New popular book on Easter Island

In December 2016, I published a popular book on the misterious Easter Island (Rapa Nui) and its emblematic giant stone statues (moais). The aim of this book is to inform the society about the latest results of scientific research on the socio-cultural history of this enigmatic island. I decided to write the book in Spanish to make it accessible for all inhabitants of the island and the South American public (politically, the island belongs to Chile), in general, as the main bulk of popular and scientific literature on Easter Island is in English. In the book, I try to disentangle the views that are supported by sound empirical evidence from those still relying on fantastic histories and myths, including pseudo-scientific beliefs such as the cultural collapse of the ancient moai-building Rapanui civilization only as a result of the overexploitation of natural resources, traditionally represented by the purported (but still undemonstrated) total and abrupt deforestation of the island by the Polynesian colonizers. Other long-standing mysteries, as for example the origin of the first colonizers (Eastern Polynesia vs. South America) or the techniques used by the ancestral rapanuis to transport the gigantic moais from the quarry to their final destination, are also explored, on the basis of the scientific knowedge available so far. The book is available at the publisher website (Editorial CSIC) and also at Amazon, among other distributors.

Reference

Rull, V. 2016. La Isla de Pascua. Una visión científica. Editorial CSIC-La Catarata, Madrid. ISBN 978-84-00-10150-3 (CSIC), 978-84-9097-221-2 (Catarata).