Re: Re: The Vulnerable Planet (was Re: suburbia)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

>In your own words, "Not only is the archaelogical record subject to
>multiple interpretations, the hieroglyphic language is not entirely
>decipherable despite the best efforts of scholars like Robert J.
>Sharer," so there's no last word here.

It is the last word in the sense that Sharer is the most respected scholar
on such topics. It is not the last word in the sense that it is very
difficult to ever establish with moral certainty and beyond a shadow of a
doubt what happened to the classic Mayan civilization. In any case, the
notion of Mayan "anti-ecological" practices is mostly taken up by rightwing
cranks like Shephard Krech nowadays.

>My point is simply that if
>you want to know the dynamic internal to the tributary mode of
>production in the New World, it's best to study it before its contact
>with the Europeans.  I'd be very interested in Sharer's own theory of
>how Mayan civilization collapsed, despite the possibility that
>intensive agriculture was practiced by the Mayas.  Also, I'd like an
>explanation as to why intensive agriculture is necessarily a blow
>against all "ecological disaster" theories.

You can order Sharer's book from amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0804723109/qid=993756214/sr=1-4/ref=s
c_b_4/102-3673537-5938534

Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org