TY - JOUR
T1 - Disaster as Opportunity? Cyclone Pam and the Transmission of Cultural Heritage
AU - Ballard, Christopher
AU - Wilson, Meredith
AU - Nojima, Yoko
AU - Matanik, Richard
AU - Shing, Richard
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Culture, by its very nature, is always at risk of change-whether through transformation, destruction or redefinition. So how might culture be said to be particularly at risk in the context of 'natural' disasters, and how are disasters 'naturalised' or incorporated under the terms of different cultural regimes? An earlier focus on the impacts to built or tangible heritage is increasingly being balanced by a concern for the transformations wrought by disasters in the intangible heritage of communities. Through the recent event of Cyclone Pam in 2015, and a case study of the World Heritage site of Chief Roi Mata's Domain (CRMD), we explore the ways in which repetitive natural hazards have shaped culture and tangible and intangible forms of heritage in Vanuatu. We focus in particular on the issue of cultural transmission at CRMD and its relationship to natural hazards through the device of a 'disaster biography'. Risk can also carry with it the prospect of opportunity, and our paper seeks to understand how opportunity might be present in post-disaster reworkings of culture and heritage.
AB - Culture, by its very nature, is always at risk of change-whether through transformation, destruction or redefinition. So how might culture be said to be particularly at risk in the context of 'natural' disasters, and how are disasters 'naturalised' or incorporated under the terms of different cultural regimes? An earlier focus on the impacts to built or tangible heritage is increasingly being balanced by a concern for the transformations wrought by disasters in the intangible heritage of communities. Through the recent event of Cyclone Pam in 2015, and a case study of the World Heritage site of Chief Roi Mata's Domain (CRMD), we explore the ways in which repetitive natural hazards have shaped culture and tangible and intangible forms of heritage in Vanuatu. We focus in particular on the issue of cultural transmission at CRMD and its relationship to natural hazards through the device of a 'disaster biography'. Risk can also carry with it the prospect of opportunity, and our paper seeks to understand how opportunity might be present in post-disaster reworkings of culture and heritage.
U2 - 10.1080/00664677.2019.1647825
DO - 10.1080/00664677.2019.1647825
M3 - Article
SN - 0066-4677
VL - 30
SP - 91
EP - 107
JO - Anthropological Forum
JF - Anthropological Forum
IS - 1-2
ER -