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A society is a way of life that has a broadly-stroked narrative everyone shares. It's not a geography or civil engineering artifacts. When that narrative stops
by nickbauman 12y ago
A society is a way of life that has a broadly-stroked narrative everyone shares. It's not a geography or civil engineering artifacts. When that narrative stops working, some perish but generally the people don't just evaporate, they leave.
- faizshah 12y agoWith such a broad definition of a society you would not classify as a collapse what Tainter classifies as a collapse: a fast loss of social complexity. Additionally your definition might be better as a definition of culture rather than society.
- nickbauman 12y agoCompletely agree. Tainter's definition of society is deeply biased to the one he currently inhabits as being perforce "better" (the title having the word "complex" in it is a dead giveaway). This is a superstition. I'd argue that a society that is actually better is not necessarily at all a more complex one. It is the one that reacts more favorably to change.