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Sustainability and Collapse in Past Societies

Module description

Can we learn any lessons for sustainable futures by studying human-environment relationships in ancient societies?  Although we often envisioned the world of ancient people as a land of pristine natural beauty and untouched environments, the study of past coupled human environmental systems show us that this was not always the case. On the contrary, many past societies had heavily impacted their environments and/or have been impacted by catastrophic natural events to the extent that social and political systems need to be transformed or ultimately collapsed. Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary case studies from all around the world –from El Niño events in the Pacific coast in pre-Columbian Peru to the Little Ice Age in Medieval Europe– in this module we are going to examine the impact that past societies had on their world. More importantly, we will discuss if there are any valuable lessons from the past that can inform future sustainable land-use policies. 

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module aims to provide an inter-disciplinary understanding for the study of human environmental relations in past societies.  It will introduce you to the concepts of cultural collapse, resilience and sustainability by looking at a wide range of case studies around the world. The module will mainly focus on the diversity of human responses that were triggered by human-induced and natural climatic changes, including catastrophic events. We will pay particular attention to the ecological vulnerability of different socio-political systems within particular environments, human resilience to change and the regeneration of complex societies after collapse. 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand fundamental anthropological and ecological concepts that are critical for analysing past coupled human environment systems including cultural collapse, resilience and sustainability
• 2. Understand methodological aspects of commonly used environmental techniques to investigate how humans impacted past environments and how natural climatic fluctuations and catastrophic events have triggered a diversity of cultural responses
• 3. Discuss a selection of coupled human environment systems examples and their relationship to contemporary sustainability issues

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Have a proficient overview of the use and acquisition of practical data
• 5. Interpret proficiently a variety of information forms and assimilate/manage numerical and graphical data
• 6. Demonstrate techniques of locating, organizing, digesting material, and displaying it graphically to produce, to a deadline, a piece of coherent analysis

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate comprehension and detailed knowledge of complex issues through essay-based coursework
• 8. Acquire a range of observational and analytical skills, which are applicable in the wider world.
• 9. Contribute to group discussions, ask pertinent questions and co-operate with and learn from peers

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Key concepts and approaches in sustainability
• The archaeology of collapse, transformation and resilience
• Environmental Archaeology methods to study human-environment relationships
• Human responses to El Niño in the Central Andes
• Amazonia: Untouched forest or manufactured landscape?
• The 1492 Columbian Encounter
• The impact of agrarian systems in the Near East
• The Norse colonisation of Greenland: Failed experiment?
• The Little Ice Age in Europe

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

BAWDEN, G. & REYCRAFT, R. M. 2000. Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response, New Mexico, MaxwellMuseum of Anthropology.

BLEWITT, J. 2008. Understanding Sustainable Development, London, Routledge.

DIAMOND, J. M. 2006. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, New York, Viking.

MCANANY, P. A. & YOFFEE, N. 2010. Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire, Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press.

REDMAN, C. L. 2001. Human Impact on Ancient Environments, Tucson, University of Arizona Press.

SCHWARTZ, G. M. 2010. After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, Tucson, University of Arizona Press.

SHEETS, P. & COOPER, J. 2012. Surviving Sudden Environmental Change. Answers from Archaeology, Boulder, University Press of Colorado.

TAINTER, J. 1990. The Collapse of Complex Societies, Cambridge, CambridgeUniversity Press.

Key words search

Societies, Archaeology, Sustainability