Exploring the Spatial Distribution of Rapa Nui Ahu with Costly Signalling Theory: An Agent-Based Model

Summary

Despite, its small size and marginal environment, Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) boasts some of the world’s most impressive monumental ceremonial architecture. While the production of ahu and moai have been linked to an assumed collapse of Rapa Nui society, we suggest instead that the construction of these stone monuments contributed to social stability by reducing inter-group violence and endemic warfare. To examine this hypothesis, we develop a theoretical agent-based model using concepts from costly signalling theory. Our model investigates the degree to which monumental architectural construction may have played a signficant role in the persistence of Rapa Nui populations.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Ceremonial architecture in Eastern Polynesia: Development & Variability

Keywords

Spatial Coverage