whole, even small ones, can involve low-demographic groups that overlap in what
are, in fact, large networks, and this situation can further the epidemic’s spread
(Thurner et al. 2020). Different societies, based on their diminishing contingencies
over time, have had unlike effects on local environments, and they have been more
or less susceptible to collapse by epidemic or other environmental forces depending
on the gamut of cultural behavior; historical ecology examines those contingencies.
The city at any point in time is a case of primary landscape transformation in which
the changes are not necessarily irreversible. One of the ironies of COVID-19, for
example, has arguably been improved air quality in some cities, because of government lockdowns and reductions in air and ground travel dependent on fossil fuels
(Venter et al. 2020).
Ancient cities have collapsed even when their ecological frameworks were based
on diversity. Jared Diamond (2005) attributes the Maya collapse to overshoot, that
is, the overexploitation of land and resources by an urban society. Another group of
scholars finds, however, that the people of the Maya city of Copan, in lowland
Honduras, the civilization of which stopped around CE810, were “skillful managers
of their landscape” (McNeil et al. 2010) and had maintained significant forest cover
up to the end. One may find the reasons for the Maya collapse—if that is what it
was—in incompatible political ideologies (Scarborough and Burnside 2010), not
necessarily in environmental mismanagement, or primary landscape transformation.
3.6 Hierarchy and Complexity
Hierarchy as seen in the megacity does not have to mean lowered diversity; nor does
its opposite necessarily promote diversity (Crumley 1995; Ray and Fernández-Götz
2019). Societal complexity, whether hierarchical or as in network theory diffuse
(or both mechanical and organic solidarity, in Durkheim’s sense), however, is
tangible in the landscape, which can be more or less diverse. Both kinds of societal
nucleations can lead to information networks that do not communicate with management policy; this is called chaos. In other words, both hierarchy and its opposite
can eventually lead to societal catastrophe or collapse when at least one variable, let
us say, the one that orders relations among people only and exclusive of their
environments—undergoes abrupt, fundamental change (Brown 1995). In the
Mayan case, there seems to be some evidence for society being top-heavy—having
too many rulers, leading to resistance by the commoner classes (or castes), who
began to see their rulers as despotic humans, rather than as divine kings (Aimers
2007). The Mayan case at the end allowed for competing ideologies to destroy each
other. Increasing secularization of urban society is also inimical to any supposed
divine right of monarchs. The French Revolution, which deposed and decapitated a
king who had originally ruled as absolute monarch (i.e., one having a concept of
divine right to total power), could be seen as a similar kind of collapse, a thousand
years after and an ocean away from the Mayan collapse. In every case of urban
collapse—and this could apply to megaurban collapse—opportunities arise for new
40
W. Balée
are, in fact, large networks, and this situation can further the epidemic’s spread
(Thurner et al. 2020). Different societies, based on their diminishing contingencies
over time, have had unlike effects on local environments, and they have been more
or less susceptible to collapse by epidemic or other environmental forces depending
on the gamut of cultural behavior; historical ecology examines those contingencies.
The city at any point in time is a case of primary landscape transformation in which
the changes are not necessarily irreversible. One of the ironies of COVID-19, for
example, has arguably been improved air quality in some cities, because of government lockdowns and reductions in air and ground travel dependent on fossil fuels
(Venter et al. 2020).
Ancient cities have collapsed even when their ecological frameworks were based
on diversity. Jared Diamond (2005) attributes the Maya collapse to overshoot, that
is, the overexploitation of land and resources by an urban society. Another group of
scholars finds, however, that the people of the Maya city of Copan, in lowland
Honduras, the civilization of which stopped around CE810, were “skillful managers
of their landscape” (McNeil et al. 2010) and had maintained significant forest cover
up to the end. One may find the reasons for the Maya collapse—if that is what it
was—in incompatible political ideologies (Scarborough and Burnside 2010), not
necessarily in environmental mismanagement, or primary landscape transformation.
3.6 Hierarchy and Complexity
Hierarchy as seen in the megacity does not have to mean lowered diversity; nor does
its opposite necessarily promote diversity (Crumley 1995; Ray and Fernández-Götz
2019). Societal complexity, whether hierarchical or as in network theory diffuse
(or both mechanical and organic solidarity, in Durkheim’s sense), however, is
tangible in the landscape, which can be more or less diverse. Both kinds of societal
nucleations can lead to information networks that do not communicate with management policy; this is called chaos. In other words, both hierarchy and its opposite
can eventually lead to societal catastrophe or collapse when at least one variable, let
us say, the one that orders relations among people only and exclusive of their
environments—undergoes abrupt, fundamental change (Brown 1995). In the
Mayan case, there seems to be some evidence for society being top-heavy—having
too many rulers, leading to resistance by the commoner classes (or castes), who
began to see their rulers as despotic humans, rather than as divine kings (Aimers
2007). The Mayan case at the end allowed for competing ideologies to destroy each
other. Increasing secularization of urban society is also inimical to any supposed
divine right of monarchs. The French Revolution, which deposed and decapitated a
king who had originally ruled as absolute monarch (i.e., one having a concept of
divine right to total power), could be seen as a similar kind of collapse, a thousand
years after and an ocean away from the Mayan collapse. In every case of urban
collapse—and this could apply to megaurban collapse—opportunities arise for new
40
W. Balée