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An Economic Inquiry into the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations pp 39–69Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Good Environment, Bad Environment

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Abstract

Like those in the Eastern Hemisphere, almost all indigenous civilizations or cultural traditions in the Americas were based in river valleys or closely related to river systems. Then, why have not they given birth to an indigenous civilization that is as strong as those in the Old World? In this chapter, a comparison of two regions with contrasting ecologies—namely, the várzeas (meaning “floodplains”) as an Amazon region where there is extensive land and unlimited food resources, and the coastal valleys of Peru as a region with circumscribed agricultural land—reveals that it was the scarcity (not the abundance) of natural resources that eventually led to the establishment of agricultural societies and of more advanced civilizations. At last, I argue that the Americas’ favorable external conditions had negatively influenced their cultural evolution and development during the pre-Columbian era, and that, if the current geopolitical pattern does not change, the negative influence will continue to exist.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See www.michigan.gov/documents/dnr/Wethington_339137_7.pdf (accessed 2016-2-18).

  2. 2.

    Available at http://www.fws.gov/injuriouswildlife/ (accessed 2016-5-30).

  3. 3.

    Source: UNEP (2002), which also cites references such as Wilcove et al. (1998), Ricciardi and Rasmussen (1999), CEC (2000), and Lee (2001).

  4. 4.

    For example, Archeologist Betty J. Meggers claimed that a population density of 0.2 inhabitants per square kilometer is the maximum that can be sustained in the rainforest through hunting, with agriculture needed to host a larger population (Meggers 2003).

  5. 5.

    See Guo (2016) for a more detailed description of Multipotamia.

  6. 6.

    Cited from Carneiro (1970).

  7. 7.

    Ibid.

  8. 8.

    Data sources: Levine (2003, 32) and McEwan (2006, 93–6). Note that the estimated errors may exist since, despite that the Inca kept excellent census records, almost all of them were destroyed by the Spanish in the course of their conquest (Levine 2003, 32).

  9. 9.

    See Shady et al. (2001) and Haas et al. (2004) for more details about the archeological progress of the Norte Chico region in Peru.

  10. 10.

    Source: ABE (2009).

  11. 11.

    See the Appendix in Chap. 9 for an econometric analysis of the determinants of the global body mass index (BMI) changes from 1980 to 2010.

  12. 12.

    See, for example, Hill et al. (1998), Schuster (1998), and Diehl (2004, 129).

  13. 13.

    In the meantime, the sculptural style of the Mezcala culture may have been influenced by the Olmecs. In turn, it may have influenced the development of sculpture at the Classic-period metropolis of Teotihuacan in the valley of Mexico (Coe and Koontz 2002, 55).

  14. 14.

    See Coe and Koontz (2002, 55) and Evans (2013, 315).

  15. 15.

    See http://www.crystalinks.com/anasazi.html (accessed 2016-5-30).

  16. 16.

    See Price and Feinman (2008, 274–7).

  17. 17.

    Source: http://www.nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/Nominations%20pdf/CAHOKIA.pdf (accessed 2015-11-18).

  18. 18.

    Here, according to the “win-stay lose-shift” principle, I assume that the Paleo-Indians were physically weaker than their Eurasian counterparts.

  19. 19.

    Cited from http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/ (accessed 2015-11-18).

  20. 20.

    See Sects. “Rivers, Cyclical Floods and Civilizations,” “How the Cyclical Phenomena Matter,” and “Cycles Research and Civilizations” in Chap. 6 for a more detailed account of how civilizations were created in river valleys.

  21. 21.

    Cited from Canadian Museum of History (2008).

  22. 22.

    See Mann (2006) for a more detailed account.

  23. 23.

    More analytic narratives in this regard can be found in Chaps. 8 (especially, Sects. “Tipping, Obesity, and Carp” and “What Are Their Long-Run Effects?”) and 9 (especially the Appendix thereof).

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  1. Peking University, Beijing, China

    Rongxing Guo

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Guo, R. (2017). Good Environment, Bad Environment. In: An Economic Inquiry into the Nonlinear Behaviors of Nations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48772-4_3

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