“Temporal, temporal, allá viene el temporal”: Memory, Disaster, and Change in Puerto Rico

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Living Landscapes: Disaster, Memory, and Change in Dynamic Environments " session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As one of the oldest colonies in the world, Puerto Rico has developed diverse strategies to transfer knowledge about disasters and to stimulate community ties for social resilience. The impact of disasters and the memory of response are present in intangible heritage. An example of this is the song “Temporal” describing how to read the landscape for predicting the threat of a storm, the fear and anxiety linked to living through it, and the hope and uncertainty that comes after the storm has passed. This richness of knowledge can be a source of empowerment and resilience, but rapid change in multiple dimensions—landscapes, climate, biodiversity—complicate response. One first step for climate adaptation is the identification of hazards and risks. However, risks are culturally defined. Acceptable responses are codified in intangible knowledge within cultural identities. Therefore, the past is an important resource in both perception of risk and the identification of solutions. In this presentation, we look at the archaeological record of the impact of storms and coastal erosion in Borikén, the largest island of the Archipelago of Puerto Rico, and consider how risk perception, memory, and knowledge transfer could be identified in the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Living Landscapes: Disaster, Memory, and Change in Dynamic Environments   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37106.0