Academic literature on the topic 'Easter island, description and travel'

The Bukovina as an island of “Deutschthum” in the East? The diffusion of German culture and its perception in travel reports from the 19th centuryThe following seminar paper outlines the description of the Bukovina, a part of the Habsburg Monarchy, in selected travel reports from the 19th century. It explains why the authors of these reports perceived the Bukovina as an island of German culture in Eastern Europe, which was otherwise labelled as barbaric and underdeveloped. It will be shown that the authors’ subjective observations are not compatible with up-to-date findings of historical research.

The bryophyte flora of Easter Island has been poorly known primarily because few botanists have collected there. In order to increase the knowledge of the flora the two authors collected bryophytes from 12 localities on the island from April 28-May 3, 2000. The small island, which is south of the Tropic of Capricorn, is of volcanic origin and the volcanic soil as well as the destruction of most of the native flora have undoubtedly contributed to the paucity of bryophytes. The present study revealed that the bryophyte flora consists of only a few species, including one unidentifiable member of the Anthocerotaceae, 11 hepatics and 30 mosses. Eighteen mosses are new to the island. Three mosses, Chenia leptophylla (Müll. Hal.) R. H. Zander, Dicranella hawaiica (Müll. Hal.) Broth. and Tortella humilis (Hedw.) Jennings, are new for Chile, while three, Fissidens pascuanus Broth. in Skottsb., Ptychomitrium subcylindricum Thér. and Trematodon pascuanus Thér., are presently known to be endemic to Easter Island. Two of the three endemics, Fissidens pascuanus and Ptychomitrium subcylindricum, were rediscovered on the island. Fissidens pascuanus was found with sporophytes for the first time and a revised description of the species is provided.

A new heterotardigrade, Bryodelphax aaseae sp. nov. is described from a small moss sample collected in the Rano Kau Crater on Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1989. The new species belongs to the group of species within the genus that have ventral plates. B. aaseae sp. nov. is similar to B. weglarskae (Pilato, 1972), B. sinensis (Pilato, 1974) and B. iohannis Bertolani, Guidi & Rebecchi, 1995 but differs from them mainly by a different number and arrangement of ventral plates. This is the first record of the genus Bryodelphax from Easter Island/Rapa Nui.

Two new species of the genus Hetereleotris are described from the south Pacific. One species is known only from reefs off southeastern Australia and the second from Rapa and Pitcairn islands. Both species are close to a species recently described from Easter Island in the genus Pascua. The Easter Island species is redescribed herein. Previously only one species of the genus was reported from the Pacific. All of the species described here share a number of characteristics suggesting that they form a monophyletic group, including: the flattened and elongate urogenital papilla of the males, modified basicaudal scales, posterior nostril a simple pore or with only a slightly elevated margin anteriorly, two papillae just behind the mental frenum and the reduced transverse papilla pattern.

The subtropical South Pacific serranid fish Pseudogramma australis Randall & Baldwin, 1997, was divided by Randall & Baldwin (1997) into two subspecies, P. a. pasquensis from Easter Island (type locality of P. australis) and P. a. australis from the Pitcairn Islands to Tonga. The latter is now regarded as a valid species, distinct in its yellow ground color, small size, modally one more dorsal, anal, and pectoral rays, 16 instead of 17 caudal vertebrae, larger head, and other proportional differences. Because of errors in the type designations for the two subspecies, the name P. australis is occupied by the Easter Island species and does not apply to the western Pacific P. a. australis. We provide a new replacement name, P. xanthum nomen novum, for P. a. australis and redescribe it based on the 12 known specimens, including the holotype from Temoe Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago.

Apterichtus australis, new species, collected by dredge and rotenone in 12–100 m is described from Rapa, Pitcairn, Easter and Kermadec islands. It is closely related to A. flavicaudus (Snyder) but differs from it and all congeners in its high vertebral number, cephalic pore condition, and dentition. Ichthyapus from Easter Island and Pitcairn are recognized as I. acutirostris Brisout de Barneville. Caecula (Sphagebranchus) platyrhyncha Gosline from Hawaii is resurrected from the synonymy of I. vulturis (Weber & de Beaufort). First records of I. vulturis and Apterichtus klazingai (Weber) from Hawaii are reported.

