It is often stated that this debate has two sides, those with the social arguments for downfall and those who see climate as its major cause. However, it seems that the correlation between Mayan collapse and climate drought is not simply causal. It is this assumption that often leads some sociologists to pigeon-hole climate scientists as having over-emphasis on environmental determinism. It is evident that there are much more complex relationships occurring, with droughts potentially varying greatly over space and in intensity, affecting groups of Maya with vastly different tolerances to them. It seems then that in order to fully understand why the Mayan civilisation collapsed, there is a need for a complete climate record for the entire Mayan region as well as a knowledge of how the environmental changes might have impacted social processes of the different groups of Maya. Collaboration between paleo-environmentalists and anthropologists/archaeologists seems vital.
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