Today we endure shortages of food, services and materials. Twenty-five years from now there will be twice as many of us. What will become of us? In fact, come to think of it, what became of the guy who watched the birds 1,000 years ago?
6
C A few minutes ago we wrote of a previous owner of this land who gathered dead birds. Well, this is his house. It may not look like much now (and probably didn’t look an awful lot better then), but it has become a little rundown after 1,000 (800, or whatever) years. He may have been quite proud of it (it’s bigger than most) and he built it all himself. No planes, trains, barges, boats, trucks, or even wheelbarrows. In fact, no wheels! A family of Anasazis could have anything they wanted, just so long as they could get it by themselves.
Anasazi Home
Please do not enter the ruin. In doing so, you can easily and innocently damage it. What we call “innocent vandalism” probably results in more irreparable damage than is caused by deliberate vandals.
The Anasazis probably did a little farming down in the canyon, growing and storing some corn, beans and squash. They gathered wild fruits and seeds and made fiber from native plants. They apparently led a difficult life, and probably ate anything they could get: lizards, snakes, birds, mice, squirrels, rabbits, and rarely a deer or bighorn sheep. Some scientists say they also ate each other, but we don’t know if this is true.
But the Anasazi lived within certain environmental limitations, just as we do. They needed food, water, fuel, and other resources, just as we do.
There came a time, about 700 years ago, when the environment here changed just a little. Annual rainfall patterns changed, there was a serious drought, and other factors may have contributed. Whatever the reasons, the Anasazi world changed and Man could no longer survive here. Man, ancient or modern, can adapt to a certain range of environmental change. There are limits to adaptability, though, and if the changes exceed those limits, Man must move to a more suitable place or die. The Anasazi moved.
Your environment is changing very rapidly and the changes are world wide. Where will you move to?
6
D Here it is, Sipapu. In Hopi Indian legend, the Sipapu is a passage between two very different worlds. Some visitors see a similarity here. Beneath your feet and all around you is a world of slickrock: nearly barren expanses of sandstone. But through the Sipapu you can see a world of vegetation: a softer, less harsh, more pleasant world. One can almost imagine that the Sipapu is a gateway to another world.