Fallen idols
The 19th. Century saw slave traders start coming to Easter Island and many of the local people, whose numbers had already dwindled, were captured and taken to the guano mines in South America. In addition the slavers introduced livestock and rats, which devastated the remaining vegetation. In 1872, after a smallpox outbreak, Pierre Loti commented on the fact that parts of the island looked like a vast ossuary, with human bones lying in view (quoted in Orliac and Orliac, 1995). In 1860 Christian missionaries brought some stability to the island, but soon after, with further enslavements by Peruvian traders, Rapa Nui was reduced to an indigenous population of 111 (data from Bahn & Flenley; 1992).
Dr. Steven Fischer, a New Zealand linguist, is accepted by the National Geographic Society, as having translated the Santiago Staff, in 1996. This artefact was found on Easter Island, depicting ancient writings. “All the birds copulated with the fish, there issued forth the sun” it proclaims (Fischer; 2000). The sun had set over the island’s culture and the birds and fish might now be left to regain their balance in nature again.
Lessons
Perhaps Easter Island is not the example to look at when we study our own environmental mistakes of modern times. It might seem that all the countries of the world could not contrive a mismanagement of resources to such an extent. Unfortunately, it may well be that this sort of complacency seals our fate. We can not picture what Metraux, a Belgian visitor to that land witnessed in the 1930’s; the last tree being guarded by natives before imminent felling and making into artefacts (Bahn & Flenley; 1992). Perhaps it is also difficult to envisage what the first Polynesian settlers could have felt as they stepped on to a land almost certainly untrodden by human beings before that time. Fifteen hundred years later the sight that would have held their gaze would have been totally dispiriting in comparison.
Kevin Cleaver et al (1992) in their book Conservation of West and Central African Rainforests, inform the reader of Tropical Moist Forests (TMFs) facing “a tremendous aggression from deforestation”. At current rates Cameroon will lose its’ trees within 200 years and despite having only 10% of Cameroon’s amount of TMF, Ghana is pushing ahead with a programme which will lead to total deforestation by the end of this century. Protected areas are minimal in both cases. Logging has made large areas of land available to over-zealous farmers, with cash crops, using unregulated slash and burn techniques, and disrupting bio-diversity and climate (Cleaver et al; 1992). The Ghanaian situation is a puzzling one when one refers to Charles J. Taylor’s publication ‘Tropical Forestry’ of 1962. At that time, the author points out that Ghana’s percentage of total land permanently dedicated to forestry (high forest only-TMF) was 19%. Thirty years later Ghana had already reduced this figure to only 9% remaining in reality (Taylor; 1992). Perhaps mankind, in his actions of this nature, spirals out of control once a certain point is reached.
The T.V. programme ‘Wild’, broadcast on BBC2, Sunday, 26th. November 2000 explained how 91% of Madagascar’s rain forest had been cut down, mainly over the last 100 years. In his book Rainforests of the World (1998) Ghillean T. Prance relates that only 6% of the important Brazilian Atlantic coastline forest still remains. “Western people have largely lost contact with the earth. We walk in shoes on asphalt and concrete and are frequently insensitive to the hidden world of earth so important to our sustenance. Native people are very aware of the ground because they walk barefooted”, the author relates (Prance; 1998). Unfortunately these same people may now have fallen under the influence of the so-called developed nations.
One ray of hope may be shining from the east, where, after undergoing varying amounts of deforestation themselves, certain countries have adopted integrated policies of silviculture. In her book Participating Forestry: The Process of Change in India and Nepal Mary Hobley describes how, in the early 1950’s, many states in India settled on an ideal of collaboration between sustainable tree growth, agriculture and local people. This has now led to a greater awareness of the limits of deforestation. In Nepal, after many centuries of over-logging, the 1990’s have heralded new legislation in the form of the Forest Act, regulating activities and defining individual responsibilities (Hobley; 1996).
In 400 A.D. Rapa Nui was almost certainly a virgin island. Now there is a different type of future awaiting it. Eco-tourism coupled with the Great Ocean surrounding it may well prove to be the key in a lesson to be learned by humankind. There could be a slim chance that, with ultra- careful management, this could be one of the first unique eco-systems to start making an integrated recovery. Let the rest of nature now have its’ spin of the coin and let man stop thinking about coins altogether and start seeing properly what was all around him before his first footprint appeared in the dust.
SCOTLAND.
Introduction.
