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Rapa Nui has been traditionally viewed as a case of ecological collapse due to overpopulation and resource exploitation, leading to the decline of its society.
Recent study says, population was significantly reduced not due to ecological collapse, but due to external factors like slave raids and disease outbreaks (e.g., smallpox) after European contact.
The findings highlight how genomic studies can debunk myths about Indigenous populations, revealing a history of sustainable living and adaptation rather than self-destruction.
Rapa Nui
Known as Easter Island, it is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
The island is most famous for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, called moai, which were created by the early Rapa Nui people.
In 1995, UNESCO named Easter Island a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.
The island features a rocky, lava-covered terrain with limited freshwater, poor soil quality, and low biodiversity
It is a volcanic island, consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes: Terevaka forms the bulk of the island, while two other volcanoes, Poike and Rano Kau
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