
Cannibals and Kings
The progress of civilisation through innovation and change
If we believe in cultural determinism, then is it possible to predict the evolution of a civilisation using archeological, historical, ethnographical and environmental data. When a society begins to grow, and reaches the limits of the resources of the environment in which it is located, something changes, and this change usually results in catastrophe. Human history is full of such events because similar variables correspond to similar patterns. Thus the bands of hunters and gatherers, the primitive states, the great ancient empires, the feudal world and the Western civilisation of the modern age show us the path that we will probably be called to take: resources are not infinite, the environment cannot sustain us forever, living conditions change, and another cycle is just around the corner.