Scotland has a long and complex history of ecological devastation. The great wood of Caledon was believed to have covered the Highlands from edge to edge as summarised by Tipping (1994). The position understood today is that in the aftermath of the last Ice Age there was some type of forest cover in the Highlands apart from the high tops. The environment began to be changed by Mesolithic man and became significant in the Neolithic period. In the Bronze and Iron Age’s metal tools were added to fire and the tooth of animals as a means of human impact. The Romans have in the past been blamed for disafforestation as they were in the South of England, but they did not reach the Highlands for any significant period of time. Smout (1997) argues that the main causes that shaped the environment in the 18th Century were native farmers. The Highlanders own grazing and browsing animals, namely cattle, small sheep, akin to the Shetland and St Kilda breeds and perhaps especially goats - 100,000 goat skins were sold to London in 1698 were to blame. Smout (1997). The damage these animals do is well documented with both small sheep and goats being selective grazers of young trees. With the destruction of the woodlands the deer, which are by nature forest dwellers, moved out onto moorland and prevented forest regeneration here as well. The wolf also disappeared, as sheep became more important. Cramb (1998) writes that in the mid-eighteenth century, great swathes of the Highlands were converted by their owners into cattle ranches, and then into sheep runs – leading towards the Clearances and the dominance of the ewe on the open moor. Decades of heavy grazing aided by deer helped to convert the heather moorland into impoverished, grass sward.
Population in the Highlands was governed by the clan system, which was basically military in character with a feudal land ownership structure grafted to it. In the 16th century there was little difference between the Lowlands and Highlands in terms of social organisation (Whittington & Whyte, 1983). Mutual distrust and lack of contact had made the Highlands more isolated and less receptive to external influences than the Lowlands, a process that accentuated the differences between the two areas. Rents were usually paid for in produce (Whittington & Whyte, 1983). Much of the Highlands were changed after the Jacobite rebellion in 1745. To remove the threat of the Jacobites commercial influences became more evident and precipitated social and economic change. Along with this came the gradual change of rent and services payments into money payments. However, changes were occurring in the Highlands before 1745 and landowners were already grasping the ‘capitalist way’. (Whittington & Whyte, 1983). As Devine (1999) says the removal of multiple tenancies would not only allow more effective management by more substantial farmers, it would also release all the resources of individual initiative, ambition and industry which had supposedly remained sterilised under the communal system. This would give rise to difficult times for the less privileged as an existence under the constant threat of starvation and in the face of the daily reality of an inadequate diet and malnutrition has been the common lot of most of humanity since the development of agriculture.’ Ponting (1992).
Steel (1998) writes that the great fascination with St. Kilda is that for over two thousand years’ man lived upon the islands. The people led a unique and unchanging way of living their lives. Then the 20th century came along with the basic insecurities of the society that had developed on mainland Scotland. Steel again says that most of the books written about St. Kilda appeared during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The authors for the most part were products of the buoyant and vital society of Victorian and later Edwardian Britain, a society that thought that it could do little without doing good. The writers had the opinion that it was the duty of their society to help others less fortunate than themselves.
The Highland Clearances. A Brief History.
The Clearances were thought to have started in earnest in 1747 when Government Laws were passed to destroy the Highland Clan society. The Union of the nations and the Jacobite rebellions give an understanding of the unrest in the nation. Gunn and Spankie (1993) write that after Culloden (see painting below) the whole of Scotland was punished. Soldiers roamed the Highlands, carrying out brutal crimes against the people. New laws were passed, forbidding Highlanders to own weapons or to play the bagpipes. The Gaels as they were called were also banned from wearing tartan and Highland dress. Clan chiefs lost their powers to make laws. The clan system was being destroyed.
David Moriers painting, a Jacobite incident: Culloden..
Gunn and Spankie (1993) tell us that the King of Scotland, James VI had little or no understanding of his Highland subjects when he referred to them all as barbarians:
‘As for the Highlanders, I shortly comprehend them all in
two sorts of people: the ones that dwelleth in our mainland
that are barbarous, and yet mixed with some show of
civility; the other that dwelleth in the Isles and are all utterly
barbarous’.
King James would have been more associated with the Lowland areas of Scotland. Devine (1999) writes that ‘the transition from peasant to capitalist agriculture is a vitally important factor in the outcome of Scotland as we know it today’. This happened at great pace during the early part of the Eighteenth century.
Table 1:Significant dates in Highland History. from Johnstone (1998).
Table 1 above gives an insight into the History in Scotland before and after the Clearances.
