Rufus Wood Leigh Lecture: Guest Lecturer Dr. Douglas J. Kennett

“Climate Change and Sociopolitical Cycling in the Maya Region”
Climate scientists predict major changes in global temperature and precipitation in the next century and it is not yet known how our complex societies will respond. Interdisciplinary archaeological research provides a laboratory for exploring the inherent complexities of societal responses in the face of climate change over long periods of time with potential relevance to present and future societies. The episodic formation, consolidation and breakdown of preindustrial states occurred in multiple contexts worldwide during the last 5000 years were contingent upon interacting endogenous economic, demographic and political mechanisms. In some instances, there is support for climate change stimulating integration or inducing
sociopolitical fragmentation in these complex systems. Kennett will present the results of an on-going interdisciplinary project focused on the cyclical nature of societal responses to climate
change during the last 2,000 years in the Maya region