Water scarcity contributed to the Khmer Empire’s collapse and favored desert moralizing gods

Evidence

It is just these conditions of water scarcity, soil erosion, and vulnerability to long periods of drought that appear to have contributed to the collapse of the ancient Khmer Empire that revolved around Angkor. The magnificent remains of the main temple, Angkor Wat, can still be appreciated today; so are pieces of the sophisticated hydraulic engineering system dating back to the ninth century. But the society that once thrived in one of the world’s largest preindustrial cities exists no more. Therefore, the need to enforce prosocial norms is also acute when water is in short supply—exactly the kinds of conditions where supernatural monitoring would be a useful social mechanism to keep people in line. It is perhaps no coincidence that one of the most culturally successful of all Big Gods, the God of Abraham, was originally a god of the desert. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 421

Categorization

• CANDY: The Khmer Empire collapse tied to water engineering; a good single tidbit for an elevator conversation.