Again Devine (1999) writes that ‘conversions of rentals in kind into money was common’ and ‘market influences became more pronounced and significant’. If this was happening in lowland agriculture in the first few decades of the seventeenth century then the effect would eventually find its way to the highlands so they could be ‘developed’.
Improvement in agriculture in the Highlands at this time was seen as the introduction of sheep. (Johnstone 1998). The Highland lairds argued that the Clearances were unavoidable. For them it was a straight choice. If they didn’t make more money then they would go bankrupt. This can be argued by the fact that the Duke of Sutherland was hardly in a position to go bankrupt, yet the Clearances on his estates in Sutherland are among the most notorious. Gunn and Spankie (1993) write that The Duke of Sutherland of this time was known as the ‘Great Improver’. Letters by the Duke and his wife record that they took an active interest in improving their estates in Scotland. They drew up plans to:
- Take power away from the tacksmen.
- End the runrig system (the old division of fields into strips. Each tenant had a number of strips for growing crops).
- Turn many small farms into large farms, to be rented to southern sheep farmers.
- Move the original Highlanders to the coast where they could take up other work.
A chief looked upon his clan (fig 1) as his family and it was his duty to protect them. The chief controlled the clan lands. He divided and leased the farmland to tacksmen who in turn rented the land to tenants who then employed cottars to do the work.
An example of the brutality of the Clearances is given by Gunn and Spankie (1993). 1814 was remembered as the Year of the Burnings. The Duke of Sutherlands factor was James Loch who did not like Gaels believing them to lazy and dirty. He cleared the main glens in Sutherland and his main goal was to get more money for his employers from rents. At least 10,000 people were evicted between 1807 and 1821, which was almost half the population of Sutherland. The Loch policy was hated by most Gaels. Patrick Sellar was a lawyer employed by the Duke to collect rent and in 1814 he evicted tenants in Strathnaver. He gave orders to burn the hill grazings so there would be nothing for the tenants cattle to graze. Buildings were burned to stop the people staying. Donald MacLeod, a Gael wrote in Johnstone (1998):
I was present at the pulling down and burning of the house
of William Chisholm, of Badinloskin, in which was lying‘
his wife’s mother, old bedridden woman of near 100 years
of age. I told him (Sellar) of the poor old woman…..He
replied, ‘damn her, the old witch; she has lived too long.
Let her burn!’….She died within five days.
From Gloomy Memories, Donald MacLeod, 1857. In Johnstone (1998).
As MacDonald (1990) writes the threat of ‘Cuiridh mi as an fhearann thu’, ‘I shall evict you’ was constantly with the Gaels throughout this period. Sutherland was not the only area subjected to ‘aggressive’ Clearances. Stories emanate from all over the Highlands many of them still held in folklore today. Even the Isles did not escape. MacDonald (1990) gives an example of what the conditions were like on the Isle of Lewis in a letter by a Mr Craig writing to a Mr Stewart MacKenzie in 1828:
‘Until I saw the actual conditions of the new lottars in the
Aird of Tong, I had no idea of the great hardship and
privation that the poor people endure that are forced into
new allotments, without matters previously being arranged
for their moving. Their conditions are worse than anything
that I saw in Donegal, where I always considered that
human wretchedness to have reached its very acme’.
Why the Highland people didn’t rise up is probably due to a number of reasons. They are as described by Johnstone (1998) firstly that the Highlanders were forbidden to own weapons and they also remembered the cruelty of the soldiers after the ’45. Secondly for a deeply religious people the Church failed to support them. Most of the ministers were appointed by the landowners so they did and said as the landowners wanted. A result of this was the appearance of the ‘Free Church of Scotland’. Thirdly many of the men and chiefs from the clans had either been killed or were fighting with the regiments in France. Major-General James Wolfe wrote of the Highlander as a fighting man:
‘They are a hardy, intrepid, accustomed to rough country
and no great mischief if they fall. How can you better employ
a secret enemy than by making his end more conducive to
the common good’?
From Wolfe’s letter to his friend, William Rickson’ in Johnstone (1998).
Eventually cheap wool imports in the 1850’s caused landowners to set up sporting estates. Johnstone (1998) writes that the crofters rose up against the landowners. They were helped by Gaels who lived outside the Highlands and by Church ministers.
‘we labour to form an opinion in the country in favour of
the restoration of the land to the people’.
From the Highlander editorial by John Murdoch, 23rd March 1881.
in Johnstone (1998).
‘Your fathers kept quiet-quiet since the ’45. Tell me what
they gained by it? Still keep up your agitation; let your enemies
see you are not afraid of police or military- your agitation
must and will go on until your wrongs are righted’.
