Answer to Question #248055 in Economics for ingrid

Question

 Using a case study, explain Jared Diamond’s collapse thesis. (10)

Answer 1

Jared Diamond's thesis that Easter Island society has collapsed completely in isolation due to environmental damage and cultural inflexibility is disputed by some ethnographers and archaeologists, who argue that the spread of diseases carried by European colonialists and the slave raids that devastated the population in the 19th century. had a much greater social impact than environmental degradation, and that the introduced animals - first rats and then sheep - contributed much to the loss of native flora on the island, which was closest to deforestation in the 1930s and 1960s. Interrogating Collapse (Cambridge University Press, 2010) is a collection of essays by anthropologists who criticize various aspects of Diamond's books Collapse and Weapons, Germs and Steel. Since the attributed causes of social collapse in academia tend to change over time, it is likely that such interpretations are simply a reflection or platform for current concerns / concerns. Archaeologist Karl Butzer wrote: “Current research into historical collapse suggests a primary preoccupation with climate change and environmental degradation as major drivers of change, but at the cost of less attention to the necessary interdisciplinary integration. not a renewed interest in the interactions between environment and society, but a continuing failure to appreciate the complexity of such interactions. The question is not whether climate change is related to socio-historical changes, but how we can more objectively relate to connected systems that include a large number of variables, among which climate change in the environment is undoubtedly important. ”