Human behavioural ecology and Pacific archaeology

DiNapoli, Robert J.; Morrison, Alex

doi:10.1002/arco.5124

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…This interpretation draws on the logic of costly signaling theory, whereby Rapa Nui’s monuments are hypothesized to serve as conspicuous displays of community access/control over the island’s limited subsistence resources. Recently, such a costly signaling model for ahu has been proposed (e.g., [8,12,16,17]), which predicts that, if Rapa Nui’s monuments did serve a costly signaling function, then there should be a spatial association between them and the underlying quality they are potentially signaling, such as the limited and vitally important, freshwater resources. These predictions are quantitatively supported by our present results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The achievements of the Rapanui are even more impressive when one considers the island’s ecological marginality, including low and unpredictable rainfall, nutrient-poor soils, lack of large coral reefs or abundant sources of surface freshwater [12]. The island’s ecology greatly constrained the range of options available for subsistence to the island’s inhabitants [8,13], and many consider these environmental constraints to be a key factor in the emergence of monuments on Rapa Nui, such as their role as adaptive responses to environmental uncertainty (e.g., [14,15]) or as territorial signals of control over limited resources (e.g., [8,16–20]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument (ahu) locations explained by freshwater sources

et al. 2019

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Explaining the processes underlying the emergence of monument construction is a major theme in contemporary anthropological archaeology, and recent studies have employed spatially-explicit modeling to explain these patterns. Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) is famous for its elaborate ritual architecture, particularly numerous monumental platforms (ahu) and statuary (moai). To date, however, we lack explicit modeling to explain spatial and temporal aspects of monument construction. Here, we use spatially-explicit point-process modeling to explore the potential relations between ahu construction locations and subsistence resources, namely, rock mulch agricultural gardens, marine resources, and freshwater sources—the three most critical resources on Rapa Nui. Through these analyses, we demonstrate the central importance of coastal freshwater seeps for precontact populations. Our results suggest that ahu locations are most parsimoniously explained by distance from freshwater sources, in particular coastal seeps, with important implications for community formation and inter-community competition in precontact times.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument (ahu) locations explained by freshwater sources

et al. 2019

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“…Landscape-level approaches, in particular, will be critical to understanding the evolution of settlement patterns and human-environment dynamics during early periods of human occupation. A diversity of landscape-level approaches has proven useful for understanding the interplay between human behaviors and environmental contexts in other parts of the world (e.g., Codding and Jones 2013;DiNapoli and Morrison 2017;Jazwa et al 2017;Winterhalder et al 2010).…”

Section: Previous Landscape-level Investigations On Madagascarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite-based remote sensing rapidly reveals extensive record of Holocene coastal settlement on Madagascar

Davis

Andriankaja²,

Carnat³

et al. 2020

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Despite decades of archaeological research, roughly 75% of Madagascar's land area remains archaeologically unexplored and the oldest sites on the island are difficult to locate, as they contain the ephemeral remains of mobile hunter/forager campsites. The known archaeological record is therefore biased toward later sites, especially sites dating to the second millennium AD, following the expansion of Indian Ocean trading networks. Systematic archaeological investigations are required to address these biases in the known archaeological record and clarify the island's early human history, but funding limitations, logistical and time constraints in surveying large areas and a relatively small number of active field archaeologists present substantial barriers to expansive areal survey coverage. Using theoretical models derived from human behavioral ecology (i.e., ideal free distribution, optimal foraging theory) in conjunction with freely available remote sensing data, we illustrate how archaeological survey of Madagascar's landscapes can be rapidly expanded, more effectively target early archaeological deposits, and address questions about the island's settlement. This study illustrates the potential for theoretically-driven satellite-based remote sensing analysis to improve our understanding of the archaeological record of the world's fourth largest island.

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“…Costly signaling is a mechanism whereby some unobservable quality, such as competitive ability, is communicated through displays that are either detrimental or impossible to fake. On Rapa Nui, this is one hypothesized role of monument construction (e.g., ahu and moai construction and transport) within and between communities, particularly in relation to coastal freshwater sources [25,26,138,150,158,169]. It is also likely that ritual activities associated with ahu and moai served as a means for community monitoring.…”

Section: Design Principles 4/5/6 Monitoring Sanctions and Conflict Re...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Triumph of the Commons: Sustainable Community Practices on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

2021

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The history of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has long been framed as a parable for how societies can fail catastrophically due to the selfish actions of individuals and a failure to wisely manage common-pool resources. While originating in the interpretations made by 18th-century visitors to the island, 20th-century scholars recast this narrative as a “tragedy of the commons,” assuming that past populations were unsustainable and selfishly overexploited the limited resources on the island. This narrative, however, is now at odds with a range of archaeological, ethnohistoric, and environmental evidence. Here, we argue that while Rapa Nui did experience large-scale deforestation and ecological changes, these must be contextualized given past land-use practices on the island. We provide a synthesis of this evidence, showing that Rapa Nui populations were sustainable and avoided a tragedy of the commons through a variety of community practices. We discuss this evidence in the context of Elinor Ostrom’s “core design principles” for sustainable communities and argue that Rapa Nui provides a model for long-term sustainability.

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Human behavioural ecology and Pacific archaeology

Cited by 10 publications

References 97 publications

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument (ahu) locations explained by freshwater sources

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) monument (ahu) locations explained by freshwater sources

Satellite-based remote sensing rapidly reveals extensive record of Holocene coastal settlement on Madagascar

Triumph of the Commons: Sustainable Community Practices on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

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