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and technology and they demonstrated superior capabilities of defending themselves against their neighboring social groups. Then, the Spanish showed up on their doorstep.

The Spanish social order, grounded in Roman Catholicism, was extremely adept at the game of national and international interaction. Under the auspices of the Church, the Spaniards pursued the business of extending the reach of their society around the world through exploration, conquest and colonization in order to enhance their position on the world’s stage. One might argue that this is as much a function of social systems as finding new techniques for killing wooly mammoths was a function of the early hunting parties of Neanderthals. When the Spanish conquistadors encountered the Incas they had an ace in the hole that even they didn’t realize. Existing on the gigantic land mass of Europe and Asia, with easy lines of communication to Africa, the basic physiology of Spanish humans had encountered a myriad of diseases. As a consequence, they had developed some ability to ameliorate the impact and spread of such diseases. At least they weren’t totally surprised when large numbers of people dropped dead. The Incas were not so fortunate.

When the first explorers from the old world arrived, they brought with them many instances of old world diseases. From this source various epidemics decimated the Incan society, killing perhaps as many as two thirds of the population. This had two effects. First, it diminished the ability of the Incan social order to respond to the physical threat of the Spaniards. But, perhaps even more insidious, the appearance of death in the form of completely unknown diseases struck at the very basis of trust of Incan society. The end result was the virtual capitulation of Incan governance, although many vestiges of Incan religious symbolism continue to this day. Thus, while providing superior characteristics in a closed environment, the Incan social order proved insufficient to meet the threats posed by exposure to an environment that included other social structures.

A third example is that of the Mayan civilization. Spanning a much longer time period than the Incas, the Mayas dominated a region centered on today’s south-eastern Mexico and Guatemala, They built cities, they developed commerce and technology and they demonstrated superior capabilities of defending themselves against their neighboring social orders. However, while today we still see vestiges of Mayan culture and symbolism, the grandiose social structure disappeared in an almost mysterious fashion several hundred years ago. While some of the last remnants of the society were conquered by the Spanish, much as had been the case with the Incas, the heart of the extended civilization was long dead by that time. There are a number of suggested causes for the decline and demise. For example, Jared Diamond in his book Collapse considers several possible causes for such a social downfall: excessive damage to their natural environment, climate change, internecine struggle, deficiencies of the social order itself and interruption of trade, and commerce with other social orders.

In the case of the Mayas, the most common perception is that climate change coupled with severe deforestation of the local ecosystem in order to support their style of agriculture was among the leading causes of decline. In essence, the social system could not affect sufficient control over the physical ecosystem in order to adequately support the population. The empty shells of the great cities of the Mayas reflect depopulation, not external conquest or internal struggle. Hence, we surmise that the social order encountered a threat for which it had no adequate response. Being unable to adapt, the trust infrastructure of the social order collapsed and the suppliants vanished, or changed their sustenance to meet their social needs.

In any case, through such examples, we are led to recognize that behind the richness and complexity of human social interactions laid interrelated mechanisms that allowed the building and destroying of societies in their constant renewal.

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