Ronald MacLean, speaking on the Isle of Skye, 1884. in Johnstone (1998).
In 1886 the Crofters Act was passed which protected Crofters from unfair rents. It did not however return the land to the people and disturbances continued.
St. Kilda.
The people of St. Kilda were evacuated from their Island homes on the 28th August 1930. The life they lived was regarded as backward, their living conditions were poor and the future for the children according to Nurse Williamina Barclay in Steel (1998) was non-existent. They were convinced that there was a better life awaiting them on the mainland. The morning papers on Saturday the 30th August 1930 reported the evacuation of the Island and according to the Government of the time it was because the Islanders wanted to leave. It also represented a victory for society; the social anomaly in the Atlantic that had been an embarrassment to progress elsewhere in Scotland had at last been eradicated. For her work in ‘helping’ the inhabitants of St. Kilda Nurse Williamina Barclay was awarded the CBE.
Malcolm MacDonald one of the longest surviving St. Kildans said that once he left he was never able to find the qualities that were so much of his young life on St. Kilda. Steel (1998) writes that MacDonald didn’t find the quietness, peace of mind and the way of life from St. Kilda on the mainland. ‘To me it was peace living on St. Kilda and to me it was happiness, dear happiness. It was a far better place.’
The life on St. Kilda was, without doubt, a hard one. Was its demise as according to Hughes (2000) another ‘triumphal ascent’ for mankind influencing each other for the ‘common good’ or, as the British Governments formal submission to UNESCO in 1986 stated; ‘it was tragic that a community which had survived remoteness and physical hardships for over 2000 years should finally succumb to the influences of modern civilisation.’
Aristotle said that the plot of true tragedy, ‘ought to be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror and melt with pity at what takes place.’ There are few tales in Scottish history more fitting that definition than that of St. Kilda, a story that is finished, and yet not quite over. Steel (1998).
Have lessons been learned?
We are apt to view with pleasure a rugged Highland Landscape and
think that we are here away from the works of the mind and hand of
man, that here is wild nature. But more often than not we are looking
at a man-made desert: the summits of the hills and the inaccessible
sea cliffs alone are as time and evolution made them. (Darling, 1947)
The Clearances would have happened at some stage or another in 18th or 19th century history. Johnstone (1998) writes that a change of land use also affected the populations of the Lowlands of Scotland, England, the German states of Pomerania and Brandenburg, Denmark, Catalonia in Spain and the Low Countries. So perhaps the Scots and in particular the Highlanders are wrong to blame the English for the change in land use, as it was inevitable. But certainly the swiftness with which they were carried out and the brutality and cruelty inflicted has left deep wounds in Highland people.
Gunn. (1998) writes that at the end of the Highland Clearances Scotland became a sad and empty desert, and to a large extent it remains that way to this day. The emptiness of the Northern Highlands today despite some valiant efforts by the Highland and Islands development board is still a lasting reminder of the Clearances. New landowners have moved in, some of them big spenders from Europe, Asia, Arabia and America; for the most part they are more interested in the land than the people on it. The land is still a valuable commodity and the people are not. It sounds ominously familiar. And yet Scots themselves can in the end only solve the depopulation of the Highlands if they truly want it. As Darling (1968) puts it, ‘scenery is money, and the Highlands are throwing away their capital.’
Hughes (2000) gives an outline of populations and how they decline and move. He says the main causes of decline are progress, money and profit. Humans have a very strong organising principle called development. The case for development is never usually argued, it is simply accepted as an unquestioned good. The account that is usually told takes humankind from one level of economic and social organisation to the next in a nearly triumphal ascent. Every stage is portrayed as an improvement over what went before. Recently, labels have been attached such as ‘developing nations’ where people want to improve others or think they are a class above them. Development has so far failed to address the issue of sustainability, as is the case in the Highlands.
The Highlands of Scotland today are described by Cramb (1998) as MAMBA. (‘Miles and miles of bugger all’). There is bracken running out of control, sheep selectively grazing, very few cattle and red deer in abundance. In Rogaland in western Norway with a smaller size than Perthshire the population rose from 211,000 in 1952 to 309,000 in 1981. In Perthshire the population fell over the same period from 128,000 to 119,000. There are 10,000 landowners in Rogaland, while just 800 individuals own the majority of Scotland.
