Collaborative Research: An Integrative Study of Vulnerability and Cultural Response to Hurricane Hazards Among Indigenous Populations on the Miskito Coast of Honduras and Nicaragua

合作研究：洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜米斯基托海岸土著居民对飓风灾害的脆弱性和文化反应的综合研究BCS-0452399 Kam-Biu Liu路易斯安那州立大学飓风是经常影响中美洲沿海地区的重大环境危害。例如，1998年，飓风米奇造成1万多人死亡，给洪都拉斯、尼加拉瓜和加勒比邻国造成了约100亿美元的损失。然而，到目前为止，还没有研究评估该地区对飓风袭击的社会脆弱性。该项目将审查洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜加勒比海沿岸在强烈飓风袭击中的脆弱性，以及米斯基托海岸不同族裔社区在近代和历史时期对飓风的文化反应。这项研究将使用古温学(通过地质代理技术研究过去飓风活动的新兴科学领域)中的地球科学技术来评估中美洲米斯基托海岸的飓风风险。洪都拉斯和尼加拉瓜的几个沿海湖泊将被取芯，沉积物中被淹没的沙层将被识别和测定日期，以产生第一个对米斯基托海岸强烈飓风袭击的长期记录。然后将使用人种学技术和参与性研究来构建过去30年来影响研究地区的选定飓风的口述历史和飓风破坏心理图。通过记录当地居民对飓风的文化记忆，这项研究将首次尝试将有关飓风影响的空间范围的人种学信息与地质替代证据联系起来，从而建立一种现代模拟，用于重建史前飓风影响并从古气象数据中破译古飓风强度。还将利用人种学和参与性研究来调查飓风脆弱性的人的层面，特别侧重于研究地区不同族裔人口(米斯基托人、加里富纳人、西班牙裔拉迪诺人、克里奥尔人)对飓风威胁的当地看法和调整战略。古温学证据将被纳入参与性研究框架，以教育和促进当地居民之间的合作对话。这项合作研究首次将古气象技术与人种学和参与性研究方法相结合，对米斯基托海岸灾难性飓风袭击的社会脆弱性和文化反应进行了全面评估。该项目将为中美洲和加勒比地区制作第一个灾难性飓风袭击的代理记录。这一记录对于破译“只有热带”飓风的时间和空间模式以及检验百慕大高压假说很重要。这项研究的人种学部分将通过提供有关拉丁美洲农村土著社区如何应对飓风灾害的第一批信息，对灾害文献作出重大贡献。以前的研究只涉及“现代”工业化社会，主要是北美的工业化社会。在这项研究中创新性地使用参与性方法将为其在综合社会和自然科学研究中的潜力提供一个范例。此外，这一研究课题还具有重大的社会意义。这项研究的结果对中美洲发展中国家的飓风危险评估和减灾具有重要的实际应用价值。关于飓风风险估计和不同族裔群体的文化反应的信息将有助于决策者和利益攸关方进行灾害规划和管理。

Collaborative Research: An Integrative Study of Vulnerability and Cultural Response to Hurricane Hazards Among Indigenous Populations on the Miskito Coast of Honduras and NicaraguaBCS-0452399Kam-biu LiuLouisiana State UniversityHurricanes are significant environmental hazards that frequently impact coastal areas of Central America. Hurricane Mitch, for example, caused over 10,000 deaths and wrought an estimated 10 billion dollars in damage to Honduras, Nicaragua, and neighboring Caribbean countries in 1998. However, no research to date has assessed the societal vulnerability of this region to hurricane strikes. This project will examine the vulnerability of the Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua to intense hurricane strikes and the cultural responses of different ethnic communities on the Miskito Coast to hurricanes during recent and historical times. This research will use geoscientific techniques in paleotempestology (an emerging field of science that studies past hurricane activity by means of geological proxy techniques) to assess the hurricane risk of the Miskito Coast in Central America. Several coastal lakes in Honduras and Nicaragua will be cored, and overwash sand layers in the sediments will be identified and dated to produce the first long-term record of intense hurricane strikes on the Miskito Coast. Ethnographic techniques and participatory research will then be used to construct oral histories and mental maps of hurricane damage for selected hurricanes that have impacted the study area in the last 30 years. By documenting local inhabitants' cultural memory of hurricanes, this research will be the first attempt to link ethnographic information concerning the spatial extent of hurricane impacts with geological proxy evidence, thus establishing a modern analog for reconstructing prehistoric hurricane impacts and deciphering paleohurricane magnitude from paleotempestological data. Ethnographic and participatory research will also be used to investigate the human dimension of hurricane vulnerability, with particular focus on local perceptions of hurricane threats and adjustment strategies among the different ethnic populations (Miskito, Garifuna, Hispanic Ladinos, Creoles) of the study area. The paleotempestological evidence will be incorporated into the participatory research framework to educate and to promote collaborative dialogue among local residents. This collaborative research is the first that integrates paleotempestological techniques with ethnographic and participatory research methods to produce a comprehensive assessment of societal vulnerability and cultural response to catastrophic hurricane strikes on the Miskito Coast. This project will produce the first proxy record of catastrophic hurricane strikes for Central America and the Caribbean region. This record is important for deciphering the temporal and spatial patterns of the "tropical-only" hurricanes and for testing the Bermuda High hypothesis. The ethnographic component of this research will make a significant contribution to the hazards literature by providing the first information on how rural indigenous communities in Latin America respond to hurricane hazards. Previous studies have only dealt with "modern" industrialized societies, and primarily those of North America. The innovative use of participatory methods in this research will provide an example of its potential in integrated social and physical scientific research. In addition, this research topic has major societal relevance. The results of this study have significant practical applications for hurricane hazard assessment and disaster mitigation in the developing nations of Central America. Information on hurricane risk estimates and cultural responses by different ethnic groups will be useful for decision-makers and stakeholders in disaster planning and management.