The alpheid shrimp genus Metabetaeus was previously known from two species associated with anchialine pools and caves, M. minutus (Whitelegge, 1897) and M. lohena Banner & Banner, 1960. In the present study, a somewhat unusual, coral reef inhabiting species of Metabetaeus, M. mcphersonae n. sp., is described based on one male and three female specimens collected off Moorea, Society Islands, French Polynesia. A detailed diagnosis of Metabetaeus is provided for the first time, accommodating characters of all three species. Distribution ranges are updated for M. minutus, recorded for the first time from Sulawesi and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, and for M. lohena, recorded for the first time from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). A key to the species of Metabetaeus is also provided.

Focusing on the late fourth-century travel account produced by a woman known today as Egeria, this article asks how her somatic, interpersonal, and sensory experiences and feelings shaped her understanding of time, or temporality. The various ways she experiences time in both parts of her diary are considered: her descriptions of travels to holy places and people in Palestine, Egypt, Syria, and Mesopotamia, followed by a detailed description of Jerusalem’s Lenten, Holy Week, and Easter rites. Taken together, the two parts of Egeria’s travel diary reveal diverse ways of measuring and feeling time. It is argued that her feelings – frustrations, excitement, joys, and sorrows – shape her experiences of the biblical past, whether through its availability or grief at its loss. The itinerarium and liturgy provide many ways to engage biblical time, whether topographically, liturgically, or calendrically.

This study aims to uncover the synoptic weather circulation pattern which is associated with the occurrence of needle ice, snowfall and the zero-curtain effect. The method of study was done through an intensive ground climate measurement campaign from April 2008 to May 2009 with a temperature logger installed throughout the recording period. Results from data analyses indicate that the complex changes in climate parameters may lead to an equally complex response in terms of spatial soil frost dynamics and its direct and indirect effects on soil sediment displacement and ecosystem dynamics. Field evidence in the study suggests that on Marion Island needle ice developed in temperatures as high as -0.2 ºC in strong winds. This confirms that the wet environment of Marion Island, which is dominated by diurnal soil frost is fundamentally different from seasonal frost and permafrost environments. The scoria material is susceptible to needle ice growth and the compacted soil alters the micro-climatology of the affected area making it more susceptible to the formation of needle ice. Soil moisture for needle ice formation and growth is provided by the misty conditions associated with the advent of the cold front (pre-cyclonic). Furthermore, observations of needle ice on Marion show that needles are mostly clear with no sediment inclusion. This is indicative of needle ice formation that has not been interrupted by a shortage of moisture. The zero-curtain effect on Marion Island can occur either as a response to the thawing of the soil after the seasonal freeze. The synoptic assessment of snowfall on Marion Island indicates that; snowfall is associated with the passage of a cold front linked to a strong meridional system of low pressure just south of the island.