Cramb (1998) quotes Angus McHattie, a Skye crofter: ‘on returning from Norway to Skye recently, I had occasion to compare the view from similar 3000ft granite hills in both countries. In Norway, the valley I looked down upon contained an autonomous village of 20 small farms, with their own crops, power supply, school, etc – a prosperous and happy place with a good trade surplus and a population with a healthy age structure. The Skye valley had 20 blackface ewes and 12 lambs.’
There have been some success stories. The Assynt Crofters can now wake up each morning knowing that they own the land that they look out on. But these stories are few and far between. Even with the purchase of the land by these people, life is still a struggle in this money-orientated world.
St. Kilda on the other hand could have survived with inhabitants if the correct funding had been made available. The Islands have been added by UNESCO to its World Heritage List, a collection of ‘wonders of the world’, and receives statutory protection under Section 18 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Cramb, 1988). If the local inhabitants had been admired for their way of life rather than patronised, the outcome would have perhaps been different. People today forge relationships on the basis of money. Money is what binds individuals together and fixes the relationships that people have with each other. Wealth has become the way in which people measure happiness and man should always strive for wealth unless ignorance, poverty, or sheer habit prevent them from doing so (Cramb, 1988). Society today is perhaps too embedded in the money motive for change to occur.
Sustainability is still something that people in general do not understand. Cramb (1998) describes it as ‘not screwing up tomorrow by what we do today’. The environment ethics that are already found in Scandinavian countries need to be explored. As Hughes (2000) puts it people have a ‘development’ mentality that for the most part ignores the living and non-living world and has so far failed to address the issue of sustainability.
As Friends of the Earth in their 1996 discussion paper say, ‘humanity has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Ecological tax shifts from labour to resources could lead to increased employment in labour intensive industries where there is less reliance on chemicals. An energy or Carbon tax would also help this. Indicators of sustainability need to be developed so that money is not wasted on inappropriate developments. Above all it will take people to think differently. In a sustainable society, we will understand clearer Edmund Burke’s comment, to the effect that ‘no man made a bigger mistake than he who did nothing, because he could only do a little.’
The Maya Civilisation.
Almost the only fact known about the downfall of the Maya civilisation is that it really happened.
“From our present position we can look backward and view the history of our arrival at the existing state of knowledge and approach. We can define the threshold itself but within the limitations of rapid change. The most encompassing limitation is the inability to prognosticate from the threshold to the future. A backward look from the threshold should be enough to show us that we cannot predict data and their consequent interpretations”,
(Harrison 1978)
The great culture of the Maya lowlands during the classic period is one of the lost civilisations of the world, Its hundreds of ceremonial centres buried under a canopy of tropical forest. The Maya peoples, by the time the Spaniards arrived, occupied an area embracing the modern Mexican states of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, part of Chiapas, the territory of the Quintana Roo, most of modern Guatemala, the western fringe of Honduras and all of British Honduras, an area of 125,000 square miles
The classic period of the Maya spanning some 600 years from about A.D.325 to 925,was the golden age of the most versatile and skilful of the pre-Columbian civilisation. The record of Maya culture during these centuries is written large and clear upon temple, palace pyramid; in the painting and design of pottery, baskets, textiles, and in the sculptured hieroglyphic writing on which dates are given with great accuracy. Events are depicted and the life of the people is portrayed.
Maya kingdoms were ruled by a leader with religious as well as political authority; society was divided into a class of commoners and an upper class of priests, warriors and administrators, ”empires“ were created when a kingdom was able to exact tribute and labour from other smaller states.
Hubert Herring writes.
“ We may conjecture to the life of the common man, he was usually a conformer, he must harvest enough to feed himself and his family and to pay tribute to rulers, nobles and priests” (Herring 1968)
By far the most important and most complete urban developments occurred in the lowlands in the central regions of the southern Guatemala. This region is a drainage basin about sixty miles long and twenty miles wide and is covered by tropical rain forest; the Mayas, in fact, are only one of two peoples to develop an urban culture in a tropical rain forest, the principal city in this region was Tickle, but the spread of urbanisation extended south to Honduras; the southern most Mayan city was Copan in northern Honduras. in the Guatemalan highlands to the north Mayan culture developed less fully.
