Mayan Ecosystem Research Paper
ANTH 151
Extra Credit Paper
It is clear that climate and damage to the environment contributed to the Maya collapse. But what was the likely cycle of events leading to the cultural demise?’’ Support your answer with specific points based on the readings. Discuss the role of the engineered environment (especially the reservoirs) and Mayan agricultural strategies. Finally, do you think other factors may have also contributed to the Maya collapse? If so, explain why.
Based on the Scarborough and Haugh readings, I believe that the likely cycle of events leading to the cultural demise were from bad or uninformed decision-making on agricultural strategies and infrastructure design strategies that positioned themselves to be heavily dependent on reservoirs for water.
The Mayans made the decision to develop a civilization in a seasonal desert that depended on a consistent rainfall cycle to support agricultural production. Then, they engineered a reservoir system that ultimately depended on seasonal rainfall because much of the lowlands had only restricted natural groundwater resources.
For agricultural strategies, the short-fallow slash-and-burn agriculture method, logging, and cattle ranching significantly affected portions of the ecosystem and limited …show more content…
access to potable water. Extensive shifting cultivation is not very advantageous because it requires a lot of land, time for regeneration, and fire that is difficult to control and promotes deforestation. It is an unsustainable method if there is limited amount land.
For infrastructure design, architectural construction and paving accompanying a population boom in the Classic period required large water storage tanks in the site’s central precinct filled by directed seasonal runoff, but the pavements unintentionally prevented the normal recharging of the springs that had originally attracted colonists.
Although the recharge and filtering of the pure water source was significantly curtailed, many more times the amount of water available to the growing population was now contained in the formal reservoir system. Also, building so all 2750 monuments must have required a lot of trees. They must have sacrificed a lot of trees for the plaster too, which contributed to
deforestation.
Other factors that I believe also contributed to the Maya collapse are overpopulation and onset of hostile relations. The Mayan civilization rapidly expanded from 550 to 750 A.D. during climatically favorable (relatively wet) times. The population even grew to 10 million at its peak and was operating at the limits of the environment’s carrying capacity. This left the Maya society especially vulnerable to multiyear droughts, so any changes in rainfall played a critical role.
The control of artificial water reservoirs by Maya rulers also played a role in both the florescence and the collapse of Maya civilization. The scale of artificial water control seems to correlate with the degree of political power of Maya cities suggest that drought may have undermined the institution of Maya rulership when existing ceremonies and technologies failed to provide sufficient water.
Although the northern lowlands are characterized by the lowest amounts of annual average rainfall, collapsed cenotes in this region provide direct access to the relatively shallow groundwater table. During sustained drought, access to groundwater was likely an important factor in determining which large population centers could survive.
Extra Credit Paper
It is clear that climate and damage to the environment contributed to the Maya collapse. But what was the likely cycle of events leading to the cultural demise?’’ Support your answer with specific points based on the readings. Discuss the role of the engineered environment (especially the reservoirs) and Mayan agricultural strategies. Finally, do you think other factors may have also contributed to the Maya collapse? If so, explain why.
Based on the Scarborough and Haugh readings, I believe that the likely cycle of events leading to the cultural demise were from bad or uninformed decision-making on agricultural strategies and infrastructure design strategies that positioned themselves to be heavily dependent on reservoirs for water.
The Mayans made the decision to develop a civilization in a seasonal desert that depended on a consistent rainfall cycle to support agricultural production. Then, they engineered a reservoir system that ultimately depended on seasonal rainfall because much of the lowlands had only restricted natural groundwater resources.
For agricultural strategies, the short-fallow slash-and-burn agriculture method, logging, and cattle ranching significantly affected portions of the ecosystem and limited …show more content…
access to potable water. Extensive shifting cultivation is not very advantageous because it requires a lot of land, time for regeneration, and fire that is difficult to control and promotes deforestation. It is an unsustainable method if there is limited amount land.
For infrastructure design, architectural construction and paving accompanying a population boom in the Classic period required large water storage tanks in the site’s central precinct filled by directed seasonal runoff, but the pavements unintentionally prevented the normal recharging of the springs that had originally attracted colonists.
Although the recharge and filtering of the pure water source was significantly curtailed, many more times the amount of water available to the growing population was now contained in the formal reservoir system. Also, building so all 2750 monuments must have required a lot of trees. They must have sacrificed a lot of trees for the plaster too, which contributed to
deforestation.
Other factors that I believe also contributed to the Maya collapse are overpopulation and onset of hostile relations. The Mayan civilization rapidly expanded from 550 to 750 A.D. during climatically favorable (relatively wet) times. The population even grew to 10 million at its peak and was operating at the limits of the environment’s carrying capacity. This left the Maya society especially vulnerable to multiyear droughts, so any changes in rainfall played a critical role.
The control of artificial water reservoirs by Maya rulers also played a role in both the florescence and the collapse of Maya civilization. The scale of artificial water control seems to correlate with the degree of political power of Maya cities suggest that drought may have undermined the institution of Maya rulership when existing ceremonies and technologies failed to provide sufficient water.
Although the northern lowlands are characterized by the lowest amounts of annual average rainfall, collapsed cenotes in this region provide direct access to the relatively shallow groundwater table. During sustained drought, access to groundwater was likely an important factor in determining which large population centers could survive.