Insights from culturally-grounded knowledge (myth and legend) for improving understanding of volcanic phenomena: a case study from Fiji (Southwest Pacific)
(2021) 6th International Landscape Archaeology Conference — Location: Madrid (8.June.2021)
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- Authors
Lancini, Loredana 
- Abstract
- Every society all over the world possess a reservoir of Myths and legends. Even if for a long time they have just been dismissed by scientists as fictional and entertainment novels, they are many which are culturally grounded. Remarkably, there are some myths and legends in which we can recognize an environmental account, in which we can find the traces of an ancient memory and awareness, which provide the means to explain, analyze and understand the world. The myths I am talking about are the ones that are presumed to take their origin in historical persons and events, according to the theoretical approach that defines Geomythology, a modern perspective to the study of myths and legends that was first introduced by the geologist D.B. Vitaliano in her pioneering book “Legends of the Earth: their geologic origins” (1973). In this book she first employs the term Geomythology, which “seeks to explain certain specific myths and legends in terms of actual geologic events that may have been witnessed by various groups of people”. Geomythology suggests therefore that some myths can refer to natural phenomena and that people have tried to leave a tangible trace of real events considered worth to be remembered, such as natural catastrophes, in mythological accounts for their evocative and suggestive power. It is the study of myths and legends describing natural catastrophes or particular features of the environment as possible sources of historic information and real actual geologic observation, beyond the fictive and narrative embellishments.
- Affiliations
Citations
Lancini, L. (2021). Insights from culturally-grounded knowledge (myth and legend) for improving understanding of volcanic phenomena: a case study from Fiji (Southwest Pacific). 6th International Landscape Archaeology Conference, Madrid. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/239665