To, Tin Wei.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-202).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
ABSTRACT --- p.i
論文摘要 --- p.iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.v
TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS --- p.xii
LIST OF TABLES --- p.xiv
LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.xviii
Chapter CHAPTER 1 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction and background --- p.1
Chapter 1.1.1 --- Tourism in Hong Kong --- p.1
Chapter 1.1.2 --- Sustainable tourism development in the Hong Kong context --- p.5
Chapter 1.1.3 --- Tourism cluster --- p.6
Chapter 1.2 --- Conceptual framework --- p.8
Chapter 1.3 --- Research objectives --- p.13
Chapter 1.4 --- Research significance --- p.15
Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of thesis --- p.17
Chapter CHAPTER 2 --- LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.20
Chapter 2.1 --- Concept of Sustainable Tourism --- p.20
Chapter 2.1.1 --- Development and definition of Sustainable Tourism --- p.20
Chapter 2.1.2 --- Principles of Sustainable Tourism --- p.24
Chapter 2.1.3 --- Methods of Sustainable Tourism assessment --- p.28
Chapter 2.1.3.1 --- Indicators of Sustainable Tourism --- p.28
Chapter 2.1.3.2 --- Carrying Capacity --- p.31
Chapter 2.1.3.3 --- Other technical measures for Sustainable Tourism assessment --- p.31
Chapter 2.1.3.4 --- Perception study in Sustainable Tourism assessment --- p.32
Chapter 2.2 --- Clustering of tourism resources --- p.34
Chapter 2.2.1 --- Tourism cluster --- p.36
Chapter 2.2.1.1 --- Advantages of the formation of tourism cluster --- p.38
Chapter 2.3 --- The role of clustering of tourism resource in Sustainable Tourism development --- p.39
Chapter 2.4 --- Situation of Hong Kong --- p.41
Chapter 2.4.1 --- Trend and implementation of Sustainable Tourism in Hong Kong --- p.41
Chapter 2.4.2 --- Clustering of tourism resource in Hong Kong --- p.44
Chapter 2.4.3 --- Tourism study conducted on Lantau Island --- p.47
Chapter CHAPTER 3 --- STUDY AREA --- p.49
Chapter 3.1 --- Inventory of Lantau Island --- p.51
Chapter 3.1.1 --- Resources and attractions --- p.51
Chapter 3.1.2 --- Capital --- p.58
Chapter 3.1.3 --- Policies and planning --- p.59
Chapter 3.2 --- The Ngong Ping tourism cluster --- p.62
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Tourist attractions --- p.64
Chapter 3.2.1.1 --- Po Lin Monastery --- p.65
Chapter 3.2.1.2 --- The Big Buddha --- p.67
Chapter 3.2.1.3 --- Ngong Ping 360 --- p.68
Chapter 3.2.1.4 --- Wisdom Path --- p.71
Chapter CHAPTER 4 --- METHODOLOGY --- p.73
Chapter 4.1 --- Tourism Rapid Assessment (TRA) --- p.73
Chapter 4.2 --- Hierarchical structure of tourism resources inventory of Lantau Island --- p.75
Chapter 4.3 --- Interviews and questionnaire survey --- p.78
Chapter 4.3.1 --- Structured interview with stakeholders --- p.79
Chapter 4.3.1.1 --- Sample selection --- p.79
Chapter 4.3.1.2 --- Questionnaire design --- p.79
Chapter 4.3.1.2.1 --- SWOT analysis --- p.80
Chapter 4.3.1.2.2 --- In-depth open-ended interview --- p.81
Chapter 4.3.1.3 --- Data analysis --- p.82
Chapter 4.3.1.3.1 --- Informal content analysis --- p.82
Chapter 4.3.2 --- Structured questionnaire survey with tourists --- p.83
Chapter 4.3.2.1 --- Sample selection --- p.83
Chapter 4.3.2.2 --- Questionnaire design --- p.83
Chapter 4.3.2.3 --- Data analysis --- p.84
Chapter 4.3.3 --- Structured interviews with local community --- p.85
Chapter 4.3.3.1 --- Sample selection --- p.85
Chapter 4.3.3.2 --- Questionnaire design --- p.86
Chapter 4.3.3.3 --- Data analysis --- p.86
Chapter 4.4 --- Perception of stakeholders as the basis for assessment --- p.87
Chapter CHAPTER 5 --- UNDERSTANDING LANTAU ISLAND AND TOURISM CLUSTER FROM STAKEHOLDERS' PERSPECTIVE --- p.90
Chapter 5.1 --- Results of SWOT analysis from stakeholders' perspective --- p.90
Chapter 5.1.1 --- Strengths --- p.95
Chapter 5.1.2 --- Weaknesses --- p.96
Chapter 5.1.3 --- Opportunities --- p.98
Chapter 5.1.4 --- Threats --- p.99
Chapter 5.2 --- Understanding Sustainable Tourism and tourism cluster by stakeholders --- p.100
Chapter 5.2.1 --- "General attitudes about ""Sustainable Tourism""" --- p.101
Chapter 5.2.2 --- Tourism policies and development of Hong Kong and Lantau Island --- p.102
Chapter 5.2.3 --- Tourism cluster on Lantau Island --- p.104
Chapter 5.2.4 --- Performance of Ngong Ping tourism cluster in the context of Sustainable Tourism --- p.106
Chapter CHAPTER 6 --- ATTRACTIONS AND PERCEPTION OF NGONG PING TOURISM CLUSTER --- p.110
Chapter 6.1 --- Results of questionnaire survey with tourists --- p.110
Chapter 6.2 --- Perception and satisfaction of tourists in Ngong Ping tourism cluster --- p.113
Chapter 6.3 --- Understanding Sustainable Tourism --- p.119
Chapter 6.3.1 --- Performance of tourism cluster in the context of Sustainable Tourism --- p.122
Chapter 6.3.1.1 --- Environmental aspect --- p.123
Chapter 6.3.1.2 --- Socio-cultural aspect --- p.125
Chapter 6.3.1.3 --- Economic aspect --- p.126
Chapter 6.4 --- Investigation from the local community perspective --- p.127
Chapter 6.4.1 --- Impacts of Ngong Ping tourism cluster in the context of Sustainable Tourism --- p.128
Chapter 6.4.1.1 --- Environmental impacts --- p.129
Chapter 6.4.1.2 --- Socio-cultural impacts --- p.132
Chapter 6.4.1.3 --- Economic impacts --- p.134
Chapter CHAPTER 7 --- DISCUSSIONS - DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM ON LANTAU ISLAND --- p.135
Chapter 7.1 --- Review of tourism policies in Hong Kong and Lantau Island --- p.135
Chapter 7.2 --- Interests of respondents --- p.140
Chapter 7.3 --- Meaning and Conceptualization of Sustainable Tourism --- p.142
Chapter 7.4 --- Potentials and limitations of Lantau Island for Sustainable Tourism development --- p.144
Chapter 7.4.1 --- Potentials of Lantau Island for Sustainable Tourism development --- p.145
Chapter 7.4.1.1 --- Natural and cultural resources with diversified attractions --- p.145
Chapter 7.4.1.2 --- Improved transport networks --- p.146
Chapter 7.4.1.3 --- Availability of trails --- p.146
Chapter 7.4.1.4 --- Distinct location: rural destination for leisure --- p.147
Chapter 7.4.1.5 --- Environmental initiative of The Ngong Ping 360 Project --- p.147
Chapter 7.4.1.6 --- Nature Conservation Policy --- p.147
Chapter 7.4.1.7 --- Benefits of tourism clustering for sustainability --- p.148
Chapter 7.4.2 --- Limitations of Lantau Island for Sustainable Tourism development --- p.149
Chapter 7.4.2.1 --- Lack of long term vision and holistic planning --- p.149
Chapter 7.4.2.2 --- Absence of guidelines and regulation for the implementation of Sustainable Tourism practices --- p.150
Chapter 7.4.2.3 --- Lack of awareness and promotion of Sustainable Tourism --- p.151
Chapter 7.4.2.4 --- Lack of local community participation --- p.152
Chapter 7.4.2.5 --- Economic oriented development with many purposely- built artificial attractions --- p.153
Chapter 7.4.2.6 --- Did not utilize the benefits of tourism clustering --- p.153
Chapter 7.5 --- Performance of tourism cluster in Ngong Ping in the context of Sustainable Tourism --- p.155
Chapter 7.5.1 --- Protection of the destination's resources attractions --- p.155
Chapter 7.5.2 --- Visitor satisfaction with their experience --- p.156
Chapter 7.5.3 --- Residents assessment on tourism development --- p.157
Chapter 7.5.4 --- Return on investment --- p.158
Chapter CHAPTER 8 --- CONCLUSION --- p.162
Chapter 8.1 --- Summary of findings --- p.162
Chapter 8.1.1 --- Concept of Sustainable Tourism --- p.162
Chapter 8.1.2 --- SWOT of Lantau Island --- p.163
Chapter 8.1.3 --- Performance of Ngong Ping tourism cluster in the context of Sustainable Tourism --- p.165
Chapter 8.2 --- Strategy and recommendations for Sustainable Tourism Development --- p.166
Chapter 8.2.1 --- Establishment of vision and principles for Sustainable Tourism development with holistic planning --- p.167
Chapter 8.2.1.1 --- "Reach consensus, set clear vision with all-inclusive planning" --- p.167
Chapter 8.2.1.2 --- Conservation of natural environment as the primary principle --- p.170
Chapter 8.2.1.3 --- Involvement of all stakeholders through consultation --- p.171
Chapter 8.2.1.4 --- Using research and baseline information --- p.172
Chapter 8.2.1.5 --- Sustainable Tourism implementation and monitoring --- p.174
Chapter 8.2.2 --- Promotion of tourism clustering --- p.175
Chapter 8.2.2.1 --- Enhance the attractiveness of destinations --- p.175
Chapter 8.2.2.2 --- Enhancing sustainability by tourism clustering --- p.175
Chapter 8.2.3 --- Utilization of existing resources and encouraging local participation --- p.176
Chapter 8.2.3.1 --- Make use of existing assets instead of constructing artificial attractions --- p.176
Chapter 8.2.3.2 --- Encourage more local communities' participation --- p.177
Chapter 8.2.4 --- "Education, training and provision of sufficient supporting facilities" --- p.178
Chapter 8.2.4.1 --- Increase awareness on the importance of Sustainable Tourism development --- p.178
Chapter 8.2.4.2 --- Provision of tour guides and staff training --- p.179
Chapter 8.2.4.3 --- Provision of sufficient supporting infrastructures and facilities --- p.180
Chapter 8.3 --- Limitations of the study --- p.181
Chapter 8.4 --- Recommendations for further studies --- p.183
BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.185
APPENDICES --- p.203

