00:00Easter Island is known for its moai statues, but for nearly two decades, the people who built them
00:09were thought to have disappeared due to ecocide. With author Jared Diamond writing in his book
00:13about it, in just a few centuries, the people of Easter Island wiped out their forest, drove their
00:18plants and animals to extinction, and saw their complex society spiral into chaos and cannibalism.
00:24However, experts now say the genetic data points to another cause of their demise,
00:28colonization, and slavery. The report outlines that in the 1600s, the Rapa Nui people were not
00:34completely isolated, but their civilization was quite small, only around 1,500 to 3,000 people.
00:39In fact, their population was growing until the mid-1800s, when Peruvians began coming to the
00:44island to kidnap slaves. This is also around the time when colonists from Europe brought new diseases
00:49that killed nearly everyone. In the end, the new research unveils, there were only around 110 of
00:54the Rapa Nui people left. More recent research has also suggested that the same people reached the
00:59Americas before their European counterparts. According to the International Work Group for
01:04Indigenous Affairs, today, some 1,500 indigenous Rapa Nui people live on Easter Island.
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