disaster

randomness

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

anthropologist

environmental anthropologist

university professor

Yale University

innovator in the field of

environmental anthropology

anthropology

is a concept that presents a false dichotomy between exceptional and normal events. They are not merely geophysical and not merely the function of calamitous events as opposed to everyday events.

The ontology of 'disaster' has long been a topic of debate in the field of natural hazard and disaster research, with most attention focusing on the question of whether disasters are exceptional as opposed to normal events. Hewitt (1986), among others, suggests that the traditional differentiation between disastrous events and normal ones represents a false dichotomy and an outmoded paradigm. He maintains that (1) natural disasters are not explained solely by geophysical processes, (2) human perception of natural disasters is not explained by these processes either, and (3) natural disasters are not the function of calamitous as opposed to everyday events (dove 446)

is itself sometimes a strategic position in the long run, as illustrated by the kantu of borneo who chose their farmland based on the appearance of particular birds... birds which, counter to expectation, do not provide a subtle ecological clue, but rather the randomness allowed them to pick a diverse set of farming sites which benefitted them in the end.

The Kantu of Borneo, for instance, base the decision of where to establish their annual farming sites on the appearance in the forest of seven species of bird. The anthropologist Michael Dove assumed that these birds were providing subtle ecological clues to the farmers, but after further observation and decades of reflection he realized that the birds supplied a form of randomness. There were few rational reasons for choosing one spot over another: the vagaries of drought, pestilence, river levels, and other variables meant that the suitability of any particular location couldn't be predicted in advance. Randomness allowed the Kantu to pick a diverse set of farming sites, which, in the long run, worked better than following a set of more structured but misleading rules.'

Michael DoveThinkers

Michael Dove