ISLAND AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

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.