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The Collapse of Complex Societies

joseph a. tainter

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Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future. Dr. Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration by detailed studies of the Roman, Mayan and Chacoan collapses.

264 pages, Paperback

First published May 27,1988

This edition

Format
264 pages, Paperback
Published
March 30, 1990 by Cambridge University Press
ISBN
9780521386739
ASIN
052138673X
Language
English

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About the author

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joseph a. tainter

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Joseph Tainter studied anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975. As of 2012 he holds a professorship in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. His previous positions include Project Leader of Cultural Heritage Research, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.

Tainter has written or edited many articles and monographs. His arguably best-known work, The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), examines the collapse of Maya and Chacoan civilizations, and of the Western Roman Empire, in terms of network theory, energy economics and complexity theory. Tainter argues that sustainability or collapse of societies follow from the success or failure of problem-solving institutions and that societies collapse when their investments in social complexity and their "energy subsidies" reach a point of diminishing marginal returns. He recognizes collapse when a society rapidly sheds a significant portion of its complexity.

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Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
WizzFizz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I liked this book from beginning to end. Joseph A. Tainter explains, in an approachable way, the complexity of societies from its genesis to its collapse. How humans became together to create organisms with the goal of using resources more efficient; Its increasingly complexity and the inexorable collapse. He uses an understandable vocabulary and graphics when it is a must to understand the concepts he lays out.

However, I would be cautious recommending this book. More for people who are interested in the topic. Otherwise it could be a dry reading and boring for moment.
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BlitzkriegLove
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Excellent, clarifying work on why complex societies collapse. The thesis is basically: to overcome problems, societies invest more in complexity, but this investment necessarily has declining marginal returns, so eventual reserves are run down and a stress shock (or series of shocks) that they could have weathered before eventually become terminal. It's a very generalist approach to why societies end.

One of the interesting threads for me was the possibility of collapse through new resources: if there are newly abundant means, old forms of extraction and complexity become unnecessary to maintain.

Overall excellent, though a lot rests on what is meant by "complexity". Societies invest in "complexity" (or heterogeneity) but the forms in which arrangements become more complicated are infinitely varied.
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cerwisc
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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What was useful to me:

I. The work provides a concise list of common threats to any organized large-scale social entity.

II. Tainter makes the terminological distinction between 'Civilizations' and 'Complex-Societies'. He does this in order avoid any value-laden connotations. What is interesting, however, is that by adopting the term "complex-society," he implies that the conceptual framework of the entity can apply to any organization that serves a social function, their sub-units, and larger systems composed thereby.

III. In studying Tainter's work, one develops a teleological definition of the possibility of a "civilization." A civilization can be materially considered a complex-society that functions as a problem-solving entity. It develops insofar as it is beneficial to the majority of its members. It begins to dissolve when it no longer benefits the majority of its populace.

IV. Tainter's conceptual framework seems, without further analysis, to be closely in-line with Quigley's theories of historical analysis. In both works, the focus is more material than it is cultural. Quigley, though, gave more credence to cultural developments; probably as a useful indicator of the ideological state of the majority.

V. A sizable portion of the text is dedicated to refuting "mystical" explanations of collapse. This is useful because it draws a very clear distinction between 'social criticism' and 'social science.' "Mystical" explanations of collapse make use of remarkably fuzzy notions of "vigor" and "decadence" and "moral decay." Tainter may find them amusing, but he insists that we give them no time when we try to approach material problems of social significance: like a tax burden that does more harm to the foundational classes than benefit.

VI. All problem solving organizations are subject to cost-benefit analysis. Complex socieities fail when they cost more to the majority than they benefit their well-being. It's a general, simple, and terribly demystifying approach to social organizations. It is similar to Quigley's distinction between 'social instruments' and 'institutions:' instruments are useful/ institutions are previously useful instruments that have become ossified and more ornamental than functional. Quigley has his own list of consequence to institutions. Reform is the happiest.

