Anthropological Approach to Vulnerability and Major Hazards - Vulnerability of Coastal Ecosystems and Adaptation - page 301

takes into consideration the impact of the phenomenon on a region
inhabited by a human group (a milieu, an ecumene, etc.). Given that,
the ways of living in the world vary from one society to another; the
use of the word “tsunami” - when one wishes to use it in other
languages - will therefore vary as well. But, in all cases, it cannot be
reduced to objective conditions; it cannot be conflated with the term
“tidal wave”. Or, indeed, this would be to deny this other way of
evaluating the social vulnerability which does not consist of “natural”
phenomena, on the one hand, and “cultural” phenomena, on the other
hand, but a “mesological” modality where nature and culture form an
inseparable couple which, like all couples, seeks to coexist ( kyôson )
together (and not separately).
7.6. Conclusion
Meaning is never clear and never attained, particularly where
taking account of catastrophes is concerned. It is only possible to
render them “sane”, that is to say acceptable to the degree that one can
continue to exist and to wish to live. The main challenge of the human
milieux is twofold: physical and mental self-preservation. But the
cosmologies vary: some consider bodily wounds to be more
fundamental than moral outrages; others believe that abstract
problems are more dangerous than material disorder. In all cases, the
challenge does not arise uniquely from a desire to know the general
(objective truth) or the one that an individual constructs (subjective
truth); the first challenge is to be able to live with the major disasters
with which the history of our milieu is dotted. The Japanese have a
culture that enables them to inhabit a highly seismic zone without this
affecting the foundations of their social consensus. The Amazonians
have a mode of life that accomodates annual flooding that covers five
times the built-up area of France, and this is not catastrophic. Each
society moulds the world in such a way that it appears as stable and
ordered, that is to say in such a way that the disasters that affect it
appear as sane.
The evaluation of vulnerabilities to and the impacts of a disaster is
a complex task in which it is sensible most of the time to temper any