This is an overview of a multi-part series that will highlight archaeological research into how and why societies dramatically change, and what that tells us about societies both past and present.
Anxiety about Societal Collapse
Dramatic societal changes in past societies capture the imagination of many people, particularly with issues such as “failed” states, pandemics, global financial crises, and climate change eroding ideas of unstoppable technological progress in our own society. One only needs to look at the many headlines in the last several years, even before the Covid-19 Pandemic, to see this fixation.
Archaeology is a discipline that is well-positioned to evaluate the different courses of change across societies thanks to its focus on long periods of time. Many archaeologists, historians, and other researchers have therefore tried to find out what influences dramatic changes in past societies. This work is often done in the hope that we might learn how to avoid the worst outcomes in the future (Kintigh et al 2014). This post marks the beginning of a series I’m writing that provides a generalized view of archaeological research on societal changes (e.g., collapse) and how it can inform resiliency efforts today!
Traditional Approaches to Societal Collapse in Archaeology
Archaeological research on this subject usually identifies specific stressors (e.g., drought, invasion, economic disruptions) as the cause for dramatic changes (e.g., Cline 2015, Yoffee 2005). However, research shouldn’t simply focus on these proximate causes in order to understand the dynamics of societal change. Too much of a concern with the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back does little to answer bigger anthropological questions about how and why societies change (Kintigh, et al. 2014; Tainter 1988, 2015). After all, stressors of all sorts constantly barrage societies at every level—from individuals up to continent-spanning governments. Thus, research into how and why societies vary and change should focus on deeper causes of change, such as: Why couldn’t the proverbial camel withstand the addition of even the tiniest weight on its back?
Stressors and other explanations often cited as causing societal collapse:
- Depletion of a vital resource
- Establishment of a new resource base
- Occurrence of some insurmountable catastrophe
- Insufficient response to circumstances
- Other complex societies; intruders
- Class conflict, societal contradictions, elite mismanagement or misbehavior, other social dysfunction
- Mystical factors
- Chance concatenation of events; a domino effect or “perfect storm”
Resilience Theory as a Tool for Improved Understanding
Thankfully, there are other research tools that let archaeologists dig deeper into the causes of change. Resilience Theory is one such tool, with its focus on how the interactions between the social and environmental characteristics of societies (e.g., social connectivity) make them resilient or vulnerable to stressors (Biggs et al 2012, Levin 1999, Hegmon et al 2008, Tainter & Crumley 2007). By shifting the focus from individual stressors to the underlying structure of societies undergoing change, this body of theory has contributed to a growing literature on the dynamics of societal change that this series will explore (e.g., Butzer 2012; Chase et al 2014; Chase & Scarborough 2014; Endfield 2012; Hegmon et al 2008; McAnany & Yoffee 2009; Nelson et al 2011, 2014; Petrie 2019, Redman 2005; Schwartz 2006; Sedig 2015).
The Course of this Series
I will present research on a well-documented case of extensive settlement abandonment in the Early Bronze Age to show how Resilience Theory can effectively explain why some societies persist while others collapse. The explanations proposed for this episode of collapse and change have, so far, focused on stressors (i.e., regional economic shifts, climate change). Over the course of this series, I hope to answer the question: Why weren’t these communities able to overcome such challenges, especially in what was a rich environment at the time?
The roadmap for this series (shown below) will start with a general look at how archaeologists have approached societal changes before taking the reader through a primer on Resilience Theory, the specifics of the region and time being studied, the analytic methods applied to it, as well as the outcomes of analysis and the resulting implications for understanding how and why these societies changed so dramatically.
Please refer to this list for updated links as the series progresses:
- This overview
- How do we as archaeologists go about studying societal changes in general, and so-called societal collapses in particular?
- How can Resilience Theory help us better understand societal changes in the past and present?
- A look at dramatic societal changes in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age
- How exactly can archaeologists use Resilience Theory to analyze societal changes?
- Why did some societies persist and some collapse in the southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age?
There is far more to each of these topics than I will cover in this initial series, which is only intended as an overview of the subject. But stay tuned after this series because I plan to dive deeper into each topic for those that are interested in the nitty gritty!
Have a question or comment on anything mentioned here? Leave a comment and let’s carry on the discussion!