2 Video Views·Dec 4, 2023
Cultural theory of risk, Mary Douglas, taxonomic anomalies, Hima tribe, Typology of social structure, egalitarian, Fatalists, individualistic, Michael Thomson.
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hello everyone welcome to the lecture
series on disaster recovery and build
back better this lecture we'll talk
about cultural theory of risk or
cultural perspective of risk I am Xu
Baggio Tisa mother from DPR I Kyoto
University
so we already discussed it in other
lectures about the role of culture in
responsive scenes here in this lecture
we will focus more what the cultural
theory is talking about people's risk
perceptions and how this is connected
with their cultural affiliation okay so
that was the book purely endangered by
Mary Douglas in 1960s 66 considered to
be a modern classic of anthropology
talking about the moral risk pollution
and danger okay and she was talking
about taxonomic anomalous dietary
restrictions in case of Jews Israeli
people who can cannot have pork or snake
as a food okay because they are
considered to be unclean like why they
are unclean because they are anomalies
so taxonomic animal is like snake the
leave on land but they don't have legs
so it's very rare so that's why you
should not eat snake similarly you
should not eat pork because they have
cloven hooves but they don't chew the
cud so unlike horse and cow so these are
clean who are anomalous so you should
not eat them similarly the other
examples like in case of Hema tribe in
Uganda they depend on animal husbandry
they depend on livestock
okay and that the female it is
considered that female they should not
touch these life stocks the very tribe
whose livelihood depends on animal
husbandry on depending on livestock
rearing they should not touch their
almond should not touch live stocks they
believe that if the woman they touch a
livestock the livestock will die so
similarly in case of the 14th century
Europe there was poor water quality was
already an issue for a very long time
but it came into kind of more out kind
of the people it is considered to be as
one of the critical concern and the
blame of these was given to the Jews
people because they were told that Jews
people are actually contaminating the
the water so they started to evict Jews
people in Europe so according to the
cultural theory of risk the allocation
of responsibility of Hazard event is
normal strategy for protecting a
particular set of values one culture
they define that this is right and this
is not good this is bad this is good
this is acceptable this is unacceptable
this is pure this is polluted ok so each
culture have their own values and
through their through these values
through this through this lens let's see
what is risky what is not risky what is
pure what is unpure ok and they
disseminate these informations among
their members now Mary Douglas was
saying that we need to have a kind of
categories of cultures
there we have many cultures but we can
group them categorize him she was
telling that we can do it through the
grid and group pattern we can categorize
the culture in order to analyze them
there why it is so why we need to have
grid group kind of system which will
come later
but why we need categories of culture
based on greed and group she published a
book in 1978 and claiming that the
traditional anthropologists
anthropological studies on culture they
are lacking any category of culture
therefore if you are studying some
culture in Africa you cannot compare
that when you are studying a culture in
Asia so the anthropologist are trained
in such a way that they do not
generalize their findings so they are
very localized contextualize their
findings so in order to reach to some
kind of generalizations we should try to
make categorizations of culture okay and
so she said that we can do it through
the model called greed and grouped to
categorize the culture to understand
people's mind now she is saying that we
can do this by taking two elements one
is whom one interact and how one
interact with so whom one interact is
considered to be grouped and how they
interact is considered to be grid okay
so grid group generally represent a
degree of social incorporation of the
individual this result how often I am
meeting someone how dense is the network
between the members of that group if I
am I am living in the neighborhood how I
am interacting with each of them am i
meeting them very frequently or very
rarely do I know everyone or do I know
some of them so how this
people are interacting with each other
what extent it depends on a group okay
so some groups are very flexible very
low
they have very less network less density
they often they seldom met and some are
very high okay
so low and we group like open-ended
interactions very infrequent limited
with specific purpose the reason of
people interacting in some neighborhood
people interact very rarely with each
other right or maybe they're very
competitive like the colleagues or
coworkers okay they do not working in a
hospital or working in a in a scroll or
working in a company they are very
competitive but they have very less
interactions face-to-face interactions
on the other hand we have high one which
are people are meeting with each other
like in the village
okay everybody knows everyone very
strong interactions and people depend on
each other services they have high
dependency and they've have share common
very strong solidarity okay like you can
see in the villages compared to our 180s
so this is one side we have a low group
and one on the side we have high group
two extreme group polarizing also we
have the grid okay
the grid represents that what kind of
rules and regulations
I should maintain I should follow when I
am a member of a particular group okay
that what are the constraints like if I
am a particular member of a particular
group will they allow me to have a
orientation of homosexual or will they
allow me to to have equal rights for the
for the omen so feminism our kind of
homosexuality how one see one group see
