Historical Disaster Experiences : Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe / edited by Gerrit Jasper Schenk.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schenk, Gerrit Jasper., Editor.

Series:

Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context, 2191-656X

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cultural studies.

Natural disasters.

Civilization—History.

Cultural Studies.

Natural Hazards.

Cultural History.

Local Subjects:

Cultural Studies.

Natural Hazards.

Cultural History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (IX, 436 p. 121 illus., 44 illus. in color.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2017.

Place of Publication:

Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2017.

Summary:

Historical disaster research is still a young field. This book discusses the experiences different cultures, from Europe across the Near East to Asia, have of natural disasters. It focuses on the pre-industrial era and on the question of similarities, differences and transcultural dynamics in the cultural handling of natural disasters. Which long-lasting cultural patterns of perception, interpretation and handling of disasters can be determined? Have specific types of disasters changed the affected societies? What have people learned from disasters and what not? What adaptation and coping strategies existed? Which natural, societal and economic parameters play a part? The book not only reveals the historical depth of present practices, but also reveals possible comparisons that show globalization processes, entanglements and exchanges of ideas and practices in preMit bestem Dank im voraus-modern times.

Contents:

Part I: State of Research, Concepts and Methods

Historical Disaster Experiences: First Steps towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe in the Pre-industrial Era

Living with Hazard: Disaster Subcultures, Disaster Cultures and Risk-Mitigating Strategies

Part II: Materiality of Disasters: Natural Impact, Social Experience

Several Natural Disasters in the Middle East (at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century) and their Consequences

Fanāʾ and Fasād: Perceptions and Concepts of Crises and Disasters in Fourteenth-century Egypt

The Black Death and Human Impact on the Environment

The day the sun turned blue. A volcanic eruption in the early 1460s and its possible climatic impact – a natural disaster perceived globally in the late Middle Ages?

Cultural Implications of Natural Disasters: Historical Reports of the Volcano Eruption of July, 1256 A.D

When Europe was burning. The multi-seasonal mega-drought of 1540 and the arsonist paranoia

Part III: Heaven and Earth: Searching for Reasons

Assur will suffer: Predicting disaster in Ancient Egypt

‘Natural’ Disasters in the Arabic Astro-meteorological Malhama Handbooks

Tracing the Will of the Stars: Indian Astrology and Divination about Natural Disasters and Threats

Explaining the Bihar Earthquake of 1934: The Role of Science, Astrology and ‘Rumours’

Part IV: Urban Experience: Earthquakes and Fire

The 1173/1759 Earthquake in Damascus and the Continuation of Architectural Tradition

Living with Disaster: Aleppo and the Earthquake of 1822

‘The Great Fire in Cairo of 1321’ – Interactions between Nature and Society

Perceiving Urban Fire Regimes in Europe and China, 1830s to 1870s: British Fire Insurance Businesses and the Sudden Challenge of Globalisation

Part V: Frequent Experience and Adaptations: Floods and Landscapes of Defence

Economic adaptation to risky environment in the late Middle Ages. The case of the ‘accrues’ of the Doubs in Chaussin (Jura, France) from c. 1370 to c. 1500

Measuring ‘disaster’? The ‘everydayness’ of fluvial landscapes and the colonial state in Gangetic diaras, 1790s-1880s

When the ‘Deluge’ Happened: The Flood of 1929 in the Surma-Barak Valley of Colonial Assam

Alpine landscapes of defence – On modern-vernacular avalanche protection systems in the Swiss Alps.

Notes:

Includes indexes.

ISBN:

3-319-49163-6