Despite sacrificing people after catastrophic El Niño flooding, ancient societies were generally peaceful

from Phys.org

To understand how societies might react to climate change, archaeologists look at social responses to extreme climate events in the past—and in some places, that included measures as drastic as human sacrifice. Mass ritual sacrifices along the desert coast of northern Peru have been linked to catastrophic flooding caused by El Niño, which made researchers wonder if such sacrifices were part of a rise in violence driven by resource scarcity. But a new survey of the Lambayeque Valley suggests that violence was extremely rare, even during periods of ecological upheaval.

explained

El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that manifests as fluctuations in sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. The warming phase of the sea surface temperature is known as "El Niño" and the cooling phase as "La Niña". It affects the climate of much of the tropics and subtropics, and has links (teleconnections) to higher-latitude regions of the world. The Southern Oscillation is the accompanying atmospheric oscillation, which is coupled with the sea temperature change. Numerous atmospheric characteristics respond to the oscillation including wind, surface air pressure and cloudiness.

The switching between El Niño, La Niña and neutral states has an irregular pattern but cycles approximately every two to seven years with varying intensity. The strength of the phenomenon tends to peak in the northern hemisphere winter, though regional impacts may peak at different times. The occurrence of ENSO is not easily predictable but it is monitored carefully by many weather organisations.

From Wikipedia: El Niño–Southern Oscillation (CC BY-SA 4.0) ↗

so what

It challenges the assumption that resource scarcity automatically leads to conflict, and it gives a useful model for how past societies responded to climate extremes.

D. W. Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat (1909)

the gist

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.

how it works

To corner a market, a trader buys up most of the available supply and the futures contracts that promise more. Anyone who has to deliver the commodity must then buy from the cornerer at whatever price is demanded. The trader profits until the stock is released or the scheme collapses.

so what

A century on, it still shows how markets can be rigged by someone who controls supply, and how the people at either end, farmers and eaters, pay for it. It also helped establish editing as a way to argue a point, not just tell a story.

the bigger pattern

Corners have recurred whenever supply could be locked up, from the Hunt brothers' attempt on silver in 1979 to 1980 to the 'Black Friday' gold panic of 1869. Many such schemes end by collapsing, and the response is often new rules on speculation.

fun fact

In the film the Wheat King dies by falling into a grain elevator and being buried in the wheat he hoarded, an ending borrowed from Norris's novel The Octopus.

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