In the course of their history the Maya seem to present an anomaly in this type of environmental setting considered favourable for the development of civilisations, Whereas a number of the prominent of the worlds “high” cultures have matured in an environment characterised by proximity to large quantities of surface water and by a dry climate the classic Mayan lowland lacked both of these apparent benefits (Bennet. 1966)
Tropical forests are poor and difficult environments most have to farm through shifting methods of cultivation. Food producing regimes that provide no stimulus to political or economic growth and that are only capable of supporting a small number of people have rarely produced civilisations, and when they have, these civilisations were doomed to poverty and a rapid decline. The Maya were not just swiddeners their tropical environment offered them a wide range of techniques for gaining them a livelihood, some of these highly efficient in the terms of the number of people a given plot of land could support, and some capable of producing massive surpluses with the minimum input of labour (Harrison &Turner. 1978)
The swidden thesis held that, for several reasons Maya civilisation was sustained by extensive slash and burn systems of cultivation. This view of Mayan subsistence endured despite the paucity of evidence and has influenced many arguments concerning the growth and decline of the lowland Maya classic civilisation (Meggars 1954, Dumond 1961 Rathje 1973) Archaeological evidence supporting the swidden thesis has been limited to several Maya frescos and codices. The frescos on the inner walls of structure 16 at Tulam depict, amongst other things, a maize god, maize symbols, and a double or bent maize stalk. Two intertwined serpents are also portrayed one with an open mouth, probably blowing incense, above which are twin ears of maize. These symbols and designs have been interpreted as the serpent (symbol of rain) making an offering to the rain god (Lothrope 1924) Similarly, several Maya codices display gods planting maize with the use of a dibble or digging stick (Villacorte & Villacorte 1930 Thomas 1882) Doubled maize, dibble sticks and the rain-maize connections, all key elements associated with the contemporary milpa or swidden cultivation in the Maya lowlands, have been interpreted as supporting the swidden thesis.
Cultivation strategies.
It is now also known that the Maya used several techniques for permanent cultivation in addition to the slash and burn methods. Amongst other devices were raised field beds and terraces, and water control techniques such as canals, wells, reservoirs, and “cenotes” deep sink holes with a pool at the bottom were also used at many sites (Matheney 1976).
Most of the Maya people were village farmers who gave two thirds of their produce and much of their labour to the upper classes. Commoner men wore plain cotton loincloths and simple tunics; women wore woven cotton blouses and skirts or loose fitting sack dresses whilst Maya noblemen wore embroidered cotton loincloth trimmed with feathers, a robe of cotton, jaguar skin or feathers; and an elaborate feather headdress that was sometimes as large as himself. Mayas had a sense of physical beauty very different from other peoples of Mesoamerica the Maya nobleman had his head fashionably elongated by being pressed between two boards when he was a few days old and his eyes had purposely been crossed in childhood by having objects dangled between them. His nose was built up with putty to give it an admired beak shape; his ears and teeth were inlaid with jade. The noblewomen had her head elongated and her teeth filed to a point. (Hooker 2000)
Religion.
Mayan religion grew primarily out of the milpas agriculture that required accurate predictions of time and accommodations to the cycles of life in the rain forest. There is one overwhelming aspect to Mayan religion; it is based on accommodating humanity to the cycles of the universe. The universe functions in a logical, cyclical, and predictable way; human beings can exploit that cyclical nature by accommodating themselves to these cycles. For this reason, Mayan religion is obsessed with time. In order to orient oneself to the cycles of time one must be able to calculate these cycles with great accuracy to this end the Maya developed a number of calendrical systems. At the centre was the tzolkin, or sacred calendar, which consisted of 260 days; this calendar worked on two cycles, a cycle of 13 numbered days and a cycle of 20 named days. These two cycles would repeat themselves every 260 days. In addition, they had the tun, or ceremonial calendar, which was 360 days long plus five concluding, unlucky days. Another calendar was the katun, which was a cycle of 20 tuns. They also used a Venus calendar (584 days), a half-year lunar calendar, and cycles of the sky gods. In combination, these calendars made the Mayans the most accurate reckoners of time before the modern period reaching an accuracy of being one day off every 6000 years, (which is far more accurate than our calendar). All the days of these calendars in their incredible complexity served as astronomical almanacs that rigidly controlled behaviour and religious ceremony. It is not unfair to say that Mayan life was one long continuous cycle of religious ceremonies. Hooker, (Richard 2000)
Religious ceremonies involved several aspects: dancing, competition, dramatic performances, prayer, and sacrifice. The gods required nourishment from human beings in order to work. While sacrifice often involved foodstuffs, the bulk of sacrifice involved some form of human sacrifice. The majority of human sacrifice was bloodletting, in which a victim, usually a priest, voluntarily pierces a part (or parts) or there body; usually tongue, ears, lips or penis – and “gives” blood to the gods. The higher one’s position in the hierarchy, the more blood was expected. Some ceremonies demanded the living heart of a victim, in which case the victim was down by the four chacs at the top of a pyramid or raised platform while the nacon made an incision below the rib cage and ripped out the heart with his hands. The heart was then burned in order to nourish the gods.
