This intensification gradually damages the environment and results in problems such as erosion, deforestation, and habitat destruction, as well as water management issues, overhunting, and overfishing, among others. This leads to the expansion of farmland into marginal areas to accommodate more people. Diamond’s proposed trajectory begins with population growth, spurring the need for intensified agriculture. Ecocide, as the name suggests, describes a society that destroys the very environment upon which they depend, thus ensuring its own demise ( Diamond 2011: 6). He developed a single general formula outlining how many of the world’s great civilizations fell, a process he explains as ‘ecocide’. The Maya ‘Collapse’ According to Jared Diamondĭiamond defines collapse as, ‘A drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time’ ( Diamond 2011: 3). Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 24(1), (2014) “A Critique: Jared Diamond’s Collapse Put In Perspective”,
Keywords: Environment, Warfare, Maya, Mesoamerica, Archaeology By comparing Diamond’s Collapse with current research I hope to critique Diamond and thus elucidate the condition of the Maya decline concerning the roles of the environment, the regional variability of various sociopolitical dynamics, such as those that were played out in the Petexbatun region, and the extent of Post Classic continuation of Maya tradition. Diamond, buoyed by the success of his book and his renown as an author, is the assumed authority, despite academic criticism. Diamond’s model of the Maya collapse has become quite popular since its publication, however numerous other divergent theories exist as well, which attempt to explain the phenomenon. Jared Diamond’s book Collapse captivated readers with its tales of past great civilizations succumbing to dramatic cycles of decline, and among them are the ancient Maya.
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