This thesis is an ethnography involving as case studies two prominent tourism districts in Bali, Indonesia: Jimbaran and Kuta. The thesis explores the intersection between place attachment, place identity and tourism in these destination communities with implications for tourism planning. The study focuses on how local residents of Jimbaran and Kuta construct place meaning and perform place attachment; how locals value their place after tourism; how local communities (re)construct place identity; and how a local sense of place approach can inform tourism planning in Bali. Drawing on photographs as visual materials and narratives of local communities, this study was conducted using multiple methods, including fieldwork with photoelicitation, interviews and focus groups in Jimbaran; and online social media research for Kuta. Document studies were also applied. Thematic and discourse analyses were utilised to examine the data. The findings reveal that in everyday life, local places have significant meanings associated with the cultural and spiritual commitments that together constitute the local people’s sense of place. Local philosophies such as Tri Hita Karana (relating to sources of happiness) and Desa Kala Patra (relating to place, time and occasion) are vital for locals in achieving wellbeing, maintaining their emotional attachment with their village and safeguarding Balinese culture in these localities. It is also evident that tourism within local settings largely interrupts local place attachment and place identity. Moreover, this thesis argues that indigenous-rooted communities have a significant role in maintaining tradition, identity, values and esteem of their village under desa adat (traditional village) coordination. Under this traditional scheme, the recuperation of local identity in both places is maintained through local communities’ initiatives. This thesis concludes by suggesting that place attachment and place identity of local communities in Bali are important in sustaining Balinese culture during tourism development of the island. A key recommendation and contribution of this research is that local sense of place could be adopted as a very productive approach to strengthen kepariwisataan budaya (cultural tourism) policy in Bali and tourism development on the island, and to ensure cultural sustainability.

