Beyond Zero Population: Ethnohistory, Archaeology and the Khmer, Climate Change and the Collapse of Civilizations

Abstract

A number of publications, both books and articles, have appeared in recent years attempting to prove that there is a correlation between global climate change and the collapse of complex human societies and is one example where emphasis is placed on climate over human activity. This paper addresses a possible exception to this emphasis of global effects. While societies under stress from weather changes may undergo significant economic and political change in response, Joseph Tainter has shown that a local systems analysis is best applied to determine the contribution of the internal dynamics of a society, rather than assign climate the ultimate effect. In this paper ethnohistorical and archaeological sources are reviewed indicating varied responses to climate challenge. We find that some, like Khmer society, are initially sustainable responses to local conditions and an exception to the proposed global collapse theory. However, failure of surrounding populations created pressures on Khmer society that destabilized adaptations to environmental stress forcing collapse. Like the Bronze Age collapse in the Mediterranean, local accommodation was insufficient for continuation on existing patterns. Others like the Japanese modified population densities and social forms to weather stress. Implications for today concern continued population growth worldwide and rising consumption are continued stresses that must be considered in the context of climate change. Pre-Neolithic population densities and modern technology could be a means of adapting human society to the constraints of quality of life and diminishing returns of technology.

Archaeological perspectives on conflict and warfare in Australia and the Pacific

“…Buckley et al 2010;Haug et al 2003;Huang and Su 2009;Kaniewski et al 2013), although the hypothesis is not without criticism (e.g. Caldararo 2015;Dittmar et al 2019:75). The role of population pressure/density on land as a direct cause of conflict has also been queried in several archaeological and cross-cultural studies (Groube 1970:162;Keeley 1996:118-121;Nolan 2003:28;Robarchek and Robarchek 1992).…”

“…Fortifications have been used to examine a connection between climate events and conflict in the Indo-Pacific, with important work by Field and Lape (2010:121) indicating that in the tropical Pacific 'fortification construction is linked to drought, or more specifically, to subsistence systems that are significantly impacted by drought'. Elsewhere, Di Cosmo et al (2018) present evidence that a seven-decade-long drought did not cause the Uyghur empire to collapse, wage war or decompose into simpler sociopolitical units, while the role of drought in the demise of the Khmer empire is also questioned (Caldararo 2015).…”