The Mayas believed that the world had been created five times and destroyed four times; this eschatology become the fundamental basis of Mesoamerican religion from 900 AD onwards when it was adopted by the Toltecs. Most of the Mayan gods were reptilian and they all had dual aspects, that is, each god had a benevolent aspect and a malevolent aspect. The Mayas believed in an elaborate afterlife, but heaven was reserved for those who had been hanged, sacrificed, or died in childbirth. Everyone else went to Xibal, or hell, which was riled over by the Lords of Death. (CIVAMRCA/MAYAS.HTM).
This brilliant civilisation reached its apogee in the seventh and eighth centuries, then, like a chill wind, desolation swept the land. In one city after another during a hundred years or more, ceremonial centres were abandoned, building ceased, and half-finished temples were left to the ravages of the jungle. The collapse of the cities is attested by the latest dates of their stelae; Copan was probably deserted by the year 800A.D. Indeed (Wood 1999) suggests the last known king of Copan was Yash Pac who died in the winter of 820 AD. The carvings of the last date were left unfinished on the 10th Feb 822A.D. Tikal dedicated its last stela in 869A.D; Uaxactun was active to 889A.D. What caused the fall of the Maya cities – was it the shortage of corn, due to soil exhaustion? Was it civil war? Was it a serious of deadly epidemics? Was it conquest by foreign foes? There are no clear answers. (Thomson 1994) suggests the idea that the peasants, weary of forced labour on temples and palaces and in the cornfields, rebelled against the priests and nobles driving them away or massacring them and that city after city, left in the hands of the inept peasant leaders, crumbled, and was finally deserted. Whatever the cause, by the end of the 10th century all of these once proud city states were emptied never again to be occupied by man. (Thompson 1956)
Understanding collapse.
The normal pattern of history shows one civilization succeeding another, either rapidly or gradually. When a large state society falls, the population size and density decrease dramatically. Society tends to be come less politically centralised less investments is made in elements such as architecture, art, and literature. Trade and other economic activities are greatly diminished; the flow of information among people slows. The ruling elites may change, but usually the working classes tend to remain and provide continuity. (In some cases, virtually no one remains)
Scientist’s Thuman and Bennet have highlighted "prerequisites for survival," needs that must be met in order for a society to continue:
- Every society must be able to answer the basic biological needs of its members: food, drink, shelter, and medical care.
- Every society must provide for the production and distribution of goods and services (perhaps through a division of labour, rules concerning property and trade, or ideas about the role of work).
- Every society must provide for the reproduction of new members and consider laws and issues related to reproduction (regulation, marriageable age, number of children, and so on).
- Every society must provide for the training (education, apprenticeship, passing on of values) of an individual so that he or she can become a functioning adult in the society.
- Every society must provide for the maintenance of internal and external order (laws, courts, police, wars, diplomacy).
- Every society must provide meaning and motivation to its members.
This last prerequisite is more important than it may seem. No societal activity is possible unless people are motivated to participate. Why do we get up in the morning? How do we see ourselves in relation to other members of society? Why do we follow a society's rules? Without a sense of meaning and motivation, people will become apathetic. If this happens, a society may be threatened with decline. (Thuman & Bennet)
The Survey.
Methodology.
The survey was carried out to try and gauge public opinion of the Environment. The survey was divided into three sections:
- Positive attitude towards the environment,
- Knowledge of environmental matters,
- Action for environmental matters.
There were a total of 45 surveys undertaken with 41 of them being returned. They were carried out in college, at Cameron Toll shopping centre, at our respective homes and by post. A sample of the questionnaire is shown as table 1, survey.
Results.
Table 2 shows an overall result of the survey by section.
Table 2. Survey.
Charts showing the results of the survey.
Chart 1
.
Chart 1 shows the result of the positive attitude to the environment set of questions. As can be seen from the results the attitude of those surveyed was on the whole very positive.
Chart 2.
Chart 2 shows knowledge of the environment. As can be seen the knowledge of particularly questions 6 and10 was very poor.
Chart 3.
Chart 3 shows whether people would be keen to take action on environmental issues. Again there was a mixed response especially on question 8.
Discussion
The results of the survey show that while most people express an interest in the environment as far as the future is concerned, their knowledge of past or current environmental issues appears to be limited. They voice a general inclination to act positively but seem to have a general distrust of organisations or political bodies acting on their behalf towards these ends.
