Lessons from catastrophe: Risk Management in Oral Societies
(2022) Living with Seismic Phenomena in the Mediterranean and beyond between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: — ISBN: [9781803272368], p. 436, published
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Lancini, Loredana 
- Abstract
- Knowledge about periodic catastrophe in oral societies, representing a form of risk management, was accumulated and communicated for sometimes thousands of years. Three thematic examples are discussed. First, the use of ‘storytelling’ in oral societies was largely for pragmatic reasons ; only in literate contexts has storytelling become culture-defining and a form of entertainment. In oral societies, storytelling was supplemented by art and performance to ensure that practical information about risk history was comprehensively communicated across generations. Second, many oral societies occupying regions with geographically-bounded risks (like active volcanoes or exposed coasts) developed place-avoidance protocols that kept people away from dangerous areas – an effective form of risk management. Third, growing evidence suggests that many oral societies developed ways of recognizing precursors of disaster (especially earthquakes and volcanic eruptions) that allowed people to remove themselves from danger zones before catastrophe occurred. Both modern (literate) and oral societies had comprehensive systems of risk planning and management that enable them to survive periodic catastrophe. Understanding and combining approaches is helpful to future risk management
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Lancini, L., Nunn, P., & Compatangelo-Soussignan, R. (2022). Lessons from catastrophe: Risk Management in Oral Societies. In Rita Compatangelo-Soussignan, Francesca Diosono, Frédéric le Blay (ed.), Living with Seismic Phenomena in the Mediterranean and beyond between Antiquity and the Middle Ages: (p. p. 436). Archaeopress. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/239642