Beyond Naturalism: From perception to reception in the local population's understanding of climate change in Cuba

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The scientific discourse on climate change encounters populations with non-naturalistic world conceptions, which shape the local understanding of this global environmental problem. While much research has been focusing on the observation (perception) of climate change impacts, few studies have been undertaken to understand the emic interpretation of climate change and the local reception of naturalistic notions of climate change. This project will focus on interpretations and receptions of climate change by Afro-Cuban religions, their conceptions of life and the environment. Natural phenomena, which science detects as the effects of climatechange, are differently conceived as energies of divine or spiritual forces by religious priests and their followers. The dynamics of the encounter of the natural sciences' climate discourse and religious conceptions in Cuba are at the center of this project and will provide new emprical data on local attitudes to climate change and theorize the intersection of different conceptions of the world and their ontological axioms.