The `collapse' of civilizations: what palaeoenvironmental reconstruction cannot tell us, but anthropology can

Abstract

Solutions to environmental problems experienced by human societies proposed by `palaeo' scientists are often deterministic, and therefore philosophically unacceptable to most social scientists, discouraging links between the biophysical and the social sciences. One social science which may offer the greatest scope for interdisciplinary cooperation is anthropology, which provides a set of rules by which non-social scientists can understand the general characteristics and nature of change, in both traditional and modern societies. These involve shifts in the relationship between the society, the polity and the economy, the ways in which access to resources is controlled, and the distribution of resources amongst the group, which may be egalitarian or stratified (unequal). During the Holocene, many human groups have abandoned egalitarianism in favour of stratified societies involving expansionist political organization, increasing inequality and internal social control, and production of an ever-increasing economic surplus. Since CE 1500, modern societies have emerged in which the economy is separate from the polity, and economic activity increasingly globalized. Currently, many national polities are subservient to the global economy, involving rapidly increasing impact upon the Earth's support systems. Societies `collapse' (as do those which survive) for a variety of reasons, both environmental and cultural, but underlying all such events is a tendency towards economic intensification, political expansion and increased social control (and therefore reduced socio-political flexibility). Alternative modes of subsistence offering long-term sustainability may therefore involve increased local economic self-reliance and personal and political autonomy, and enhanced ability of local communities to manage their own resources.