Death of the community
When a community loses its common heritage or unity, it loses its raison d’être at the same time. A community has no reason to live if it has nothing to share anymore. I see 3 main reasons for the death of a community.
The common heritage disappears:
Following a technological, cultural or political shift, the common element that provides unity disappears. This heritage can also disappear if the community spreads too much geographically, or if a common resource disappears. Rural exodus is one good example of community destruction. In only few years, rural communities that were once united by a place (village), a common resource (the land), an activity (farming), a common memory, and a common language have now been relocated, widespread and finally assimilated to the benefit of more urban and industrial communities.
The common heritage is confiscated:
When the community starts becoming organized, some people could be tempted to confuse management with ownership. History is full of such examples: religious ideas and values confiscated by the clergy, a politician confusing a public financer with their own or a dishonest historian rewriting history. Yet if heritage is shared by all and confiscated by few, then the common ground will become private and the community disappears.
The community no longer has a reason to live:
This last cause of mortality somehow represents the most interesting form of death in a community. It occurs when the community is reaching a critical size or certain maturity. The community then looses its ability to align and is no longer an expression of identity, but instead spins off into smaller communities that create completely different dynamics.
However, a society can survive within the community that it came from, in the same way that a coral reef will keep its structure long after its microorganism has died. Social structures can last for long time but they slowly become inflexible, brittle and end up eroding.
