Human Science Lab Unit 4 - Cultural Evolution Worksheet

 

Coordinated with Unit 4, Section V: An Example of Cultural Evolution on a Societal Level

 

A classic example illustrating the success and failure of a culture to adapt to varying environmental conditions is the collapse of the Maya. The Maya were a precolumbian society living in Mexico and Central America about 1000 years ago. In the early stages of their society, the Maya consisted of many small villages that exploited local plant and animal resources, and used small-scale agriculture to provide food for each village. Some trade existed between villages for luxury items, special crafts, and raw materials, but the villages were only loosely organized through these economic ties. 

 

Eventually, through the application of military power and an organized religion, many villages were united under the control of a central government, and the Maya society experienced a period of rapid growth. They developed a large population, with a centrally controlled government which managed much of the society through religious and economic controls.

 

Their society was very successful and reached a level of homeostasis, or equilibrium, between their cultural system and their environmental system. Through the use of large-scale agriculture (farming), they produced enough food to feed the large population. State and religious control of this system served to manage these resources efficiently, and military success also brought in new resources from outlying communities.

 

After several hundred years, as the population continued to increase, it reached the environmental carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the maximum number of individuals for which the environment can provide enough limiting resources. Limiting resources may be anything in short supply, such as food, water, territory, or any other essential resource. The Maya went beyond their environmental carrying capacity, buoyed by the highly efficient but rigid cultural institutions of state controlled agriculture, the military, and organized religion.

 

Eventually, after a period of environmental degradation, such as series of droughts and subsequent crop failures, the conditions that the Maya society were adapted to changed, and the environment was no longer as predictably bountiful for an agricultural society. The cultural institutions did not react (adapt) quickly enough, resulting in a collapse of the entire cultural system.

 

After a period of rapid loss of population through famine, disease, and warfare, the central government collapsed, and Mayan society went back to its earlier state consisting of many small villages who still utilized agriculture, but only for the local production of food. These small villages were more flexible and better able to adapt and adjust behaviors to take advantage of available local resources. The Mayan cultural system still exists today in this form, undergoing another period of homeostasis.

 

☺Explore this web page for more information concerning the collapse of the Maya

            http://www.learner.org/exhibits/collapse/index.html

 

Activity: I want you to form small groups and explore these questions.

 

1) What things might happen to our own city to cause it to become an archaeological site?

 

2) What changes can be observed in your own society right now that might appear to future archaeologists to be symptoms of collapse?

 

3) What adaptations might we make as a society to avoid succumbing to an environmental collapse?

 

In your discussion, make sure you talk about such things as:

            → our subsistence strategies and how they deal with population increases and

                        environmental changes

            → our exploitation of the environment and how we contribute to its degradation

            → our rate of population growth and how that may impact the environment

            → are we reaching the carrying capacity of our local environment?

            → what are our limiting resources in the Phoenix Valley?

            → which of these resources make us the most vulnerable to environmental collapse

 

♫ Choose a representative of the group to present your summary to the class