Monday, March 19, 2007
The Maya
In Collapse, Jared Diamond says that a reason for devoting a chapter to the Maya, “is to provide an antidote to our other chapters on past societies, which consist disproportionately of small societies in somewhat fragile and geographically isolated environments, and behind the cutting edge of contemporary technology and culture.
“The Maya were none of those things. Instead, they were culturally the most advanced society in the pre-Columbian New World, the only one with extensive preserved writing and located within one of the two heartlands of New World civilization. Lest one be misled into thinking that crashes are a risk only for small peripheral societies in fragile areas, the Maya warn us that crashes can also befall the most advanced and creative societies.”
The Maya illustrate four of the five points in Diamond’s explanatory framework. They did damage their environment, especially by deforestation and erosion. Climate changes, droughts, contributed. So did hostilities among the Maya themselves – political and cultural factors, especially the competition among kings and nobles that led to a chronic emphasis on war and erecting monuments rather than on solving underlying problems.
Yet ancient Maya culture survived the collapse. There are still Maya people living in their ancient homeland and speaking Maya languages.
But, their ancient cities remained deserted, hidden by trees and virtually unknown to the outside world until rediscovered in 1839 by John Stephens, a rich American lawyer. The first Maya contact with Europeans came in 1502, just ten years after Columbus “discovered” America. The Spanish began to conquer the Maya in earnest in 1527, but did not subdue the last principality until 1697. “In one of history’s worst acts of cultural vandalism,” bishop Diego de Landa, who resided in the Yucatan Peninsula from 1549-1578, burned all Maya manuscripts he could find in his effort to eliminate paganism.
As with other societies Diamond has explored, farmers are the bedrock, the base of the pyramid upon which the nobility, priests, artisans and soldiers rest. In the US today, farmers make up just 2% of our population but each one feeds 125 other people. In ancient Egypt, each farmer produced five times the food required for himself and family. But a Maya peasant could produce only twice the needs of himself and his family. Thus, 70% of Maya society consisted of peasants because Maya agriculture had limitations.
“The Maya were none of those things. Instead, they were culturally the most advanced society in the pre-Columbian New World, the only one with extensive preserved writing and located within one of the two heartlands of New World civilization. Lest one be misled into thinking that crashes are a risk only for small peripheral societies in fragile areas, the Maya warn us that crashes can also befall the most advanced and creative societies.”
The Maya illustrate four of the five points in Diamond’s explanatory framework. They did damage their environment, especially by deforestation and erosion. Climate changes, droughts, contributed. So did hostilities among the Maya themselves – political and cultural factors, especially the competition among kings and nobles that led to a chronic emphasis on war and erecting monuments rather than on solving underlying problems.
Yet ancient Maya culture survived the collapse. There are still Maya people living in their ancient homeland and speaking Maya languages.
But, their ancient cities remained deserted, hidden by trees and virtually unknown to the outside world until rediscovered in 1839 by John Stephens, a rich American lawyer. The first Maya contact with Europeans came in 1502, just ten years after Columbus “discovered” America. The Spanish began to conquer the Maya in earnest in 1527, but did not subdue the last principality until 1697. “In one of history’s worst acts of cultural vandalism,” bishop Diego de Landa, who resided in the Yucatan Peninsula from 1549-1578, burned all Maya manuscripts he could find in his effort to eliminate paganism.
As with other societies Diamond has explored, farmers are the bedrock, the base of the pyramid upon which the nobility, priests, artisans and soldiers rest. In the US today, farmers make up just 2% of our population but each one feeds 125 other people. In ancient Egypt, each farmer produced five times the food required for himself and family. But a Maya peasant could produce only twice the needs of himself and his family. Thus, 70% of Maya society consisted of peasants because Maya agriculture had limitations.