that is a kind of the rule of the group
some group permits some good some group
do
permit okay so it is a kind of law
hierarchy kinship race gender that how
it is viewed this is in a group this is
called greed okay so we have like low
grid where everybody is equal eagle
Ettore instead of Fes no one is
prevented to participate in any kind of
activities or social role depending
respective of their race gender age or
so forth everybody is considered to be
equal in other case where extreme we
have high great panel here here we can
see that people are restricted their
activities are restricted based on caste
creed class so access to social
activities depends on one or another of
these kind of discriminations people are
discriminated in this kind of situations
okay so group when law it is their
networks are radical or in high it is
interconnected in case of interactions
low groups are rare high groups are
frequent boundaries of interactions
among individuals in case of low group
is open and in case of high group is
closed shared groups like few high
groups or many in case of greed when the
greed is low that means in a particular
crew particular community particular
society the low and high is like
horizontal and vertical one is very
hierarchical one is very equal okay
specializations in low group it's very
little people are all have similar kind
of activities they don't have any
specializations in high group there is a
lot of specializations a lot of division
of labor people are divided segregated
and allocation of roles is like
achievement what you are what you have
achieved but in case of high it is like
ascribed what your father was what your
mother was whatever ancestor was you
become like caste system okay and
resource eggle allegations in case of
low grid it is like egalitarian
everybody is equal everybody has the
same opportunity but in case your
hierarchical the hike it is hierarchical
the some elite people have better access
there other people those who don't have
they have little access a little power
to exercise so if we put this low group
and it sorry group and greed into a
cross tabulations we can get four
categories one a b c d so if we move
from A to B to C we can say that from A
to D is is like individualistic and D is
kind of egalitarian and C is like Auto
relative some dictators are there and in
case of in case of a it is like little
classification and distinctions between
individuals are there they can nobody
it's
segregated or discriminated because they
are black because they are almond okay
and in case of C which is very
hierarchical okay every movement of
their social cultural personal movements
are restricted and ordered so we can
have this scenario you can see through
this picture that one in individualistic
one is egalitarian hierarchical and
authoritarian let's look at hierarchical
way of looking it's like a clearly
defined role if there is a strong
hierarchy somebody on the top and
somebody are bottom ok
they were very rigid clearly defined
role you can only do that like
caste system for example and feel
wealthy you have to say hello I am loyal
to you I will follow your order ok do
your king so there is a king there is a
subject and inequalities are prevailing
there so inequalities are fair and
deserve inequalities are
because people have different capacities
so that's why inequalities are justified
okay in case of individual it is
individualistic society or culture it's
very different according to its like
free
whoever can join whatever choice they
have they can pursue whatever like they
have enough freedom and people have no
mutual support because it's very
individualistic society you are what you
can do but I am NOT going to help you
anyway and interact with anyone you like
okay so you are free you can you can do
anything you want you can interact with
anyone you want you can be a homosexual
you can be a feminist you can be a
radical that's up to you unless and
until you are harming anyone so you were
open you were open to achieve anything
you want
in case of egalitarian it is like
everybody is equal without there is no
leader there is no variation based on
status and prestige
no one is okay and there are a lot of
solidarity's people help each other
between members okay and but there is a
problem that they believe they have a
very strong we feeling that this is we
and this is they so there is a
difference between that we and them okay
so us versus them mentality is there
like we can see in case of
hunter-gathering bands or some crimes of
communes and other one is the
authoritarian or panelist here is that
somebody there is a ruler life is
constrained by rule imposed by other
like defeated soldiers okay they have to
follow the order of the king and there
is no trust or cooperations this is just
dominating one person it's dominating
others okay so who are left to fend
themselves and like the slab as I said
are the prisoners
okay so each people of these groups
these four groups based on the grid grid
and group of these cultural groups or
cultural categories they look every
aspect of our social life in different
manner different values different lenses
different perceptions and opinions they
have so it is not the individual
biological characteristics that define
their values but which culture they
belong that matter for somebody is
eating with chopstick it's okay for
somebody it's a cultural shock because
it's eating by pork or knife or for
someone it is like no alcohol you should
not drink alcohol for Muslims example or
a foreign white skinned person is seen
in a part of Sri Lanka or South any
issues people are so surprised to see
this one
so because is that we have different
perspective of human features so Michele
Thompson in 1978 and he was trying to
say
using this cultural pattern that it is
not the cultural pattern that exists and
also this cultural pattern actually
through it defines that how people see
the risk okay how people see the risk
and so this is the cultural pattern we
discussed about one is very hierarchical
then we have ego literally and everybody
