Answer: On the coast, they developed irrigation systems so they could farm in the desert. As a result, farming could support large populations both on the coast and in the highlands, where they built cities a full two miles above sea level. In fact, the cities built by these early cultures were some of South America's first.
Suffered shortages of basic goods
It means that a group of people/a civilization that isn't/does not become open to new ways, and doesn't seek and desire new knowledge, is surely destined to be destroyed eventually. As progress and adaptation is probably the best way to secure your survival.
