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玛雅城市衰落 相關文章
Another theory about why the Maya civilization collapsed has to do with trade. According to this hypothesis, the Maya kings and elites “depended heavily for their authority on…prestige objects, which attracted and helped bind commoners to their political systems” (Webster 2002:231). To obtain these items, they were part of a trade network centered on Teotihuacan. When Teotihuacan declined around AD 700-750, the entire Mesoamerican economy was restructured. When this occurred, the Maya were left out, and “new centers of power would have held the trade, and they would have been the ones which attracted the merchants, craftsmen, and population support to the continued disadvantage of older Peten centers” (Lamberg-Karlovsky, Sabloff and Lyons 1974:114). However, “Teotihuacan seems to have lost its political and economic clout earlier than previously believed-about AD 600-650” (Webster 2002:232). Also, there is no evidence that elite trade was essential enough to Mayan society to cause it to collapse. Obsidian obtained through trade was used to make cutting tools, but “Preclassic people used obsidian long before rulers were present, and at Copan farmers continued to do so long after the royal dynasty had collapsed”(Webster 2002:233). Again, this hypothesis does not account for the depopulation aspect of the collapse.
Drought was definitely a stress factor that affected Mayan society. However, it is inconsistent with the both common sense and the archaeological record to say that the drought is the one and only cause of the collapse. To start with, the collapse originated in the southern lowlands, which is much wetter than the northern half of the Yucatan peninsula. The north receives less annual rain, and “there are no rivers or large permanent swamps like those of the southern lowlands” (Webster 2002:243). However, the Puuc region, which is characterized by “a lack of surface water” (Webster 2002:197), actually experienced population growth during the time of the drought. Even assuming that the drought reduced mean rainfall in Tikal to the lowest levels actually recorded, 860 mm of rain would still fall (Webster 2002:144), and “plenty of Maya farmers in the northern Yucatan have grown good corn crops in this rainfall range for centuries”(Webster 244). Even if Tikal’s water-reservoir system had dried up, the inhabitants lived only 32 miles away from the largest lake system on the entire peninsula. They could have simply moved (Webster 2002:244).
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发表于 2012-12-21 00:37:55
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