Abstract “Inscription” here signifies a sequence of two or more glyphs that have been incised for a proven or assumed non-ornamental purpose. With the physical description of the tablets, all measurements are given in maximum centimetres. If these measurements differ from those in the secondary literature, it is because I have measured nearly every artefact in situ.2 Glyph “totals” are only speculative, non-functional approximations, since the many glyphic fusions are ignored in the count. The constituent elements of the compounds as well as most affixes are counted separately. I have here adopted Barthel’s prudent custom of calling such counted glyphs “elements”.

Thomas Cook started it all with his meticulously organized archaeological tours up the Nile. He harnessed the revolutionary technologies of Victorian travel to a growing desire on the part of the middle class to explore the world and its ancient history. Cook was the first to realize the potential of the railroad for group tours. A devout Baptist and an advocate for temperance, he began his business by organizing rail excursions to temperance meetings in nearby towns in central England. The enterprise was so successful that he took advantage of steamships and continental railroads to organize what we now call package tours to France and Germany. From that, it was not much more difficult to organize tours to Egypt and the Holy Land, now readily accessible thanks to the new technology for Victorian travel: the railroad, the steamship, and the telegraph. Then, in the twentieth century, came ocean liners, massive cruise ships, and the Boeing 707, followed by the jumbo jet, all of which together made archaeological travel part of popular culture. We live in a completely accessible world of intricate airline schedules and instant communication, where you can visit the great moiae of Easter Island as easily as you can take a journey to Stonehenge or the Parthenon, the difference being a longer flight and the need for the correct visas and a foreign rental car at the other end. And if you become sick or injured, you can be evacuated from most places within hours: Peter Fleming or Ella Maillart would have been in real trouble had they become sick or injured in the vast expanses of central Asia. We forget that to travel east of the Holy Land was considered highly adventurous until after World War II, and that central Asia was virtually inaccessible to outsiders until the late twentieth century. Much of the adventure of archaeological travel has vanished since the 1960s in a tidal wave of mass tourism and its attendant businesses. Leisure travel is now the world’s largest industry, and the mainstay of many national economies, including that of Egypt, where at last count six mil-lion tourists visit each year. According to Statistics Canada, global cultural tourism will grow at a rate of about 15 percent annually through the year 2010.

