Disease and Diet Doubts

While some skeletal remains show pathology that was caused by nutritional disease, which was expected to decrease fertility, there is no empirical evidence regarding such changes. Additionally, enamel defects (hypoplasias) in dental records of Pasión Mayan children were analysed by Wright (1997), as tooth formation is affected by nutritional stress and illness. However, no statistical differences were found throughout the Classic period, reflecting stability in overall stress loads in children. These results conflict with the ecological model of the Classic Maya collapse that assume elevated disease and deteriorating diet of both children and adults that I have discussed over the last few posts. The validity of the ecological models was also assessed by Wright and White (1996). They state that ecological models require the following health and dietary arguments to be true:

1. The Maya had a greater disease burden than other societies
2. The disease burden increased throughout their existence
3. Their diet must have changed consistently from the Preclassic and Early Classic to the Terminal Classic periods
4. There must have been an increasing social disparity in diet

In order to link these arguments, there must be a correlation between diet and disease. Yet, after looking at pathology and isotopic data, they couldn't find anything that consistently supported these criteria. They instead found diversity in both disease burden and diet, influenced by local environmental and political factors. Additionally, in contrast to the presumptions made by Santley et al. (1986), isotope analyses from the Pasión region actually showed that there was adequate protein in their diet and that diets were socially and regionally heterogeneous (Wright, 2006).

In light of this, both papers doubted ecological models as generalised explanations for the abandonment of Classic Maya sites in the southern lowlands. Wright (2006) stressed the importance of collecting as much biological data as possible, to build up a more reliable regional analysis and to avoid the inherent problems in interpreting small, fragmented data.

Additionally, despite the evidence of an increase of migration flows from the south to the north (Folan et al., 2000) - a common response to acute degradation and catastrophe - archaeologists have not discovered mass graves that may indicate epidemics or diseases that wiped out populations.