With a small initial population and an equally small area for colonization, isn t some form of in-breeding likely to have occurred on Easter Island?
A. With an initial population base of perhaps 200 persons, some kind of in-breeding was inevitable especially among the royal clans. While it is known in the rest of Polynesia that deformed or otherwise “abnormal” babies were killed immediately after birth, there is no historical or legendary evidence for this practice on Easter Island. This pertains mostly to physical deformity, and since mental retardation resulting from in-breeding can take years to become apparent, it s quite possible that such offspring would have survived at least for a time. There is some evidence of endogamy (marrying within one s group) among certain island clans. In order to preserve blood purity, it is said that members of the Urumanu tribe were not allowed to marry members of the Miru clan (and vice versa). Based on medical research done by the Canadian “Medical Expedition To Easter Island” in 1964, there is a statistically high percentage of Easter Islanders with six toes on each foot and a peculiar degene