The survey itself seemed to contain one or two questions which were slightly confusing to the people interviewed but on the whole showed consistent results. A negative question such as ‘do you think they have no idea’ appears to produce some contradictory responses on occasions. In general, males less than 40 years of age were the most unresponsive with the exception of captive fellow students. It might be appropriate to mention here that a common recognition was made of factors such as this, during the course of the survey, and positive attempts to balance the ages and sexes of people eventually surveyed were achieved.
It would seem from the survey, that people in general regard the environment as an issue that they should be concerned about, but are living with more important things on their minds. One person who was asked to fill in the survey said, ‘I have enough problems of my own without worrying about that crap’. The hardest thing about conducting the survey for all of us was actually getting members of the general public to fill it in. As soon as people see you with a clipboard their eyes look away. Therefore it will always be difficult to conduct a completely random survey.
Every society must provide meaning and motivation to its members. This last
pre-requisite is more important than it may seem. No social activity is possible unless people are motivated to participate. Why do we get up in the morning? How do we see ourselves in relation to other members of society? Why do we follow a society's rules? without a sense of meaning and motivation, people will become apathetic. If this happens, a society may be threatened with decline. This seems a key component of all the subjects studied in the literature reviews.
In the Scottish Highlands the indigenous crofters raison d’être had been altered dramatically to serve a purpose in no way conducive to their own well being. Their long-term future had been taken out of their hands and the will to carry on as before seemed meaningless. There is no doubt that the clearances would have taken place at some stage in history, as the same process was happening in mainland Europe at the time. But the speed at which they occurred was a testament to man’s need to accumulate profit by whatever means. Progress, money and profit unfortunately still remain foremost in human society to this day. The St.Kildans were eventually removed from the Islands by man’s need to help others less fortunate than themselves and the strong organising principle called development. Religion also played an important part in what can only be described as a plot of true tragedy.
Similarly the Mayans had followed a course which appeared detrimental to the benefit of their society for further generations. Slash and burn techniques without planning for regeneration of the land had taken its toll. People had come to the realisation that the bloodletting indoctrination by their priests and leaders was not working and again a general apathy had set in.
In the case of the Easter Islanders the isolation of their location had given them an unrealistic sense of what to do for the best. When at last they discovered their mistakes it was too late, but without any alternatives they descended into a state of complete lethargy. In fact theirs was possibly the most complete environmental disaster in the history of mans activities so far.
All the populations followed directions, which didn’t work. Once a general malaise had set in, an ever-downward spiralling corkscrew effect ensued. What were unquestioned traits and customs before suddenly became doomed ways of life. A parallel between these ancient practices and how many members of society regard the advancement of the industrial revolution, nowadays, appears clearer. It will always remain important to draw on the lessons learnt from history and realise the implications for the modern world.
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Reflection on the experience.
Chris Nisbet.
I knew almost nothing about the Highland Clearances before undertaking the project. Like perhaps the majority of Scots I assumed they happened as a result of the English attempting to dominate the local population at the time. I have certainly increased my knowledge on the subject and the conclusion that I reached was not the one I would have expected.
The initial research was hard. When you are researching a subject you are trying to gain as many different viewpoints as possible. When looking for a subject, for example, ‘population movement in the Highlands of Scotland’ there will be very rarely a book totally given over to this subject. You have to find a source of information with the subject in it. It took me some time to realise this. Once you start thinking properly the whole exercise becomes much more rewarding.
I found it important to structure the report before typing it out. Originally I tried to put it together straight from the sources of information and it doesn’t work. You end up losing the plot completely and wasting what was valuable time. It would be possible to spend a disproportionate amount of time on a report such as this. I always try where possible to do the best I can at tasks. In this case I had to take into account that the suggested length of the report was four pages.
Working as a group has both its benefits and disadvantages. We had some great alcohol fuelled discussions, which made us all look at our subjects from different viewpoints. If we were having a problem with a part of the report or didn’t understand something we worked well together in this respect. On the negative side getting everyone to work together when there was pressure to do work in other areas was very hard. Closed book exams tend to focus the mind, leaving little time for other subjects. Again the word ‘organisation’ makes a lot of sense and we all have to learn how to deal with pressure. I think once we know the outline of this type of report it will be much easier the next time round. Being a very important part of what will hopefully be a four year course it is vital we take as much as we can out of this.
In conclusion I can see why we need this skill and how important it will be to our future at college. The learning process will hopefully stop me wasting as much time and effort as I did with this attempt.
