Significance+of+Easter+Island+heads

back What is the significance of the statues on Easter and what do they tell us in terms of clues about the rise and fall of island civilization?

The statues on Easter Island could symbolize how, as the society became weaker, more and more statues were destroyed. As Mr. Plaman said, it could signify the fertility of the island and how it drove itself into an ecological suicide. During the point at which cannibalism took place on Easter Island, the people would knock down their own ancestors work.

The statues also signified the strength and innovation the island once had. The ability to move and carve intricate stone works like this could not have been done by other similar islands that lacked the innovation or resources (or aliens) that the Easter Islanders possessed.

One theory states that the statues of Easter Island were a representation of Gods. This caused competition for larger statues which then drove the island to a societal collapse because of the lack of resources. This tells us that the fall of the civilization is related to the way the resources was used.

As said in Collapse, Diamond's opinion of the statues is that they were used to out-do other rival clans living on Easter Island. The bigger they were the more powerful the clan was, also this meant that that particular clan had enough resources and food to give to their people //while// building these enourmous statues, leading a rival clan to believe they had ample resources.

The majesty and impressiveness of the statues on Easter is further emphasized by the apparent primitive tools and lack of equipment and resources that the Easter Islanders had to work with. The mere size of the statues and the way they were transported shows us that this civilization was not really primitive if they were able to create such amazing monuments and find innovative and creative ways to move them. This is extremely important because today, one could have said that Easter collapsed because the civilization was primitive and unprepared, and we with all our technology could never suffer such a collapse. But the statues show us that this society was not primitive at all and that no matter how innovative a society may seem, it can always succumb to a collapse due to environmental issues. It lessens our faith in things like technology to protect us from collapses.


 * The //__REAL__// explanation behind the Easter Island Heads**