ABSTRACT
GIVEN Tiffi THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF HUMAN OCCUPATION IN MIDDLE AMERICA and Mexico, the number of times that pre-Columbian societies were affected by volcanism must have been relatively great. The objective of this chapter is to compare the effects that explosive volcanic eruptions had on the ancient societies of Mexico and Central America, to see if any patterns can be detected. The particular focus is to try to answer the question: Did societal complexity play a role in the vulnerability or the resilience of societies affected by those sudden massive stresses? Some societies were resilient to an explosive eruption, reestablishing their social organization, adaptation, and material culture in the devastated area after natural processes of recovery allowed human resettlement. In other cases, societies were more vulnerable to massive environmental change from an explosive eruption, as they were unable to cope with the changed circumstances.
