By Michelle Hines , University Relations
Posted 9-29-06
Dr. Arthur Murphy.
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Understanding how other cultures respond to natural threats such as active volcanoes can help us better assist both resident and immigrant populations in the U.S. when disaster strikes, according to two anthropology researchers at UNCG.
Dr. Arthur Murphy and Dr. Eric Jones have won a two-year, $195,369 National Science Foundation grant to study cultural issues that impact disaster response.
Murphy, department head for anthropology, and Jones, a postdoctoral fellow who received his degree from the University of Georgia, are embarking on an intensive study of communities in the Puebla of Mexico. The communities being studied are located on the eastern slope of an active volcano known as Popocatepétl, the Aztec term for “smoking mountain.”
Popocatepétl lay dormant for about 100 years, Murphy said. About 15 years ago it began to show activity again, spewing ash. An eruption would be deadly for the people living and farming on its slopes.
Murphy wants to know how these communities envision their relationship to this “monster” volcano, how they envision an evacuation and what kinds of social networks exist there to manage recovery after evacuation.
“My particular interest in this came through a colleague at Dartmouth Medical School, a psychologist who studied recovery in South Florida after Hurricane Andrew,” Murphy said. “She found some differences there in the reactions of Latinos.”
Identifying those differences has important implications for disaster planning in the U.S., he stressed. “That’s where we got the idea to study populations in their home countries. For example, you can better understand the special needs of Latinos. What resources do people draw on in their home country in their own cultural milieu? If you really want to put a preparedness plan together, you have to know about what those are.”
Murphy began his research in the mid-1990’s by studying floods and landslides in Mexico. Murphy and Jones also have studied the impact of natural disasters in both coastal and Appalachian North Carolina. His future plans for the long-term project also include studies of communities in Ecuador, where the volcanoes are much more active and where the civil defense system is less highly developed than in Mexico.
“I’m interested in how culture impacts the way people deal with disasters and perceive them,” Murphy said. “There’s real potential for helping out there. But it’s not easily identifiable; it’s a long-term process.”