VII. Our current global situation is too interconnected for individual complex-societies to collapse in isolation. Either they will be bailed out or invaded. If a collapse happens, it can only be global and catastrophic on a scale previously unseen by humanity.

VIII. Competing Peer Polities

IX. The bibliography is astonishing.
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Flaxman
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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The book has a daunting goal of trying to explain a common mechanism that explains the collapse of complex societies such as the Southern Lowland Maya Collapse or the Western Roman Empire collapse. His takeaway and central point, that as societies develop they often go on a marginal benefit curve where early investments in sociopolitical complexity (e.g. centralizing weights and measures to foster trade / growth) are very beneficial but later investments become more and more costly, weighing down these societies. Thus in Tainter's mind, the Western Roman empire did not collapse because of the invasions of the Germanic tribes of the 4th and 5th societies (indeed he points out that they survived similar invasions), but rather they collapsed because their mechanisms to mitigate these damages were costlier and costlier and the 'empire' or state yielded far fewer benefits.

Tainter though does suggest that a modern collapse is fairly difficult due to the presence of peer-polities that are not yet finding diminishing returns from increasing sociopolitical complexity.
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NewAnimeFan
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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According to Tainter's Collapse of Complex Societies, societies become more complex as they try to solve problems. Social complexity can be recognized by numerous differentiated and specialized social and economic roles and many mechanisms through which they are coordinated, and by reliance on symbolic and abstract communication, and the existence of a class of information producers and analysts who are not involved in primary resource production. Such complexity requires a substantial "energy" subsidy (meaning the consumption of resources, or other forms of wealth).

When a society confronts a "problem," such as a shortage of energy, or difficulty in gaining access to it, it tends to create new layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, or social class to address the challenge. Tainter, who first (ch. 1) identifies seventeen examples of rapid collapse of societies, applies his model to three case studies: The Western Roman Empire, the Maya civilization, and the Chaco culture.

For example, as Roman agricultural output slowly declined and population increased, per-capita energy availability dropped. The Romans "solved" this problem by conquering their neighbours to appropriate their energy surpluses (in concrete forms, as metals, grain, slaves, etc.). However, as the Empire grew, the cost of maintaining communications, garrisons, civil government, etc. grew with it. Eventually, this cost grew so great that any new challenges such as invasions and crop failures could not be solved by the acquisition of more territory.

Intense, authoritarian efforts to maintain cohesion by Domitian and Constantine the Great only led to an ever greater strain on the population. The empire was split into two halves, of which the western soon fragmented into smaller units. The eastern half, being wealthier, was able to survive longer, and did not collapse but instead succumbed slowly and piecemeal, because unlike the western empire it had powerful neighbors able to take advantage of its weakness.

It is often assumed that the collapse of the western Roman Empire was a catastrophe for everyone involved. Tainter points out that it can be seen as a very rational preference of individuals at the time, many of whom were actually better off. Archeological evidence from human bones indicates that average nutrition actually improved after the collapse in many parts of the former Roman Empire. Average individuals may have benefited because they no longer had to invest in the burdensome complexity of empire. Tainter notes that in the west, local populations in many cases greeted the barbarians as liberators.
to complete the picture,A read of Jared Diamond's 2005 book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,Is almost going against Tainter's opinions on the same field.
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KirariaOC
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Four stars cause it’s pretty dated at this point. But still relevant, I think.
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leastfavorite
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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This book challenged other theories of collapse even before they were written (I’m looking at you Jared Diamond) but it also made a lot of ideas click and has profound implications for our society. Great book.
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KissMyAnthia
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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A fascinating analysis on the dissolution of civilizations, and three case studies through the lens of an empire's new greatest fear:  a decrease in profitable margins. Three case studies: Romans, Mayans, and Chacoans look at three levels of organizational collapse. Though the book ends without many answers for application, this establishes a quantifiable and appliable framework for further research, incredibly important. <spoiler>
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