Cultural Responses to Natural Changes such as Climate Change

Abstract

Research is steadily progressing on human responses to natural changes such as climate change, both with regard to such changes in historical as in prehistoric periods. We are, moreover, coming to a better understanding about the role of vulnerability and of institutional structures in relation to appropriate coping behaviours in the face of such environmental changes. The question concerning the cultural factors in vulnerability due to such natural changes has been little considered to date. Specifically, it is imperative to clarify how beliefs, values, practices and habits interact with the behaviour of individuals and collectivities that have to confront drastic natural changes. Ultimately, it is necessary to come to a better understanding of those values that have inter-cultural validity and may be useful in generating the necessary conditions to so that marginalised groups in our own and other societies my obtain the support which they need to adapt to such changes. In the following I discuss a case of particular cultural responses to natural changes drawn from the experience of the Alaska Tlingit and the Yukon First Nations.

Keywords

• adaptation
• cultural responses
• culture
• natural change
• values
• vulnerability