▶ Your Answer :
The reading passage contends that Maya
Empire collapse can be fully explained by three theories. On the other hand,
the lecturer brings up points that contradict this argument.
First, the speaker argues that there is no
record about social turmoil, although Maya Empire had a sophisticated writing
system about events. Also, Maya Empire was decentralized. Therefore, if one
city had suffered from peasant revolt, this would not spread to others. This
casts doubt on the reading passage’s claim that social turmoil in the form of a
violent uprising led to a Maya collapse.
Second, according to the lecturer, changed
trade routes are not a cause of a breakdown of Maya society. Maya Empire was abandoned
during twelfth centuries hundreds of years before Teotihuacan, the hub of trade,
was lose its importance in sixth centuries. This refutes the reading passage’s
assertion that sudden change to the trade routes abandon many of the Maya cities.
The final point made by the lecture is that
there is no evidence of epidemic. Some disease such as yellow fever and malaria
is brought by Spanish in sixteenth centuries. Also, experts cannot found mass grave,
an evidence that many people died simultaneously by epidemic. This counters the
reading passage’s argument that epidemic was a cause of the Maya collapse. |