▶ Your Answer :
The lecturer claims that we are very close to solving the riddle of the moai. His claims and refutations contradict to the reading passage's point where it says there can be three reasons why the moai statues were built. First, the lecturer contends that it is very easy to discount the claim that says a moai may have been built once a year as a trophy for an annual competition between rival chiefs. It is because there are far more statues than the equivalent of one statue per year. There were five centuries of residence, and that means there should be five hundred statues, but there are nine hundred statues in Easter Island. Next, the lecturer believes that the assertion that the moai served as intermediary beings that helped communication between humans on the ground and the gods in the heavens is simply wrong. He says the directions that the statues face is not that universal. Some statues look forward, and some look down. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that it is a religious symbol because there were no such artifacts for religious ceremonies found in Easter Island. Finally, the lecturer argues that the reasoning of the reading passage that says the moai were built to honor the ancestors of the island's residents falls down. Many moai statues face the north or the east, rather than the west. Also, the DNA of citizens in Easter Island is related with Polynesians, but the Polynesians actually settled in the north or the south, not the west. At the end of the day, those reasons that the lecturer points out refutes the three reasons that the reading passage has mentioned. |