1. Tikopia

2. Easter Island Review Did Easter Island have any imports?
What were main food sources on Easter?
Describe trees on Easter Island.
What happened with Easter’s population?
What happened to the birds and shellfish?

3. Tikopia Pacific Island Area = 1.8 square miles
Population = 1200 people
Occupied for almost 3000 years
Nearest land 1/7 of a square mile is 85 miles away

4. “I was once asked seriously by a group of [Tikopians], ‘Friend, is there any land where the sound of the sea is not heard?’” –Jared Diamond

6. Traveling between Tikopia and other islands through the stormy Southwest Pacific in small canoes is dangerous
Only imports on Tikopia were spouses, stone, bows and arrows, shells, & pottery
Food could not be imported in any significant quantity

7. Tikopia’s 2 Problems How can we reliably provide food for 1200 people?
How can the population be limited to the carrying capacity of the island?

8. Food
Whole island is managed for sustainable food production—no slash-and-burn
Almost every plant species on Tikopia is used
Most of the island is an orchard, growing coconut, breadfruit, etc.
Understory has yams, banana, taro
Like a rainforest of edible plants

9. Food (cont.) Grow taro, yams, and manioc in fields
Fish and shellfish for protein
Chief’s permission required to catch or eat fish-taboo prevented overfishing
Excess breadfruit is fermented for annual dry season and cyclones (average 2 each year)

10. Population Control Chiefs teach zero population growth Tikopians:
Do not continue to have children when eldest son reaches marriable age
Do not have more than 4 children, one boy and one girl, or one boy and two girls

11. Population Control Birth control Abortion Infanticide Celibacy Suicide
Dangerous overseas voyages
War

12. European Influence
Most population control disappeared with European influence in 20th century
British government outlawed sea voyaging and warfare
Missionaries prevented abortion, infanticide, and suicide

13. Population grew:
1929: 1,278 people
1952: 1,573 people
Two powerful cyclones destroyed half of Tikopia’s crops
British government sent food and resettled Tikopians on other islands
Today, chiefs limit population to 1,115

14. Rise of Sustainability
Island settled around 900 BC
Forests were burned
Extinction of six bird species
Fruit bat almost eliminated
Fish and bird bones 3X lower in middens
10X decrease in shellfish
Decrease in maximum size of giant clams

15. Rise of Sustainability (cont.)
100 BC burning stops
Almond orchards maintained
As fish and birds disappear, pigs make up larger part of diet (up to half of protein)
1200 AD Polynesians bring technique for storing breadfruit

16. Rise of Sustainability (cont.)
1600 AD Islanders decide to kill every pig
Pigs destroyed gardens
Pigs compete with humans for food
Pigs are inefficient (ten pounds of vegetable = one pound of pork)
Pigs were a luxury for chiefs

17. Why on Tikopia? Island is small-everyone knows the whole island
Everyone knows everyone else
Cyclone and drought hurt whole island
Collective decision making
Chiefs produce their own food-share same values with their people