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The factors that make a society sustainable, or vulnerable to collapse, can rarely be discerned within a human lifetime. Sustainability challenges develop over periods of decades, generations, or centuries. Sustainability must therefore be a historical science. A major challenge of the IHOPE program is how to draw valid comparisons among different kinds of societies, existing at different times, that can clarify our contemporary problems of sustainability. This paper develops and illustrates a theory for understanding sustainability and collapse that has cross-cultural applicability. Illustrating the theory by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire yields new insights into what it means to be a sustainable society. Comparison to the Maya reveals that, despite many differences, the Roman Empire and Maya polities underwent similar patterns of cultural evolution, and developed similar vulnerabilities. Comparison of both historical cases to the sustainability challenges of today demonstrates that contemporary industrial societies face evolutionary processes similar to those experienced by the Romans and the Maya. This analysis yields several points that are worthwhile for policy makers to understand. [collapse, complexity, energy, Maya, Roman Empire, sustainability]

The literature on sustainability and the human future emphasizes the belief that population and/or mass consumption caused resource degradation and collapse in earlier societies. Archaeological literature proposing overshoot and collapse appears in current debates over resource conservation versus continued economic growth. The prominence of this debate, with its national and international dimensions, makes it important to assess whether there is evidence in the archaeological literature for overshoot and collapse brought on by Malthusian overpopulation and/or mass consumption.

One consequence of globalization is that parts of the world that were once remote and minimally influenced by broader political and economic developments now find themselves profoundly affected by forces beyond their comprehension. Communities that were once self-sufficient and resilient come to depend on larger systems, no longer control their own destinies, and confront adverse environmental changes. Such local consequences result from changes in the vertical scale of political and economic integration. While the term globalization is much used today, the processes vand consequences of globalization have been evident in human history for some time. This paper presents case studies of the effects of distinct episodes of globalization on historical and contemporary societies. Analyses of Epirus, Greece, and northern New Mexico show how disjunctures in scaling between information and power reduce local resiliency and sustainability. Changes in the scale of problems affecting localities impose a requirement for corresponding changes in the scale of environmental information that local community's process.

Over 200 years ago, Edward Gibbon noted that the problem in studying the Roman Empire is not that it collapsed but that, with all the problems it faced, it lasted so long. It is significant but curious that Gibbon is rarely remembered for this observation. This oversight reveals important things about how we think of complex political systems. It is a truism of anthropology that in the socialization process, a child is taught to regard a cultural order as a natural order. To those who are born, socialized and live their lives in a state organization – a group that includes all of Gibbon's readers – complex political organization seems normal and inevitable. The possibility that any state would not go on and on, perpetuating itself indefinitely, is to most people inconceivable. Thus Gibbon's great insight, that the Roman Empire was not intrinsically a sustainable institution, has been overlooked for generations.

International audience ; Cahokia was the most ambitious program of monumental construction and is to day the largest archaeological site north o f Native Mesoamerica. It is situated centrally in the Mississippi Valley drainage, in what is now East St. Louis, Illinois. The site is do inated by Monks Mound, an earthen structure of several tiers. Its 615,000 cubic meters of fill rank it behind only the pyramid of Cholula and the Pyramid of the Sun a t Teotihuacdn as the largest structures in prehistoric North America. Monks Mound sat among 120 mounds, which originally comprised much of the public architecture of the site. The central precinct of Cahokia was conceived and built to create an impressive public space. Monks Mound is flanked by plazas on all four sides with the largest-the 19-hectare « Grand Plaza »-extending outward from Monks Mound's southern ramp. The Grand Plaza formed the focus of public life, elite activity, ritual, and the political organization of both town and countryside.

The impact of European colonization & historical competition for various resources on contemporary conflicts between developing nations is examined. An overview of multiple European conflicts, particularly those between the 14th & early 19th centuries, demonstrates how these competitions affected the various participants. The consequences of these sundry struggles between European combatants are considered, & regional & national reactions to European colonization are studied, revealing that such policies actually deepened conflicts between indigenous groups; Belgium's role in exacerbating the conflict between the Hutus & Tutsis in mid- & late-20th-century Rwanda is discussed to illustrate the destructive legacy of European colonization. The need for Western nations to understand their role in shaping history & to modify their attitudes toward conflicts in developing nations is stressed. J. W. Parker

The impact of European colonization & historical competition for various resources on contemporary conflicts between developing nations is examined. An overview of multiple European conflicts, particularly those between the 14th & early 19th centuries, demonstrates how these competitions affected the various participants. The consequences of these sundry struggles between European combatants are considered, & regional & national reactions to European colonization are studied, revealing that such policies actually deepened conflicts between indigenous groups; Belgium's role in exacerbating the conflict between the Hutus & Tutsis in mid- & late-20th-century Rwanda is discussed to illustrate the destructive legacy of European colonization. The need for Western nations to understand their role in shaping history & to modify their attitudes toward conflicts in developing nations is stressed. J. W. Parker

Sustainability is a value-laden concept that provokes veneration, confusion, and political conflict. Human sustainability arises from the long-term success of problem-solving institutions. One constraint to sustainability is the tendency of problem-solving to grow complex, costly, and cumbersome. This chapter describes several unsustainable societies; sketches an understanding of sustainability that addresses its value-laden and transient nature; shows how sustainability is grounded in problem-solving; demonstrates through historical cases how long-term trends in problem-solving lead either to sustainability or collapse; and employs these historical lessons to clarify our own problem-solving efforts.

Environmental problems are social issues, embedded in economic and political contexts at the local, regional, national, and global levels. Placing environmental issues on the scale from local to global clarifies conflicts between the level at which problems originate and the level at which they must be addressed. Local issues today often originate in sources distant in time and space, increasing the difficulty of discerning and addressing them. Conflicts in environmental management can be approached by understanding their broader context and the appropriate level at which to manage them.