I need information on the Maya collapse!!!?

Question

does any one know any SHORT & STRIGHTFORWARD books or websites i can reference as i do a paper on the Maya collapse? or do you know anything about it yourself? please help!!!

Answer 1

Two books by Jared Diamond, "Collapse" and "Guns, Germs and Steel" deal specifically with the subject.  Check your library.  If they don't have them, try an inter-library loan.

Answer 2

There's this place called the library?

Google? Wikipedia?

Answer 3

There are quite a few theories about the collapse of the Mayan civilization, one theory is uncontrolled warfare between various Mayan cities during the Mayan Classic period caused the downfall. (source 1)

Another theory attributes the collapse to mainly to the inefficient slash-and-burn agricultural practice (due to the fact that Mayan cities were located in jungles). The agricultural practice rendered the land unusable for a prolonged period of time which lead to an extreme shortage of food, that in conjunction with war and disease, caused the collapse. (source 2)

A scientific article by RL Wilkinson (Med Anthropol. 1995 Jul;16(3):269-94.), after studying the ecological conditions of lowland Guatemala, claimed that the decline in Mayan population was mainly caused by increased incidences of epidemics such as yellow fever. (source 3 - abstract only, you have to look in a library for the entire article)

Answer 4

National Geographic did a thing on it some months ago.  I think they're trying to blame it on agricultural mismanagement or something.

Answer 5

I would be careful about using Jared Diamond. I would sound out your professor on their views of his work as Diamond has recently come under fire from the anthropological community. I would instead recommend The Fall of the Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of the Maya Collapse by David Webster.

Edit: Well, Ok  I know Webster is a dry read. How about the Ancient Maya: The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization by Arthur Demarest? It's a pretty complicated issue though, not really conducive to short books :)