Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Popular histories point to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, as a cautionary tale of environmental collapse: the original inhabitants "let their population outgrow their home's capacity to support them" and the Europeans who first happened upon the island found "a devastated land." The problem with this story, according to this striking account from archaeologist Pitts (How to Build Stonehenge), is that it's not only "profoundly wrong" but belies a "shocking history of European cultural destruction... slavery and brutal exploitation." Consulting records of European contact, Pitts points to evidence that the island was densely populated in the 1700s, and that it was catastrophic slave raids in the 1860s that reduced the population to a mere 110 people. To tell the true history of Rapa Nui, Pitts combines the latest archeological evidence with the long-overlooked early-20th-century field notes of anthropologist Katherine Routledge, the first Westerner to consult Rapa Nui's elders and record their own account of their history. Her groundbreaking work forms a second mystery within the narrative, as Pitts investigates how "the lifework of this woman, who seemed to have understood the place like no other outsider," had vanished from both academic and popular history. The twists and turns of Routledge's story--a saga of strange rivalries and suppressed research--culminate in her being "kidnapped and incarcerated" in a "lunatic asylum, where, against her will... she was to spend the rest of her life." It's a stunning unraveling of many layers of hidden history. (Jan.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An archeologist reexamines the mystery of Rapa Nui--and offers answers. Pitts, a British archaeologist and author, begins his latest book with a bold appeal: It is time to question everything we have been told about Rapa Nui. For much of modern history, he tells us, this isolated island, located more than 2,000 miles west of Santiago, Chile, has been blamed for its own demise. Yet the familiar tales of war, cannibalism, and ecocide laced with judgment and condemnation have little grounding in historical truth. Instead, Pitts gives us a far more plausible account, in which slavery, kidnapping, and disease, driven by European conquest, are to blame. In Rapa Nui, the colonial playbook was catastrophically effective. It decimated the island nation in all but 15 years, during which its population plunged from 5,000 to little more than 100, with just 26 women. In a wise decision, Pitts plainly lays out the facts yet doesn't dwell unnecessarily on tragedy. He instead asks us to reframe our line of inquiry from how things went wrong--after all, we now have answers--to how did the Rapa Nui flourish for so long? Their island is, according to Pitts, a place of fragile soil, restricted marine life, and no permanent freshwater streams. The answer lies in bravura skill in farming and land management. "Rapa Nui," he says, "is the world's greatest example of a people given lemons, and making lemonade." Some of these insights come thanks to the pioneering work of British archeologist Katherine Routledge. Pitts gives readers an affectionate profile of her; she carried out extraordinary fieldwork and reporting during an expedition to the island in 1914, only to have her work questioned, and then overridden by the London establishment. Throughout his book, Pitts capably and passionately argues his case, though he occasionally veers into the perils of academic writing. The result is a welcome contribution to Pacific Island history that holds relevance not just for Rapa Nui, but for other islands across this vast ocean. A bold and convincing revision of Rapa Nui's history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
