Transcript Technology & Mayas

Technology & Mayas
• Chap. 3, Mayas - Ancient Civilization
– Rise and Fall
– population growth, gradual in ancient times
• intensification of agriculture and water management
• more social control - exploitation - rebellion
• expansion - wars - more territory - more control
CAUSES OF COLLAPSE
– Rising costs of coordination, exploiting farmers
– Stressed system - shocks:
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change of climate
invasion
disease
rebellion
costs of warfare
MAYA CLASSIC COLLAPSE
850 CE (A.D.)
• Newest data
– deciphering of Maya hieroglyphs
• political history
• warfare increases, rebellions also
– biophysical evidence of climate change
• drought 850-1050 CE
• lack of domestic water - disease, thirst, water wars?
• TERRACING conserves water in ground
HOPES FOR US?
• MODERN INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION
– environmental impact info
– socio-cultural impact & public health info
– predicting with statistics, modeling
• a chance to prevent collapse
• political will ?
• investing by the wealthy for the long term??
First Civilizations
• OLD WORLD
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Mesopotamia
China
India
Egypt
Emerging info • ? S. Asia
• ? Africa
• NEW WORLD
– Andean
• Inca + Peru, Bolivia,
Ecuador, N. Chile
– Mesoamerica
• Toltec (Teotihuacan,
Valley of Mexico, Axtec)
• Olmec (southern Gulf)
• Maya (Yucatan +
highlands)
• Oaxaca (Mixtec,
Zapotec, Mt. Alban)
PERIODS OF MAYA
CIVILIZATION
Preclassic
Classic
Postclassic
800 BCE –
200 CE
400 – 850 CE 1050-1500 CE
Divert rivers, + raised
Population
drain swamps fields, terraces reduced 65% (overall)
Maya Collapse ??
• Abandonment of southern cities in lowlands
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Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico)
Copan, Edzna, Calakmul (S. Yucatan Peninsula
Tikal (Guatemala)
Copan (Honduras)
Caracol, Cerros, Lamanai (Belize)
SURVIVORS
• Highlands of Guatemala & Chiapas,
Mexico
• Northern Lowlands (northern half of
Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico)
– Cities continue, shifting cultivation also
– Irrigation systems ???
– Sculpture, architecture, painting, ceramics
Spanish Conquest
• Exploitation, malnutrition, loss of resources.
• Ecological disruptions -- new plants, animals,
weeds
• Virgin soil epidemics - New World
– losses of 90% + in lowlands - malaria
– losses of 70% + in highlands
• Effects CONFUSED - 9th century collapse
Ancient Cities
• Dependence on rainfall agriculture plus
simple irrigation systems, terracing
• Global climate change - impacts agriculture
• Local effects differ widely - wind patterns
and rainfall throughout agricultural cycle.
• Buffered by city gardening, smaller elite
living off production by peasant farmers
WATER DEFICIENCY
• THIRST - kills faster than hunger (faster with
high heat and humidity)
• Skin diseases
– lack of water for bathing, washing clothes (especially in
tropics)
• Varmints invade houses and grain storage
– lack of water for cleaning
• Malnutrition - lack of water for cooking grains and
seeds, poor harvests from lack of rain.
ENVIRONMENTAL
CONSTRAINTS
• 6 MONTH DRY
– Jan. - May
• HURRICANES
– Aug. - Sept.
• FLOODING
– Aug. - Dec
• Karst topography
– limestone subsoil
– vertical cracks
– water seeps down and
out to sea
– no rivers or lakes
– seasonal streams and
ponds in some areas
Aguadas & Chultunes
• Chultunes - stonelined underground water
storage cisterns for domestic use in towns
• Aguadas - enlarged seasonal ponds, often
lined with cement to prevent leakage
• Canals and sloped village construction to
drain water into aguadas and chultunes.
• Continued use and communal maintenance
until the arrival of piped water with wells
and pumps
Agricultural Adaptation to Maya
Environment
• Shifting cultivation
(slash and burn), cyclical
use/fallow
– Soil renewal from trees
(roots, leaf fall)
– polycropping
– risk reduction, plant high
and low, early and late
– low labor costs
– needs low population
• Intensive
– River diversion - rare
– Drained fields
– Raised fields
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bigger canals
soil doubled on fields
fish farming
shading/water lilies reduces evaporation
– Terracing - water &
soil conserved
Animal Helpers + ENERGY
• Old World
– draft animals
• horse
• cattle (oxen)
– pack animals
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donkey
camel
yak
elephant
• New World
– llamas in Andes
TECHNOLOGICAL
CONSEQUENCES
• Reduces incentive to develop wheel for
transport
• No wheel - no pulleys, other machinery
• Energy - human back and social
organization, detailed knowledge modification of natural environment
Linkages
Energy
Productivity
Environment
Fossil Fuels
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Water & Wind +++
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Animal help ++
Human energy +
+ env. smarts
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HOPES
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HYDROGEN CELLS
SOLAR PANELS
WINDMILLS
GEOTHERMAL
EFFICIENCY OF USE
POPULATION DENSITY
• ANALYSIS OF POP. PRESSURE ON
RESOURCES - ancient Mayas and culture
change processes
– assume 5 persons per housemound ???
– fails to include number of residences per
peasant family -- divide by 3 or 4?
• long fallow regimes - 20 years in each hamlet?
• residence in town centers during dry season
• grain storage in old houses
VIDEO - Joya de Ceren
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Maya Pompeii, El Salvador
Volcano covered peasant village - 600 CE
Produced food for Maya cities
Corvee labor for building projects
– Estimate (Abrams), 2 months of labor twice in
adult man’s life time, during dry season.
Fairness & Rebellion
– Early Classic Compensations
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jade jewelry
seeing grand ceremonies
obsidian tools
polychrome ceramics (high quality dishes with
colored glazes)
• shells for jewelry
– Late Classic - upper classes demand more and
give less, growing gap between rich and poor.
Rebellions, increased war between city-states.
Zapatistas 1994
• Chiapas - indigenous peoples
– defending land rights, precedents:
• Mexican Revolution - Emiliano Zapata, national
hero
• Caste War of the Mayas of Yucatan 1848, de facto
autonomy of Maya in Quintana Roo until Cancun.
– Use of new information technologies
• Taking their case to the internet, asking for support
from abroad. Cell phones, computers, internet
NAFTA & ZAPATISTA
REBELLION
– livelihood threatened by NAFTA
• importing cheap corn, hidden US subsidies
• no subsidies for these indigenous farmers
• Goal - diversify production, produce for market
efficiently, globalization
• Result - increased poverty, rebellion to protect
livelihood
• UPDATE - holding autonomous territory,
community organizing for mutual aid, asking for
national political change 1994-2003 and counting . ..