Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe (Transcultural Research – Heidelberg ... on Asia and Europe in a Global Context)

Historical disaster research is still a young field. This book discusses the experiences of natural disasters in different cultures, from Europe across the Near East to Asia. 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 pre-modern times. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Historical Disaster Experiences: First Steps Toward a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe in the Preindustrial Era....Pages 3-44 Living with Hazard: Disaster Subcultures, Disaster Cultures and Risk-Mitigating Strategies....Pages 45-59 Front Matter....Pages 61-61 Several Natural Disasters in the Middle East (at the Beginning of the Eleventh Century) and Their Consequences....Pages 63-79 Fanāʾ and Fasād: Perceptions and Concepts of Crises and Disasters in Fourteenth-Century Egypt....Pages 81-91 The Black Death and the Human Impact on the Environment....Pages 93-106 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?....Pages 107-138 Cultural Implications of Natural Disasters: Historical Reports of the Volcano Eruption of July, 1256 CE....Pages 139-154 When Europe Was Burning: The Multi-season Mega-drought of 1540 and Arsonist Paranoia....Pages 155-185 Front Matter....Pages 187-187 “Assur Will Suffer:” Predicting Disaster in Ancient Egypt....Pages 189-206 “Natural” Disasters in the Arabic Astro-meteorological Malḥama Handbooks....Pages 207-223 Tracing the Will of the Stars: Indian Astrology and Divination About Natural Disasters and Threats....Pages 225-239 Explaining the 1934 Bihar-Nepal Earthquake: The Role of Science, Astrology, and “Rumours”....Pages 241-266 Front Matter....Pages 267-267 The 1173/1759 Earthquake in Damascus and the Continuation of Architectural Tradition....Pages 269-294 Living with Disaster: Aleppo and the Earthquake of 1822....Pages 295-305 “The Great Fire in Cairo in 1321:” Interactions Between Nature and Society....Pages 307-326 Perceiving Urban Fire Regimes in Europe and China (1830 to 1870): British Fire Insurance Businesses and the Sudden Challenge of Globalisation....Pages 327-352 Front Matter....Pages 353-353 Economic Adaptation to Risky Environments in the Late Middle Ages: The Case of the Accrues of the Doubs in Chaussin (Jura, France) from c. 1370 to c. 1500....Pages 355-367 Measuring “Disaster”: The “Everydayness” of Fluvial Landscapes and the Colonial State in Gangetic Diaras, 1790s–1880s....Pages 369-378 When the “Deluge” Happened: The Flood of 1929 in the Surma–Barak Valley of Colonial Assam....Pages 379-398 Alpine Landscapes of Defence: On Modern-Vernacular Avalanche Protection Systems in the Swiss Alps....Pages 399-422 Back Matter....Pages 423-436 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 Gerrit Jasper Schenk, Editor. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.