The Emperor Has No Clothes A Practical Guide for Environmental and Social Transformation (7 page)

Further support for this hypothesis is the
fact that defensive features were incorporated in their buildings
to provide protection from their fellow islanders [
16]
to forestall food theft and cannibalism.

15. Rats are generally not favored as a food
source. In the Paris commune that replaced the second empire in
1870 rats were used for food because the of the siege, they were
quickly abandoned once other food sources became available. The
same thing occurred in world war II prisoner of war camps. None of
these people continued to eat rats when other food sources became
available

16. This style of dwelling was being
constructed before contact with outsiders occurred precluding this
possibility for a motive to use this type of defensive
entryway.

Classical Maya:
The classical Mayan
civilization occupied an area in meso America that is now comprised
of parts of Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico as well as
in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador, an area of 324,000
square kilometers. The sea coasts touching The Gulf of Mexico,
Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Honduras, and the Pacific Ocean had only a
few major population centers (kingdoms), the majority were located
located in the interior. This area had been occupied for a long
period before the formation of the classical style of society which
existed from 250 CE through 1000 CE. The classical type society
didn't suddenly appear but was an outgrowth of prior societies that
already incorporated many of the defining traits. Because of the
large area this civilization occupied the topography and climate
are fairly varied, and therefor the historical trajectories the
various kingdoms followed are also varied. The main focus will be
on the group of kingdoms that are referred to as the Southern
Lowland Maya since they have been the most comprehensively
studied.

The Classic Maya
were capable of working the metals copper and gold, had a system of
writing, a sophisticated understanding of mathematics that included
the independent invention of zero, and precise calendars based upon
astronomy which also embodied their mathematics. They did not have
draft animals or use the wheel for daily activities. Wheels were
known but only used on a few religious statues to move them around.
Thus, transportation of commodities was accomplished by people
carrying things. Foot transport acted to limit trade to smaller
carry-able items such as obsidian for tools, materials to produce
religious artifacts, and prestige items for the elites, some of
which came from long distances. Because of the transportation
limitation the size of the kingdoms were small. Generally the Maya
“cities” were comprised of a central core area consisting of large
monumental buildings used for religious purposes, palaces for
royals and nobles. They also had ball courts which were important
for religious activities as well as sport.

The religion of the Maya was composed of two
divisions incorporating three elements, the heavens and underworld
where gods resided, and the earth which was occupied by humans.
Blood letting rituals were conducted at the temples by the royals
to achieve visions that were believed to originate from their
ancestors or the gods. The visions were induced by a combination of
bloodletting and hallucinogens derived from the Bufo Marinus frog.
These visions were thought to be conveyed to the recipient by
underworld serpents.

The ball game [17] reflected the game of life
and demonstrated peoples place in the cosmic order. The game was
associated with military activities that were endemic to the Mayan
kingdoms. It ritually reenacted successful military campaigns and
established the connection between the earthly plane and the gods
who required blood sacrifices. The blood sacrifices were thought to
resurrect the gods who followed the cycles of the sun, moon, and
stars. These cycles were also used to predict planting times. Each
of the gods would undergo periodic death which was synchronized
with the cyclic intervals of the natural process the god embodied.
The royals when they died were resurrected from the underworld as a
god. The most desirable of the pantheon of gods for royal
resurrection was the corn god (over 60% of their diet was corn).
The corn god symbolized planting corn on earth and like the plant
suffers cyclic decapitation (harvesting). War captives where used
to play the ball game against their conquerors for ritual purposes.
The ritual ball games outcome was never in doubt though, the
captives always lost and were subsequently beheaded or had their
hearts ripped out to provide a blood sacrifice. The captives were
also utilized for sacrifices in numerous other religious rituals
connected to the various gods to revitalize their presence. It was
a common practice for the victims to be tortured and mutilated for
protracted periods before being sacrificed. Thus, the well being of
the kingdom was dependent upon the king because he was a conduit to
the gods since he was the author of the constant blood sacrifices.
These sacrifices were of several types. The first was conducted by
the royal who cut themselves and dribbled some blood on a piece of
paper which was burnt to convey it to the gods. The second method
used sacrificial animals and people by killing them in various
ways.

In the earlier part of Mayan history, swidden
(slash and burn) a dispersed form of agriculture was practiced. The
farmer practicing this method would clear a patch of forest and
burn the cleared vegetation which provided ash to stimulate growth.
However, tropical soils are thin, most of the nutrients are
concentrated in the growing vegetation and the soil becomes
depleted in 2 to 4 years when used for this type of agriculture.
After the soil becomes depleted and crop production falls off, the
farmer would move to a new location and repeat the process. The
depleted field would be allowed to lie fallow for 10 to 20 years to
recover its fertility and then returned to for crop production.
This form of agriculture does not require a great deal of labor,
and can be practiced with simple hand tools. In the 1930's studies
were conducted on swidden agriculture. The findings of these
studies showed that it only required 48 days of work to produce
enough food to feed a family. This method of agriculture can be
sustainable as long as adequate periods of fallow time are allowed
for the soil to recover its fertility. Because of the long fallow
periods it requires a large amount of land to practice, and
therefore can only sustain low population densities.[18]

17.
The ball game was also
played for non ritual or sporting purposes and both men and women
were participants. It used a heavy rubber solid ball and is the
precursor of modern ball games using rubber balls such as
basketball,soccer, volleyball etc. The game was played by hitting
the ball with hips thighs and upper arms but not kicked or thrown
and passed through hoops mounted on the walls, the players wore
protective clothing.

