Beyond the Earthquake: Disaster and Improvisation in Haiti
Beyond the Earthquake: Disaster and Improvisation in Haiti
- Ana Elisa de Figueiredo BersaniAna Elisa de Figueiredo BersaniUNICAMP Social Anthropology Campinas, SP Brazil José Luiz Egydio Setúbal Foundation Research Department São Paulo, SP Brazil
Summary
The ethnographic examination of community response to disasters helps to understand what disasters and long-term vulnerability are and how they are experienced by individuals and communities. More than that, it offers a unique insight into how the problems and challenges posed by critical events might be addressed more effectively, despite the lack of resources and despair caused by destruction. Through a processual approach and drawing on catastrophes and humanitarian aid literature, the anthropological perspective situates both themes of disaster and aid in a broader dimension. The response of communities in the province of Grand’Anse to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is an exemplary case that highlights the crucial role of familial and community mechanisms that goes beyond the reach of state and international institutions in ensuring the survival of those affected. These often overlooked mechanisms constituted an effective emergency response not to be underestimated.
The ways in which Haitian society dealt with the aftermath question existing commonsense notions of both disaster and aid, making use of an available repertoire and articulating creative devices that, however, do not operate in a vacuum. Faced with a context of insecurity, marked by structural uncertainties, precariousness, and major transformations, Haitians have long had to look for shortcuts and improvise to get rid of countless difficulties and obstacles. The expression degaje in Haitian Creole reveals an important relationship between crisis and improvisation in which change, conflict, and instability are always mixed with permanence, integration, and balance. It can also be understood as a value and an important analytical category to explain the unpredictability of social life and the mechanisms used to cope with challenges posed by it.
Keywords
Subjects
- Earthquakes
- Response
- Cultural Perspectives