******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
I was reading an interview with Jason Moore* yesterday where he associates the crisis of European feudalism in the 14th century with the end of the Medieval Warm Period. Reading this exchange I was curious if the same could have affected the Maya - a quick Google search on “medieval warm period maya” turned up this and a number of other relevant articles: http://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows92/irows92.htm *Moore: “If you look just at the experience of Western Europe over the past thousand years or so, you see that after 300, when the Roman Climate Optimum—that is, the favorable climate for the Roman Empire—came to an end, what happened? Well, Roman power collapses in Western Europe. By 500, the peasants are occupying the villas, repurposing them, re-establishing village life. Life expectancy rises. Gender equality increases. Fertility falls. It is a golden age for everyday people. A similar story occurs about the later Middle Ages, around 1290, when the medieval warm period comes to an end. What happens? The Black Death. Once it hits in the 1350s, Europe’s ruling classes try to reimpose serfdom, but the peasants and workers won’t go for it. They say, hell no, we’re not going back.” [By the way, his first comment suggests that the “dark ages” and the “barbarians” may have gotten a bad rap from historians wistful about the collapse of the Roman Empire which was after all based in substantial part on slavery. The fallacies of a stagist view of history - maybe there’s a problem with the slogan Socialism or barbarism...] https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/raj-patel-jason-moore-history-world-seven-cheap-things-interview On Sat, Feb 3, 2018 at 3:34 PM Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > On 2/3/18 3:26 PM, John Reimann via Marxism wrote: > > > Jared Diamond's "Collapse" gives an interesting account of the collapse > of > > the Mayan civilization. ... > > John Reimann > > > > ... > What is missing from Diamond’s analysis, however, is the *cause* of > drought. One would think that an environmentalist would want to address > this question. To discover the answer, you have to turn elsewhere. In > particular, the work of anthropologist Brian Fagan is most instructive. > In a series of books on ancient societies, he focuses on the role of El > Niño-Southern California (ENSO) events in their collapse. > > ... > > full: > https://louisproyect.org/2005/03/22/jared-diamonds-collapse-part-two/ > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/fred.r.murphy%40gmail.com _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
