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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Recurso digital |
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Zenodo
2025
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17720651 |
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Table of Contents:
- Maya civilization, spanning millennia in Mesoamerica, offers a profound case study for understanding long-term societal dynamics, particularly through the lens of phase transitions and adaptive capacity. This paper examines the trajectory of Maya societies from their Preclassic emergence, characterized by the gradual development of agriculture, sedentary life, and complex sociopolitical structures, through the Classic period's fluorescence and subsequent restructuring, to the distinctive adaptations of the Postclassic era. We argue that Maya history is not a linear progression or a series of isolated events, but rather a sequence of dynamic phase transitions where established states of equilibrium were disrupted, leading to periods of reorganization, innovation, and the emergence of new adaptive strategies. The so-called "Classic Maya collapse" is reinterpreted not merely as a decline, but as a significant phase transition leading to a reconfigured sociopolitical and economic landscape. Throughout these transitions, Maya communities demonstrated remarkable adaptive capacity, modifying their agricultural practices, political organization, trade networks, and religious ideologies to persist and thrive under novel environmental and social pressures. This analysis integrates archaeological, epigraphic, and environmental data to provide a holistic understanding of how resilience and transformation shaped one of the ancient world's most enduring civilizations.