The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective [Paperback]

Anthony Oliver-Smith (Editor), Susanna Hoffman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0415919878 | ISBN-13: 978-0415919876 | Edition: 1

This work takes a close look at disasters and the response of victims in the immediate aftermath and over the long-run. It demonstrates how disasters arise from human propensity to take risks which make them vulnerable to cataclysms, whether natural or technologically related. This collection is the first to adequately represent the cultural, historical and geographical scope and complexities of the problem of disaster. It introduces a range of perspectives and arguments, with compelling examples.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Angry Earth breaks new ground as anthropologists take a close look at disasters and the response of victims in the immediate aftermath and over the long-run. The book demonstrates how disasters arise from the human propensity to take risks that make people vulnerable to cataclysms, whether natural or technologically related and demonstrates how far anthropology has moved from models that assumed stasis and equilibrium. The Angry Earth should be read by all who deal with disaster situations. -- Elizabeth Colson, author of The Social Consequences of Resettlement
This collection is the first to adequately represent the cultural, historical and geographical scope and complexities of the problem of disaster. It introduces a range of useful perspectives and arguments, with compelling examples. One wishes such a collection had been available to help define the agenda for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, now ending. -- Kenneth Hewitt, author of Regions of Risk: a Geographical Introduction to Disasters and editor of Interpretations of Calamity
The Angry Earth will certainly help make disasters salient to students just coming to anthropology and, one hopes, move others across disciplinary boundaries toward new questions and new perspectives. Offering new and established scholars a promising framework for the new disaster social science now being written, this book belongs on all our reading lists. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, August 2000, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 347-349 This collection is the first to adequately represent the cultural, historical and geographical scope and complexities of the problem of disaster. It introduces a range of useful perspectives and arguments, with compelling examples. One wishes such a collection had been available to help define the agenda for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, now ending. -- Kenneth Hewitt, author of Regions of Risk: a Geographical Introduction to Disasters and editor of Interpretations of Calamity
The sixteen essays in The Angry Earth provide empirically fascinating, theoretically compelling, and often heart wrenching analyses of the constitution, effects and human experience of disasters... There can be no doubt that the essays in this volume are essential reading for those interested in hazards and disaster studies. -- Environments (U.K.)
The sixteen essays in The Angry Earth provide empirically fascinating, theoretically compelling, and often heart wrenching analyses of the constitution, effects and human experience of disasters... There can be no doubt that the essays in this volume are essential reading for those interested in hazards and disaster studies. -- Environments

About the Author

Anthony Oliver-Smith is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. He is author of The Martyred City: Death and Rebirth in the Andes (1986) and editor of Natural Disasters and Cultural Responses (1988). Susanna Hoffman is an anthropologist, filmmaker, and popular writer whose works include The Classified Man (1980) and the film Kypseli: Men and Women Apart--A Divided Reality (1974).

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415919878
• ISBN-13: 978-0415919876
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great material with drawbacks, December 5, 2010

By 

Jim Garlits "Jim Garlits" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective (Paperback)

My master's degree program in emergency management is using this text for our theory class. The only real drawback of the book? It is a rough manuscript in desperate need of an editor who speaks English and not academe. Want a couple of examples? This is Susanna Hoffman in the overview:

"It is from the interplay of these three planes that disasters emanate, and in their unfolding, THEY REIMPLICATE EVERY VECTOR OF THEIR CAUSAL INTERFACE."

English please!

Want another?

"The two discourses have greatly enlightened knowledge of the ..."

Is it possible to enlighten knowledge? Um, no. One can be enlightened with knowledge.

One more:

"The relevatory documents may not particularly concern disaster..."

Sorry, no such word exists in the English language. Something can be relevant, but not relevatory. Now, there are things in life that are revelatory, meaning they reveal something formerly unknown.

I'm only to page 5 in the book in the above examples. It doesn't get any worse, but I'm not sure it gets much better. The chapter by Sheets, "The effects of explosive volcanism on ancient egalitarian, ranked, and stratified societies in middle America" is so painful to read that I wanted to scratch my eyes out. The data contained in the chapter is worth knowing, but holy cow, Payson ... writing a chapter for a book that will be read by those outside your tight knit group of secret decoder ring cronies is a lot more involved than writing for your decoder ring... You get the point.

Don't tell me that we can't expect everyone to be a novelist. Editing for publication is a learned skill; some excel and some never will. This book could be ten times better if it was edited for clarity by someone who knows how to do so. Clear communications is one of the foundation stones of emergency and disaster management and practice. Routledge, please ... hire some editors that can get the job done.

4.0 out of 5 stars An eye-opening perspective on disasters, December 4, 2011

By 

Dane Mom (Washington State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Angry Earth: Disaster in Anthropological Perspective (Paperback)

Yes, there are labored passages in this book. One of the editors, who likes to string together 25 cent words in cumbersome ways, is difficult to read. She has a few essays in the book and they were my least favorite parts of the book.

Fortunately, it is a collection of essays from different authors and most of them are well written. Additionally, the research and theories presented were eye-opening for me. I am a new student to emergency and disaster management and now have a new appreciation for the social aspects of disaster. As many in the field argue, a disaster cannot occur without a social component; understanding how factors of race, religion, gender, culture, and class contribute to disasters is critical.