> the author doesn't propose how it happened. The author says quite clearly it's not clear that it happened at all: "The question ... is one we still cannot co

> the author doesn't propose how it happened. The author says quite clearly it's not clear that it happened at all: "The question ... is one we still cannot convincingly answer ... But there is no real evidence of a population decline prior to the first European contact". Also you've cherry picked the high end estimate from "4k-9k"; going from 4k to 2K-3K is far less dramatic than 9k to 2k-3k. All of these numbers are pretty shaky estimates and Roggeveen admits his 2-3K estimate may be low as they were shooting people and they did want to line up on the beach to be counted. So maybe it's 5K to 5K. Diamond's narrative of a starving people forced into cannibalism as a food source certainly doesn't fit much of the other evidence -- their bones indicate they were larger than other polynesians, not malnourished and show little evidence of being killed in battle.