Dr. Terry Hunt (the University of Arizona, Dean of the Honors College, and Professor of Anthropology), will be giving a talk on Easter Island in S1-149 @5:15PM on Monday, Jan 22. The talk will be “Orthogenesis, Evolution, and the Case of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)”.
Orthogenesis, Evolution, and the Case of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
Monday, January 22
5:15 pm, S1-149
About the seminar
Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is often portrayed as a quintessential case of “ecocide,” where populations grow too large, over-exploit resources, and destroy natural environments, thus resulting in societal “collapse.” However, archaeological and historical research reveals much of this narrative is wrong. In this EvoS seminar, I argue that much of the misunderstandings and debate ultimately derive not from the facts themselves but from longstanding historical and popular notions founded in an orthogenetic paradigm that has and continues to subvert evolutionary explanation. In short, orthogenetic thinking has distorted the evidence for Rapa Nui, whereas evolutionary theory enables to rethink and rewrite what happened on this enigmatic island
About the speaker
Terry Hunt is Dean of the University of Arizona Honors College and Professor of Anthropology. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Hawai’i, Hilo; his Master’s Degree (First Class Honors) at University of Auckland (New Zealand); and his Ph.D. at University of Washington (1989). Dr. Hunt taught at the University of Hawai’i for 25 years, served four years as Dean of the Clark Honors College, University of Oregon, and recently joined the University of Arizona. His research and teaching are focused on Pacific Island archaeology.
Dr. Hunt has been conducting archaeological field research in the Pacific Islands for more than 35 years. He has done extensive work in the Hawaiian Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, and Easter Island.
Over the past 18 years, Dr. Hunt has done extensive archaeological field research on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), where he and his colleagues and students examine many aspects of the island’s remarkable past. Dr. Hunt has published numerous scholarly articles on Pacific archaeology, prehistory, and linguistics. His work has been published in Science, Nature, American Scientist, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Antiquity, Journal of Archaeological Science, Pacific Science, Latin American Antiquity, Antiquity, Journal of the Polynesian Society, Rapa Nui Journal, and Current Anthropology, among others.
Dr. Hunt’s book published with Binghamton’s Professor Carl Lipo, The Statues that Walked: Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island, won a national award and was featured as a cover story in National Geographic (July 2012) and is the basis for a NOVA-National Geographic television documentary.
LipoLab 