Thanks for commenting.
However, he also wrote in the same paragraph:
There are no written records of it, but I’m pretty sure that’s what happened, or something like that.
He wrote “or something like that”, so I think that allows some variation of two (main) groups fighting each other in a war.
He gave his reasoning for why individuals would team into larger groups in the previous paragraph, but I will agree that it’s mostly speculative how many warring groups there were.
Regardless, I’m convinced that the island’s environmental degradation and population collapse were both most likely caused by overpopulation.
“something like that” isn’t open enough. “or something else entirely” seems more likely than “something like that”. Many more than 2 groups (family-sized coalitions) is an obvious possibility, but there are plenty of other strategies used by primitive malthusian societies—infanticide being a big one, and ritual killings being another. According to Wikipedia, Jared Diamond suggests cannibalism for Rapa Nui.
Looking at Wikipedia (which I should have done earlier), there’s very little evidence for what specific things changed during the collapse.
In any case, it’s tenuous enough that one shouldn’t take any lessons or update your models based on this.
Thanks for commenting. However, he also wrote in the same paragraph:
He wrote “or something like that”, so I think that allows some variation of two (main) groups fighting each other in a war. He gave his reasoning for why individuals would team into larger groups in the previous paragraph, but I will agree that it’s mostly speculative how many warring groups there were. Regardless, I’m convinced that the island’s environmental degradation and population collapse were both most likely caused by overpopulation.
“something like that” isn’t open enough. “or something else entirely” seems more likely than “something like that”. Many more than 2 groups (family-sized coalitions) is an obvious possibility, but there are plenty of other strategies used by primitive malthusian societies—infanticide being a big one, and ritual killings being another. According to Wikipedia, Jared Diamond suggests cannibalism for Rapa Nui.
Looking at Wikipedia (which I should have done earlier), there’s very little evidence for what specific things changed during the collapse.
In any case, it’s tenuous enough that one shouldn’t take any lessons or update your models based on this.