In different eras, civil and religious authorities have sought to respond to requests for help from the victims of environmental disasters, with the aim of preserving social stability and maintaining political order. How these emergencies are dealt with is a revealing sign of the material, intellectual, communicative tools and dynamics of land governance. Most disaster studies have focused on large-scale episodes; instead, this contribution is about smaller events, seasonal cataclysms that struck locally and had no global resonance, but were no less important from the perspective of those who were victims. The essay examines the pleas that peasants and communities sent to the government and landowners for relief of various kinds during different scourges: storms, cattle epidemics, river flooding, and even passage of armies. Environmental disasters risked causing land abandonment and emigration, and breakdown in consolidated social relations; a favorable response to appeals resulted in a portrayal of kingship and superiors as authorities deeply involved in the misfortunes of their subjects and pandered to communication strategies that made it possible to cope with the disruption caused by the disaster, to reestablish forms of coexistence inspired by normality, and to strengthen social bonds while remaining within the framework of tradition.
Gestione e rappresentazione delle calamità naturali nelle comunità tra XVII e XVIII secolo / A. Dattero - In: Cum tucte le tue creature : La natura e i suoi regni tra idea e rappresentazione (secoli XVI-XX) / [a cura di] C. Coletti, P. Capitanucci, S. Petrillo, A. Serra. - Napoli : Guida, 2024 Jan. - ISBN 979-12-5563-114-9. - pp. 411-430
Gestione e rappresentazione delle calamità naturali nelle comunità tra XVII e XVIII secolo
A. Dattero
2024
Abstract
In different eras, civil and religious authorities have sought to respond to requests for help from the victims of environmental disasters, with the aim of preserving social stability and maintaining political order. How these emergencies are dealt with is a revealing sign of the material, intellectual, communicative tools and dynamics of land governance. Most disaster studies have focused on large-scale episodes; instead, this contribution is about smaller events, seasonal cataclysms that struck locally and had no global resonance, but were no less important from the perspective of those who were victims. The essay examines the pleas that peasants and communities sent to the government and landowners for relief of various kinds during different scourges: storms, cattle epidemics, river flooding, and even passage of armies. Environmental disasters risked causing land abandonment and emigration, and breakdown in consolidated social relations; a favorable response to appeals resulted in a portrayal of kingship and superiors as authorities deeply involved in the misfortunes of their subjects and pandered to communication strategies that made it possible to cope with the disruption caused by the disaster, to reestablish forms of coexistence inspired by normality, and to strengthen social bonds while remaining within the framework of tradition.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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