1.Introduction*Since the first time Easter Island was explored,scholars have been arguing and speculating about the date of the natives’arrival,the nature and purpose of the larger statues,its actual number of inhabitants,the reasons for the progressive deforestation of the island,etc.All of this has received various explanations which are considered influential factors in determining social and cultural changes in the lives of the islanders(a question to be surveyed in the last section of this article.)However,the lack of sufficient data makes it difficult to reach to a definitive conclusion;the best that we can hope for is to give reasonable and temptative hypotheses.
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