Read the passage below:
For decades, paleoclimatologists analyzing lake sediment cores from the Yucatán Peninsula argued that prolonged megadroughts were the singular catalyst for the collapse of Classic Maya lowland polities between 800 and 1000 CE. Proponents of this environmental determinism model highlighted high-resolution titanium concentration logs, which demonstrated severe rainfall deficits coinciding precisely with major population drops.
However, recent economic anthropologists have challenged this monochromatic narrative by examining regional trade networks and agricultural adaptation. They point out that several prominent Maya centers in the northern lowlands, such as Chichén Itzá, actually flourished during peak drought intervals. These scholars hypothesize that political disintegration was primarily driven by the destabilization of prestige-goods trade routes and administrative fragmentation, rather than absolute water scarcity. According to this alternative perspective, environmental stress merely magnified pre-existing institutional vulnerabilities rather than directly causing societal collapse.
Ultimately, a third group of integrative historians contends that treating environmental and social factors as mutually exclusive misinterprets the dynamic nature of complex societies. They propose a coupled human-environment framework, arguing that localized ecological degradation induced by intensive agriculture compromised regional resilience, rendering trade networks uniquely susceptible to climate shocks. Thus, while acknowledging drought as a trigger, this model positions systemic institutional rigidity as the overarching cause of collapse.
Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage as a whole?
- It presents an established explanation for a historical event, introduces a competing hypothesis based on counterevidence, and concludes by presenting a framework that synthesizes aspects of both perspectives.Answer
- BIt outlines a single scientific theory regarding societal decline, provides supporting empirical data, and evaluates its practical economic applications.
- CIt argues that climatic shifts were the sole cause of Maya collapse, refutes trade route theories, and urges further archaeological excavation.
- DIt details specific sediment core measurements to explain how northern Maya cities maintained economic prosperity throughout the lowland collapse.
- EIt severely critiques traditional paleoclimatologists for fabricating sediment data and insists environmental factors played no role in societal shifts.