How can social scientists enter disaster research as affected parties? The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the challenges and prospects of anthropological studies on disasters as a scientist who has experienced them in his home land. There are two contents of my talk. First I will explain the commissioned project on the intangible cultural heritage after the disaster in which I was coincidentally involved by the offer from the local government. It provides a way to reevaluate the salvage concept positively in the context of disaster recovery.
In the second part, I will focus on the small-scale fishers, how they were damaged and rebuilt. While the government financial support was indispensable for the recovery, the local socio-ecological system uncovered by anthropological perspective was a key for their sustainability. The related short ethnographic films will be shown.
• Hiroki Takakura is Professor of Social Anthropology at the Center for Northeast Asian Studies and Graduate school of environmental studies, Tohoku University, Japan. He has studied the human-animal relations and ethnohistory in Siberia. From the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami he also works on cultural heritage and disaster risk reduction.
Date and time: October 10, 2022, 5 p.m
Venue: Hindi Auditorium, Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies at Vilnius University, Universiteto Str. 5, Vilnius.