Applications of Cultural Anthropology

This chapter looks at the loss of complexity—the loss of technology, skill, and knowledge—and explores some possible explanations for why simplification occurs. The emergence of complexity among human groups has been explained from several archaeological perspectives. Many archaeologists and cultural anthropologists have taken a relativistic approach to egalitarian society, perhaps somewhat romantically deeming it to be superior to complex civilization. The hallmark features of complex civilization include hierarchy, social strata, centralization of authority, taxation or tribute, ecclesiasticism, record-keeping devices, writing or numeracy, craft and professional specialization, and public works projects such as irrigation dams and reservoirs, roads, bridges, and monumental architecture. A single model of collapse cannot explain every case in which a society abandons agriculture. The Maya collapse is sometimes popularly thought to have been the result of overexploitation of land and resources, or a case of overshoot.