In 1973, George Lindsay, one of Baja California’s most eminent botanists, visited the islands of the Sea of Cortés together with Charles Lindbergh, Joseph Wood Krutch, and Kenneth Bechtel. Lindbergh, one of the most celebrated popular heroes of the twentieth century, had become by that time a committed conservationist, interested in the preservation of whales and in the conservation of nature at large. Joseph Wood Krutch, a naturalist, had written The Forgotten Peninsula, one of the first natural history descriptions of Baja California. George Lindsay had helped organize a series of scientific explorations into the Sea of Cortés and the peninsula of Baja California, first from the San Diego Natural History Museum, and later from the California Academy of Sciences (Banks 1962a,b; Lindsay 1962, 1964, 1966, 1970; Wiggins 1962). Kenneth Bechtel, a philanthropist from San Francisco, had given financial support to the Audubon Society in the 1950s and 1960s to study the sea bird rookery at Isla Rasa, which had been decreed a protected area by the Mexican government in 1962. Bechtel was interested in showing the Sea of Cortés to people who might be aroused by its astounding natural beauty and who might help to protect it. For this purpose, he organized the trip and invited Lindbergh to visit the region. The group flew a chartered Catalina flying-boat that allowed them to get to small and remote islands. They landed in the water and then piloted up to the beach so they could have shade under the wing. They visited many of the islands, starting from Consag north of Bahía de los Ángeles, and ending up in Espíritu Santo, east of the Bay of La Paz. It was a wonderful and memorable trip. Two or three months later, both Lindbergh and Lindsay traveled to Mexico City to watch the Mexican premiere of a documentary film on the Sea of Cortés by the California Academy of Sciences that Kenneth Bechtel had sponsored (see chap. 1). Taking advantage of the opportunity, and also of his immense popularity, Charles Lindbergh requested to see the president of Mexico, Luis Echeverría.

The paper introduces the project of researchers from the Charles University in Prague, the Palacký University in Olomouc and the East Carolina University in Greenville focusing on the creation of the internet depository of audio recordings of the Czech dialects and/or historical traces of their existence beyond the Czech Republic, i.e. in the territory of the former USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan) and former Yugoslavia, in Romania, Poland and some other states of Europe as well as North and South America (Paraguay), and the internet map of those dialects with the dialectologically commented specimens of them. As an example, the paper presents a pilot description of the most examined Czech immigrants’ dialect spoken in the village of Kirillovka belonging to the Novorossiysk municipality (Krasnodar Krai, Russian Federation) with the analysis of approximately 3 minutes long fragment of recording of its native speaker born in 1931 and attendant materials connected with history and the present-day situation of this Czech community in the Black Sea Coast of the Northern Caucasus. The author hopes that the experience gained through working on this project may stimulate similar initiatives in documenting not only Czech, but also other Slavic dialectal islands in Russia (here, first of all, Polish ones in Siberia) and in adjoining countries. The urgency of this task is becoming more and more evident, because such dialects are nowadays disappearing; moreover, some of them, spoken in the territories listed above, practically disappeared during the last decades.

The report discusses the emergence of the Socio-Economic Soft Matter as the consequence of interactions between physics and economy, since the onset of modern times. First, using soft matter science tools, demographic changes since the Industrial Revolution times onset are tested. It is supported by innovative derivative-sensitive and distortions-sensitive analytic tools. All these revealed for population changes the Weibult-type powered exponential description, with the crossover to the lesser rising pattern emerging after the year 1970. Subsequently, population changes are tested for the Rapa Nui (Easter) Island model case and for four selected model cities where the rise and decay phases have occured. They are Detroit and Cleveland in USA and Łódź (Lodz, the former textile industry center), and Bytom (the former coal mining center) in Poland. The analysis shows universal scaling patterns for population changes, coupled to the scocio-economic background impact, revealing also the long-lasting determinism. Finally, sources of obtained universal behavior are discussed in the frame of the Socio-Economic Soft Matter concept. Keywords: Demography; Socio-economy; Soft Matter; Weilbul distribution; Rapa Nui; Post-industrial cities