USA: This Native American nation maintained canals in the face of flooding for over 1000 years
Archaeological data allow us to consider human actions over extended periods of time in a way that few other sources can. This is particularly true when it comes to studying human resilience in the face of environmental disasters. From approximately A.D. 450-1400, a Native American group known today as the Hohokam overcame a harsh desert environment along with periodic droughts and floods to settle and farm much of modern Arizona. They managed this feat by collectively maintaining an extensive infrastructure of canals with collaborative labor.
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After each flood the Native American communities that relied upon the canal system to irrigate their fields banded together to repair the canal intakes, clear the channels of accumulated sediments, and repair canal walls and berms. Responding to disasters, however, strains social systems, even in the best of times.
Dr. Scott Johnson, author of Why Did Ancient Civilizations Fail, notes “Throughout human history, from the Egyptians and Romans to the Maya, the more that people modify their surroundings, the more they become dependent on those alterations.” By A.D. 1300, Hohokam populations throughout the Southwest were rising, resulting in increasing strains on natural resources and human social organization. The third flood identified by Desert Archaeology, Inc. brought more drastic consequences for the Native American communities living along the Salt River, with shrinking populations and only minimal repairs to the canals.
Johnson adds that “As the environment changes over time, for both natural and anthropogenic reasons, the more difficult it becomes to maintain those modifications. We see it in the Hohokam canals, Mesopotamian flood agriculture, Maya wetland farming, and our own society's dependence on fossil fuels. We ignore the examples of the failure to adapt throughout the ancient world at our peril.”
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