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I'm not an expert but maybe collapse is a misnomer anyway. These events take place over centuries, and existing civilizations are in a continuous transformation
by jonathanstrange 9y ago
I'm not an expert but maybe collapse is a misnomer anyway. These events take place over centuries, and existing civilizations are in a continuous transformation and often defined in arbitrary political terms. For example, many of Europeans and Americans are pretty much direct descendants of the West Roman Empire and the Mongolian Empire, mixed with many other influences. Others are primarily descendants of the Chinese Empire, which still exists in some form of political unity, mixed with many other influences.
Sometimes when a transformation is faster than usual, for example because of an imported illness or conquests by technologically more advanced groups, we may call this a 'collapse'. In case of the Mayan culture this is probably justified, but that's not the normal case. The normal case is a continuous mixing with other cultures from which new political unions, languages and identities evolve.
- DiThi 9y ago> These events take place over centuries Not necessarily. The bronze age collapse happened in a few decades. It's not one civilization but several. Trade, agriculture, writing... all that nearly disappeared in less than a human lifetime.
- jonathanstrange 9y agoGood point, you're right. I should have been more precise. I didn't want to claim that technological advances cannot lead to mass genocide, I wanted to make the more modest point that these events seem to be rare and that fairly slow assimilation processes based on mixing cultures, intermarriage and migration, seem to be the norm.