The Last People Alive: Pitcairn

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The Last People AlivePitcairn Henderson
Islands

• Hennie Kashiwa
• 9.22.05

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Overview

• Only habitable islands in Southeast Polynesia
• 1,000 miles from Marquesas and Societies
• Two volcanic and one reef
• Settled around 800 A.D.
• Co-dependent for survival
• Environmental breakdown lead to breakdown of
  trade
• Breakdown of trade lead to the extinction of
  islanders

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Mangareva

• Largest and can support greatest population
• Pros
• Water and land for agriculture
• Yams, taro, breadfruit, bananas
• Trees for canoes
• Marine life
• Black lipped oyster
• Coarse-grained basalt
• Hub of greater trade system
• Cons
• Lack of high-quality stone

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Pitcairn Island

• Small volcanic islandcannot support large
  population
• Pros
• Volcanic glass
• Sharp tools
• Dense basalt
• Tools adzes, for example
• Trees for canoes
• Cons
• Steep terrain
• Difficult to cultivate
• Little sea access
• No place to live
• Little marine life
• Underwater geography unfavorable

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Henderson Island

• Reef that has been pushed up by geological forces
• Somehow supported a tiny population
• Pros
• Abundance of seafood and birds thats it. That
  and sea turtles
• A good picnic spot for travelers
• Cons
• Little fresh water
• No trees suitable for canoe-making
• No usable stone
• No soil for cultivation

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TradeExports

• Mangareva
• Black lipped oyster products
• Vegetable peelers, fish hooks
• Pitcairn
• Basalt and volcanic glass
• Adzes, cutting tools, oven stones
• Henderson
• Food, some agricultural products

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Trade Imports

• Mangareva
• Pitcairn volcanic glass, dense basalt
• Henderson sea turtles
• Pitcairn
• Mangareva oyster products, people
• Henderson ?
• Henderson
• Everything!

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How do we know this?

• Marshall Weisler
• Stone analysis
• Physical attributes
• Chemical composition
• Carbon dating
• Waste piles
• Charcoal
• Human/animal remains

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Its all downhill from here

• Interisland trade with the Marquesas motherland
  peaked between 1100 and 1300 A.D.
• All trade stopped by 1500 A.D.

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Henderson Island Oh No!!!

• Complete lack of trade lead to many shortcomings
• No stone for tools, cooking stones
• Bird bones, giant clamshells used instead
• No wood for canoes
• Not much they could do about this one
• No oysters
• Purse shells used for limited hook making

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Henderson Island struggles on for a bit.

• After loss of trade, a few dozen people survived
  for nearly a century
• Human presence lead to over harvesting of
  wildlife
• Six species of birds extinct along with sea
  creatures
• All were gone by 1606

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Pitcairn goes down

• HMS Bounty arrives in 1790
• Finds island uninhabited
• People probably disappeared much earlier
• Massive deforestation

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Mangareva gets ugly

• Deforestation
• No trees to make canoes fishing trade
  impossible
• Erosion of topsoil
• Unable to cultivate crops
• Too many people, not enough to eat
• Carrying capacity met and exceeded
• Civil war between east west its a 5 mile
  island!
• Breakdown in system of government
• Cannibalism
• Not only eating the freshly dead, but also buried
  corpses

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So how did it all end?

• Wars?

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Dwindling Population?

• A lone woman survived on San Nicolas Island for
  18 years after everyone else died

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Mass murder?

• Fighting, cannibalism?

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Mass suicide?

• A choice of desperation

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Just sitting around

• Everyone is related to each other inbreeding
  taboos prevail

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Inbreeding

• Ignoring incest taboos, generations begin to
  become defected and die off

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What can we learn?

• Globalization increasing worldwide
  interdependence
• Oil, for instance
• What would happen if trade broke down with major
  sources of import?