The Feast Before Famine and Fighting: The Origins and Consequences of Social Complexity in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala

Abstract

Archeological investigations in northern Guatemala have provided a strong record of the origins, dynamics, and collapse of social, political and economic complexity in the Preclassic periods of Maya civilization. Extensive isotope, pollen, and phytolith analyses have indicated that the marsh regions of the Mirador Basin provided the economic engines that gave rise to the cultural sophistication through abundant natural resources and agricultural exploitation. Sophisticated terrace systems provided rich agricultural productivity that allowed population growth, ideological solidarity, and economic prosperity which fueled a rapid and dynamic cultural florescence during the Middle and Late Preclassic periods of Maya civilization (ca. 1000 B.C.–A.D. 150). This trajectory however, led to a conspicuous consumption of labor and resources which blinded the societies and/or their leadership to the abuses of power, environment, and productivity by rampant and unnecessary use of resources, environmental degradation, an ascribed elite formation and the burdens of an increasing top-heavy administrative bureaucracy. The stresses on societies, which apparently were inclusive of, and exacerbated by, excessive erosion, droughts and periods of dessication, as well as associated social upheavals led to a posture of militaristic behavior, indicative of predatory, symptomatic conflict. The combination of these factors generated the “perfect storm” which ultimately resulted in demographic collapse.