scholarly journals Finding the Positive in the Negative

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 288-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya M. Peres ◽  
Aaron Deter-Wolf

ABSTRACTThe impact of natural disasters and climate change on archaeological resources has garnered much recent attention, with impacts of sea level rise and coastal flooding being the two most often cited issues. However, damage caused by flooding of interior areas and waterways has received less consideration. In this article, we present a case study of a collaborative emergency response to a significant weather event and the ensuing impacts on archaeological resources. Our project, located in Middle Tennessee, documented severe erosion and subsequent anthropogenic disturbances to ancient Native American sites following massive flooding of the Cumberland River in 2010. While striving to mitigate this damage via systematic collection of imperiled archaeological samples, we were also able to strengthen partnerships among professional archaeologists working in different arenas (academia, state and federal agencies) and the avocational archaeological community. As these types of weather-related events become more common, published case studies of response efforts will be crucial in archaeological site management, planning, and disaster response.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1791
Author(s):  
Carmen Fattore ◽  
Nicodemo Abate ◽  
Farid Faridani ◽  
Nicola Masini ◽  
Rosa Lasaponara

In recent years, the impact of Climate change, anthropogenic and natural hazards (such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, tsunamis, fires) has dramatically increased and adversely affected modern and past human buildings including outstanding cultural properties and UNESCO heritage sites. Research about protection/monitoring of cultural heritage is crucial to preserve our cultural properties and (with them also) our history and identity. This paper is focused on the use of the open-source Google Earth Engine tool herein used to analyze flood and fire events which affected the area of Metaponto (southern Italy), near the homonymous Greek-Roman archaeological site. The use of the Google Earth Engine has allowed the supervised and unsupervised classification of areas affected by flooding (2013–2020) and fire (2017) in the past years, obtaining remarkable results and useful information for setting up strategies to mitigate damage and support the preservation of areas and landscape rich in cultural and natural heritage.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nothando Gazi

The number of climate-related disasters is increasing more than ever before and cash is becoming an increasingly important tool to deliver assistance during a disaster response due to its flexibility and ability to cut across sectors, amongst other benefits. This research seeks to explore the role of cash in linking the relief phase to the long-term recovery through the promotion of sustainable livelihoods, by focusing on Typhoon Haiyan (known locally as Yolanda) as a case study. The Philippines has high exposure and vulnerability to climate-related disasters, however, it boasts of one of the most advanced social protection systems in the East Asia Pacific region (Bowen, 2015). In order to reach the research objectives, the research methodology employed involves a review of related literature, a field-based evaluation involving interviewing humanitarian practitioners and the adoption of DFID’s Sustainable Livelihood Framework (1999) as a framework of analysis. The results show that cash-based livelihood programming plays a vital role in leading the transition from relief to recovery due to the Value for Money (VfM) it delivers, role in strengthening local market and supply chains and the positive economic multiplier effects that benefit the wider community. Most interventions focus on asset creation, however, investment should be made into disaster risk reduction to reduce vulnerabilities that worsen the impact of shocks on poor households. Also, to enhance the benefits resulting from cash programming, supporting activities should be used in parallel with cash provision. Cash-for-training and livelihood start-up grants can empower women by increasing their human capital and introducing them to the formal economy. More work is required to transform the structures and policies that disadvantage women through patriarchal power systems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew F. Schmader

AbstractArchaeological site management goals, when informed by the input of traditional communities, can result in very different outcomes than standard cultural resource investigation strategies. A case example is presented for a large site in Albuquerque, New Mexico, containing material from the Francisco Vázquez de Coronado expedition. From 1540 to 1542, Coronado led one of the largest and most well-known explorations of the American southwest. The expedition spent much time in the Rio Grande Valley near present-day Albuquerque, including the site of Piedras Marcadas Pueblo. Formal consultations between local tribes and the City of Albuquerque in the 1990s generated a research program using geophysics and non-invasive techniques. Geophysical investigation produced results that would not have been obtained without tribal consultation to guide the research from an early point. By combining architectural data found by resistivity surveys with artifact distributions found by metal detection, details of a battle between Coronado’s expedition and puebloan people have emerged. Ongoing tribal consultation has shed light on the events that occurred at Piedras Marcadas and continues to inform interpretation and site management decisions. Resulting cooperation between traditional communities and the City of Albuquerque is a case study in the ever-important practices of co-creation and collaborative archaeology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-507
Author(s):  
GLENDA GOODMAN

AbstractIn the winter of 1772–1773, Joseph Johnson (Mohegan/Brothertown) copied musical notation into eight books for Christian Native Americans in Farmington, Connecticut, a town established by English settler colonists on the land known as Tunxis Sepus. Johnson did so because, as he wrote in his diary, “The indians are all desireous of haveing Gamuts.” Johnson's “gamuts” have not survived, but their erstwhile existence reveals hymnody's important role within the Native community in Farmington as well as cross-culturally with the English settler colonists. In order to reconstruct the missing music books and assess their sociocultural significance, this article proposes a surrogate bibliography, gathering a constellation of sources among which Johnson's books would have circulated and gained meaning for Native American Christians and English colonists (including other printed and manuscript music, wampum, and legal documents pertaining to land transfer). By bringing together this multi-modal network of materials, this essay seeks to redress the material and epistemological effects of a colonialist archive. On one level, this is a case study that focuses on a short period of time in order to document the impact on sacred music of conversion, literacy, shifting intercultural relations, and a drive to preserve sovereignty. On another, this article presents a methodological intervention for dealing with lost materials and colonialist archives without recourse to discourses of recovery or discovery, the latter of which is considered through the framework of what I term “archival orientalism.”


Author(s):  
Johnny P. Flynn ◽  
Gary Laderman

… what an enhancement of the power of the living there was in this hold over the dead.… And for the Church, what a marvelous instrument of power!… Purgatory brought the Church not only new spiritual power but also, to put it bluntly, considerable profit.Throughout history, human communities have converted the dead into sources of living power by grafting symbolic structures onto them and their places of interment. The impact of these structures on society, however, indicates that the “dead” are understood as more than physical remains. The dead can be imagined also as memories, spirits, or deities, and the physical or spiritual locations where they reside are essential to the vitality of the symbolism. When the dead are symbolized and carefully integrated into cultural and/or religious systems, they can become a potent source of political power for those who control the meaning of the dead and their physical remains. For this reason, the dead—especially their tombs and remains—have historically been a valuable commodity in the religious and cultural marketplace.


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