like the 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.240 purest expression of that mana and how they felt about 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:24.600 their ancestors. I think that what they how they understood 0:22:24.640 --> 0:22:27.280 it was that the man of this divine energy or 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:35.080 divine power literally transmitted through the um. Moi man, I'm 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.760 gonna have trouble with that the whole time. So it's 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:42.000 a lot of vowels together. Moi, it is m a 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:44.840 O m o ai. I think that's a mistake you're making. 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:51.320 You're thinking a moi, you're thinking maori. Right? Maybe not? Yes, 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.639 you're exactly correct. And um. So these things were built. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:23:01.040 There's a volcano. They're called Reino Ra Roku and uh. 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:05.240 In the pits of this volcano they have this volcanic ash, 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.400 this rock that's very lightweight. Even though these things still 0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:10.359 weigh a lot, doesn't weigh as much as you know, 0:23:10.400 --> 0:23:13.760 like granite would let's say lightweight rock. It's very porous, 0:23:13.800 --> 0:23:18.959 it's malleable, it's very hard, and it's originally it's tinted 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.919 in like orange and ochre and um. At first, they 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.760 would start around you know, twelve a D or what 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.200 do you say now? But even that is um kind 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:35.560 of a nod to that whole thing. Uh. Instead, I 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:39.320 think in scientists just say years ago okay, oh I 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:41.600 like that, so they'd be like eight hundred years ago 0:23:42.560 --> 0:23:47.640 that's clean, or or they say X years before present, 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:51.840 so y bp okay, that's not as clean, but I 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:54.880 still like it. Yeah, um I'm done with hye bp 0:23:56.240 --> 0:24:00.479 yeah you know me so um terrible. Uh. They started 0:24:00.480 --> 0:24:03.119 off kind of small. They were not as big as 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:05.560 they would eventually get because they were just kind of 0:24:05.640 --> 0:24:09.840 learning and teaching themselves how to do this. Uh. They 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:11.960 were they were still large though, but um, they weren't 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:14.360 as large as like later on they would find something 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:16.919 that they couldn't even move and we'll get to this, 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:19.600 but they would eventually move these things. But like L 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.600 Gigante was the largest one they found, and that was 0:24:22.880 --> 0:24:25.720 like almost seventy two ft tall. Yeah. Um, I think 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.520 up to a hundred and sixty five tons is how 0:24:29.600 --> 0:24:32.560 much they estimate L Gigante ways yeah, but the the 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:35.040 initial ones that they started with were much much smaller, 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:37.600 and so like let's go with ten feet or so 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:41.080 and five or six tons Yeah, even that's still nothing 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:45.000 to sneeze at though, you know, correct, um, no matter 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:51.840 how big your head is. So um l L gigante 0:24:51.880 --> 0:24:54.840 specifically though, it is representative of I think one of 0:24:54.840 --> 0:25:00.880