18. The Kayapo a modern South American
Indian tribe practices sustainable swidden agriculture that mimics
the process of ecological succession. They cut a patch of forest at
the start of the dry season in April-May and leave the plant
materials to dry until astronomical observations and a number of
biological indicators such as the flowering of indicator plants and
animal migrations start to take place in late August – September
and set on fire when the meteorological conditions are correct..
The process of burning is carefully supervised by their shamans
being focused on the combustion of small trunks and lianas but kept
under careful control. Several weeks prior to the burning the soil
is seeded with sweet potato, manioc, and yam which sprout
immediately after the burn. Short cycle crops such as corn, beans ,
melon, and squash follow which quickly provide ground cover in
conjunction with long cycle crops that can be harvested after 6
months to 2 years after planting. Just prior to “abandoning” the
depleted field that will lie fallow they plant up to 16 species of
trees and shrubs that provide desirable fruit. Returning to the
plot occasionally to prune and do light weeding. The fruits of
these trees are also consumed by game animals and birds which are
attracted to the fallowed area providing an additional source of
wild food. Moreover, the game animals also establish additional
fruit bearing plants by seeds carried in their droppings further
enhancing the plots as a resource while providing an essential part
of the recuperative process. From: The Fate of the Forest by Hecht
& Cockburn. pp. 45-50.

In addition to the cultivation of plants,
Maya archaeological sites have provided evidence of hunting and
gathering of wild foods found in the surrounding forests and
aquatic environment. Appraisals of the quantities of food remains
indicate that their diet consisted principally of corn, beans and
squash, supplemented by minor amounts of avocado, coca, palm
fruits, and dogs. The favored wild foods were white tailed dear,
peccary, fish, mollusks, and wild forest mammae apples.xii Because
of the large geographic area through which these kingdoms were
located, the level of consumption of the various food varieties
reflected local availability. For example, kingdoms that had access
to aquatic resources incorporated more of these food types in their
diets. To get a sense of the amount of variation among Maya
kingdoms a few will be used as examples. We will start with Copan
located in the interior of Honduras. The rise and fall of Copan's
population was worked out by Ann Corrine Freter of Ohio University
using obsidian hydration dating, and Wingard who assessed the
carrying capacity of the area. We will start in the mid to late 6th
century CE when all of the alluvial soil was in agricultural
production. At this time Wingard estimated that around 5,000 people
resided in this area.

Date CE......................Populations

600– 650........................5,520

650-699.......................10,426

Population Exceeds Alluvial Carrying
Capacity

700-749.......................15,009

750-799.......................27,773

Population Maximum

800-849.......................25,656

Royal Dynasty gone.

850-899........................26,381

900-949........................14,821

950-999........................12,118

1000-1049.....................7,698

1050-1100.....................3.813

After the population exceeded the alluvial
carrying capacity, the less desirable forested lands on the slopes
were exploited to provide sustenance to the burgeoning population,
thereby causing progressive environmental degradation from severe
erosion and soil depletion. [19] By the 8th century deforestation
was probably complete. The population continued to grow, and became
progressively more impoverished as a result of an inability to
produce adequate amounts of food.

19. David Webster excavated a Maya building
in this area that had walls that are 7 meters (23 feet) high which
were nearly covered by eroded soil. The top layer of newly formed
soil was only 4 – 8 cm thick and mostly comprised of roots after
approximately 700 years regeneration.

Archaeological research suggests that the
farmers did not have permanent rights to a parcel of land. Land
rights where possessed by the royals and controlled through the
nobles who would allow a farmer the use of a parcel on a temporary
basis. There is no evidence that the elites ever initiated any
measures to address the declining agricultural production. This
inactivity is puzzling since they did have a knowledge of
terracing. Terracing uses retention walls to immobilize soil and is
an effective means of preventing erosion on slanted fields. Perhaps
an explanation can be found for this failure by looking at other
more documented societies such as 19th century Ireland, where the
elites were also “absentee landlords.” Typically absentee landlords
lack involvement in the actual work taking place. Because of their
detachment from the property under their control they seldom had
little or no idea of what was actually occurring. Generally if
elites start to feel a little “pinched” their remedy is to
intensify extraction, and carry on as before. Moreover, the people
working the land as “tenants” also have no incentive to invest a
lot of labor to install and maintain improvements like terraces,
since they don't derive any immediate or ongoing benefits from
their labor. Since terraces require substantial amounts of ongoing
maintenance, protracted attention from the people in control is
essential. Needless to say, a sustained focus on these kinds of
mundane details are not a hallmark of absentee land lords.

According to the above table, the population
of Copan reached a maximum in the late 8th century whereupon the
dynasty fell. The last King in the direct royal lineage was Yax
Pasaj who acceded to the throne in 763 CE and is last heard of in
810 CE. A final reference to a ruler named Ukit Took was inscribed
in 822 CE on a partially finished alter.xiii He appears to have
been an unsuccessful pretender. This is the last entry that is
relevant to any royal presence in Copan's written record.

The termination of the royal presence in
Copan is not accompanied by signs of strife. In many of the other
Mayan kingdoms there is evidence of strife and that the royals were
forcefully removed. The deposition of royals probably occurred as a
result of the obvious ineffectiveness of their system of religious
beliefs to address their desperate situation. This impotence
probably led to a general disillusionment among the populace and an
abandonment of their religious creed.

As can be seen from the above table in the
early 10th century the population of Copan experienced a large
population reduction that was followed by a continuing decline at a
gradually slowing rate. It's believed that some of the elites were
able to persist for some time after the end of the classic period,
because they still provided some useful services to the moribund
society. By the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th
century, the area was completely abandoned as reported by Cortes
who passed through the area and nearly starved.