EPISODE with JASON "SWINGO" JONAS, Continued
January, 2010
Near ZAPALLO LOMA, PERU
"So what happened to the Moche?" says Jonas, seated with the other three in camp chairs around a fire.
"Native American urban cultures were typically very vulnerable to eco-collapse," says Gordon, tugging on a granola bar. "Droughts, famines, even single events like quakes and storms. If the cultural groups stayed small, it was less of a problem. They could pack up and move where conditions were favorable. But then they were more vulnerable to other societies. If they got big and urbanized and had a climatic event... It's pretty hard to keep a system together when people are starving. They fall away from the cities, fan out, and make their own subsistence livings as villages. That's probably what happene
