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What caused the rapid disappearance of a vibrant Native American agrarian culture that lived in urban settlements from the Ohio River Valley to the Mississippi River Valley in the two centuries preceding the European settlement of North America? In a new study, researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis reconstructed and analyzed 2,100 years of temperature and precipitation data—and point the finger at climate change.
Employing proxies of prehistoric temperature and precipitation preserved in finely layered lake sediments, somewhat analogous to tree-ring records used to reconstruct drought and temperature, the IUPUI scientists have reported on the dramatic environmental changes that occurred as the Native Americans—known as Mississippians—flourished and then vanished from the Midwestern United States. The researchers theorize that the catastrophic climate change they observed, which doomed food production, was a primary cause of the disappearance.
"Abrupt climate change can impose conditions like drought. If these conditions are severe and sustained, as we have determined that they became for the Mississippians, it is virtually impossible for societies, especially those based on agriculture, to survive," said paleoclimatologist Broxton Bird, corresponding author of the new study. "From the lake records, we saw that the abundant rainfall and consistent good weather—which supported Mississippian society as it grew—changed, making agriculture unsustainable." Bird is an assistant professor of earth sciences in the School of Science at IUPUI.
This failure of their principal food source likely destabilized the sociopolitical system that supported Mississippian society, according to archeologist Jeremy Wilson, a study co-author. He is an associate professor of anthropology in the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI.
Other theories have suggested they exceeded their environment's carrying capacity, or that disease wiped out large numbers of people.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 02 2017, @03:32AM
Decades ago, I found and read a biography of Tecumseh. I was in fourth grade, so, about ten years old. I don't remember now whether I found it in the school library, the city library, or someone's pile of books, I only remember the story.
In the book, Tecumseh discussed with some white people why his people wouldn't live in Kentucky. Tecumseh's grandfather's generation had finally succeeded in wiping out a tribe of death worshipping cannibals who live in Kentucky. It was believed that the cannibal's evil spirits haunted Kentucky, and no Shawnee was willing to stay on the land after sunset.
Genocidal warfare may have had more to do with depopulating the region, than climate change.
I can't speak for the accuracy of the story, after all these years - I can only relate what I accepted as truth back then. Hell, I can't even remember the title or author of the book now.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by wisnoskij on Thursday February 02 2017, @03:56AM
I think that is included. When people say famine killed X people, or toppled civilization Y, they do not literally mean all those people died of starvation. In any famine, you will have wars, and in any war you will have disease. Very very few of the people likely died as a direct result of a reduction in yields, they died because of the disease they caught, from the war that started over reduced yields.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @06:19PM
I think that is included. When people say famine killed X people, or toppled civilization Y, they do not literally mean all those people died of starvation. In any famine, you will have wars, and in any war you will have disease. Very very few of the people likely died as a direct result of a reduction in yields, they died because of the disease they caught, from the war that started over reduced yields.
Citation needed.
I'm prepared to believe this, but do actually have facts to back it up? The two biggest famines I know of were the Great Leap Forward [wikipedia.org] in China, and the Great Famine [wikipedia.org] in Ireland... and neither of them had substantial death-from-war.
Can you give any proof behind your very reasonable sounding logic? After all, it's very reasonable sounding that the Sun orbits the Earth as well.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @05:31AM
Genocidal warfare may have had more to do with depopulating the region, than climate change
Or, . . . it may have not. You know what I, in my infinite Anonymous Coward wisdom, think it was? Yes, they allowed someone using the handle runaway to start commenting on the smoke signal boards, and within half a decade, everyone had left. The groundless speculation, the uneducated guesses, the abysmal fear of Islam, and the anti-abortion positions, it was all too much for the Mississippians. And what Tecumseh forgot to mention was that the cannibal tribe? They left Kentuck and moved to Arkansas. True story!!!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @06:39AM
OR maybe, there is something in the Soil in Arkansas, like ringworm, that saps the energy and intelligence of the residents? Could it not have been something like that that wiped out the Natives, and then just lay in wait to infect the European invaders, who thought they were just walking into vacant ground, but then they in turn were infected, so they sided with slave owners, against their own interests. And they sided with Southern Democrats, against Civil Rights and against their own interests. And finally, they sided with Trump, who is going to sell each and every one of these worm-infested Southern Strategy (Courtesy of Tricky Dick, y'all!) down the fucking river. So it is true, the curse Tecumseh spoke of has come true. Do you know who elected Trump? Yes, the Voters of the Dark and Bloody Ground, Kentucky.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @07:06AM
But in Kentucky's defense, Mark Twain always said the when the end of the world comes, he would want to be in Kentucky, because everything gets there two years late.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @07:56AM
Yeah, but the Mississippiians were the Mound Builders! So why would climate change be an issue at all, since they were building mounds? It it just like our Feckless Leader, the Donald of the Tiny Hands, who has built so many towers to stave off the effects of global warming! The problem these Native Americans had was that they had no Donald Trump! So if they had had a Donald, they might still be here today, and they would be banned from re-entering the country, since even though they are permanent residents of the Mississippi valley, they are not white, or Christian.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @08:06AM
First, wow, Runaway says he can read! Let me pick my jaw up off the floor.
Second, can't remember. How convenient! I recall someone else using the same ploy recently! https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=17747&cid=461516#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
Third: What the fuck does this have to do with anything? Is Runaway saying that these scientists, with data and geologic records, are just wrong because of some book that he cannot identify but may have read when he was ten years old? Is this the same year that Runaway had the "science teacher" that said that global cooling was a real thing? So we put both of these together, and we get: Runaway! He Remembers stuff! Just like Reagan remembering when he was at Guadalcanal! Yeah! So don't listen to these "science" types! They are all SJW Scientits, anyway. Part of the Mainstream Media! It was the ghosts of Cannibals, and someone who ended up being the middle name, of someone named Sherman . . . so shirley you see this, right? Got to be true! Runaway says! And Runaway, well, Runaway is Runaway.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 02 2017, @09:35AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 02 2017, @11:22PM
This sort of comment is why I am not a big fan of khallow posting. Signed, AC.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Thursday February 02 2017, @09:30AM
Doesn't fit with the Gaia/ earthmother-vengence thing the true "humans are a virus on the planet" types like to peddle.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 02 2017, @07:00PM
Doesn't fit with the Gaia/ earthmother-vengence thing the true "humans are a virus on the planet" types like to peddle.
It does fit the scientific theory that rapid climate change can fuck shit up, though.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 02 2017, @09:39AM
In the book, Tecumseh discussed with some white people why his people wouldn't live in Kentucky. Tecumseh's grandfather's generation had finally succeeded in wiping out a tribe of death worshipping cannibals who live in Kentucky. It was believed that the cannibal's evil spirits haunted Kentucky, and no Shawnee was willing to stay on the land after sunset.
Genocidal warfare may have had more to do with depopulating the region, than climate change.
OTOH, a bunch of nasty cannibals is the sort of Mad Max thing you're expect to linger after a collapse of civilization.