Collapse - Chapter 5

The Maya case study covers 4 of the 5 themes in Collapse: human impact on the environment, climate change, interaction with hostiles and religious/cultural factors. Unlike the previous examples of collapse, Maya civilizations were located in a (relatively) environmentally stable area and had written record from which to derive more information.

The environment of the Yucatan Peninsula is actually only seasonally tropical and therefore also has a dry season. Additionally, although southern regions get more rainfall (closer to the equator) its less accessible due to the distance between the ground surface and the water table. There is evidence of intensive farming practices to raise the yield (of low-protein corn) in these conditions, but overall the production of the farmers was not enough to support a large non-farming constituent (bureaucrats, warriors, etc.). As such, one civilization was unable to completely dominate others with superior and well-fed force, resulting in a continuous struggle between factions. Speaking of a stratified class system, its clear that the priest/noble class was treated as such in order to ensure success, rain and prosperity to farmers. Its safe to assume that droughts would have caused social upheaval.

What follows is a brief introduction to the Maya Long Count calendar and a consideration of the collapse of one dense city, Copan. Evidence clearly points to deforestation (for agriculture and the making of plaster) as the main cause of environmental degradation and drought, but its seems collapse wasn't that straightforward. It was probably a combination of five factors.

Immense population growth likely outstripped the available resources, which alone would put a strain on society. Compounding this problem would be the associated deforestation and hillside erosion to make more farmland. As mentioned before, there was constant fighting in the region which would also eat up land that could be used for resources. The tipping point was probably the drought that took place during the time of the Classic collapse. This is all tied together by how the kings.nobles made decisions leading up to the collapse. Simply put, the decisions were all short-sighted (waging wars, erecting monuments that consumed more and more resources, overdeveloping agriculture and competition in general). The ideas of competition, an arms race of monuments, overdeveloping and overextending land and a population boom followed by a precipitous drop are all echoed in the previous case studies.