Tags: civilization | culture | history

While Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies examined how some societies thrived due to their geographic and environmental endowments, this book examines why ancient societies collapsed so often in the past.

The book delves into a variety of past civilisations to illustrate that collapse of a society is no respecter of geography or time. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed also looks at modern-day societies such as Rwanda to explain the catastrophe that recently befell this afflicted nation.

The book asks how once astute societies that built magnificent monuments testifying of their social and economic prowess could suddenly vanish or be rendered impotent. Not lost on the reader throughout these case studies is the nagging thought that perhaps this fate might also befall their own country.

In fact, it is the seminal point of this provocative book; to stir our collective consciousness to an understanding of what lies ahead so that we may be saved from the pitfalls of the past. In essence, we cannot separate the economy from the environment if we hope to avoid devastation, like the Anasazi.

Their vast ruins in northern New Mexico echo a well-ordered, sophisticated society in a fragile desert environment that lasted over 600 years, longer than any European society in the Americas to date. However, over time the Anasazi became ever more specialised in the tasks of the society. This in turn allowed them to make gains in economies of efficiency while making them equally interdependent as a culture. More and more the main complex at Chaco Canyon depended on outlying communities and outposts for their support.

These cities served as governmental and religious centres to facilitate societal management. Collapse describes how, like many of our cities of today, "Chaco Canyon became a black hole into which goods were imported but from which nothing tangible was exported."

As the population grew so did the demands on the surrounding environment. Fuel and other essential resources became ever more distant, coupled with soil depletion and erosion. In essence, they became increasingly close to living on the margin of what the environment could reasonably support. The final straw was a prolonged drought.

No longer able to support or feed themselves, the society suddenly collapsed into open revolt and total civil warfare, culminating in cannibalism and ultimately total abandonment of the site. The moral lesson is that while they "adopted solutions that were brilliantly successful and understandable in the 'short term' they created fatal problems in the long run." The analogy to our present day situation of overextending ourselves is obvious.

While Collapse seems to make a strong connection between the collapse of a society and it's environment, this book is not all about eco-meltdowns. He also measures other critical factors involving the demise of societies as well; hostile neighbours; loss of trading partners; climate change and perhaps most importantly, a society's responses to its challenges.

In this vein, this book also looks at several past success stories where societies in Japan and the highlands of New Guinea had the insight to change fundamental, traditional values and restore a positive balance with nature, trading partners etc., and thrive.

Collapse presents a cautious optimism for our own future. The book concludes that because we are the creators our own problems, we also have the power to amend the quandaries we have made. This, the book maintains, will not be easy and will require profound courage; but necessary if we are to have hope for the future. -