ABSTRACT
You may have noticed from your reading in this volume, as in nearly all realms of life, a typhoon of controversies has enveloped Rapa Nui – even in what to have called the island. Our contributors have discussed a few of these disputed themes and show that our understanding of the island environment, the human impacts to that environment, and the social/technological response to an evolving context have changed profoundly over the decades. Nevertheless, who now advances the latest solution to the unresolved quandaries of Rapa Nui environmental and social change? Who ventures to question the logic of the former solutions? Whose data now evoke criticism? Who can resolve the differences?