is equal
and individualist and authoritarian
right now each one see risk from
different perspective we will discuss
this here okay for the individualist
they believe that nature is like no
matter how much human disturb it it will
they can handle it nature can
handle it it is super-powerful so for
your own well-being for your own
achievement for your own success
you can utilize the nature as much as
you wish and okay them this meet of
nature shows that there is no need for
control or cooperations people are free
to use the nature so there is no risk
exist people can be left free to exploit
nature okay
because the bolt is a very competitive
society okay
everybody is free and their status is
based on ascribe status in case of
egalitarian which is kind of they see
that actually the it's very opposite of
the individualistic any they think that
that nature is very vulnerable any
little little mystic nature will come
crashing down okay like a ball balanced
on a hill if we just touch it it will
fall so we need a lot of control a lot
of control okay and cooperation is
necessary to protect yourself from that
kind of threat okay so so we have to
help each other to protect as ourself
from the from the threat of hazard so
from the trait of risk and then we have
hierarchical okay they believe that
nature can be exploited freely but there
is certain rules particular way they
define there is a limit of it okay
because this limit is put because they
have a very strict Authority so the
authorities or the higher people those
who have or the Kings are the top people
they know how to do it so they depends
much so expert can tell you what is
right and what is wrong the king can
tell you okay that what is right and
what is wrong and you have to follow
that extent so it is okay that you can
exploit them
but you cannot cross certain point cross
island boundaries okay
if you cross that one you are putting
the nature at risk and on the other hand
we have feral East there is no way to
foresee how nature will react to any
stimulus so they don't know what is them
what is the risk okay it is protected or
not so there is no point in fighting
over how to manage it
instead you should just try to roll with
the punches so you should go on so they
are the most vulnerable so here we look
at the attitude of to risk one is
individualistic the fear risk that would
limit the market and constraints their
ability to trade freely egalitarian use
the threat of catastrophic risk to
generate solidarity for example global
warming warming higher higher higher
kissed fear risk that would upset the
ranking of people okay for example crime
or social Debian's catalyst don't see
the point of fearing any risk it's not
like they can do anything about them so
we are talking about this that how how
one see different way of looking at at
the risk from their cultural perspective
so it is not that risk is objective and
his hazard dependent but it is more that
how people are culturally when oriented
how their perception values are met as
we see in each cases individuals
egalitarian hierarchy stand paralyzed
this idea was then little further
developed by Steve Rena he was talking
about politic concept of risk and that
in generally we considered risk is the
probability of an adversity
and the magnitude of his consequence
right
something will happen an adverse event
will happen and it has some consequences
but he is arguing that risk is risk ease
is more than that risk actually kind of
a kind of perceptions it varies from one
person to another
there is no one meaning in in risk is
more politic so he got this
philosophical idea okay
from with Jen's ten and four with the
region's ten he's asking that too for
you what is the meaning of a game okay
for if you look at the game you will not
see something that is common to all game
for example we have the game here three
four games one is and the cricket and in
the soccer and the chase and solitaire
okay so in the first part they all
consider to be a game but they have very
less similarities with each other for
example the cricketer soccers both are
11 players play for each team so they
have some similarities but from the
point of rules aims and strategies they
are quite different on the other hand
they are completely different from Chase
or solitaire in other sense that Chase
and solitaire are quite similar because
they both are played on board and the
both are not competitive as such okay so
there is a series of links that which
connect soccer cricket chess and
solitaire but there is no single feature
or that is enough or sufficient
condition to call it as a game right in
all this system of concept of formation
items one end of the chain that
constitute
a category need not to have any
conditions in common with those at the
other end that means that they all are
in a sense and that they have some
common commonalities but and like they
all are goal-oriented okay but that is
not only defining the characteristics of
the game game needs to be more
characteristics so one so they have some
similarities but they have also some
differences so one single feature of
anything is maybe sometimes necessary
but not sufficient condition to define
or to call it as game okay but similarly
the public does not care much about the
probabilities in choosing between two
course of action he is arguing when the
difference in probability are as small
as they are in most of the risk
management decisions so people don't
care when the probability is is let's
say high probability and high magnitude
there is no confusion people say okay I
accept the risk but in case of low
probability okay like radiation exposure
labels in medicine or permissible level
a possible carcinogen is genes in cancer
this kind of low probability event of
risk is very unclear to the people so
what people will do the life how they
will consider it as an accepted are not
accepted so he is offering that for that
we can have a kind of model which is
called TLC just liability and consent
okay so Polytechnic definition of risk
is that probability and magnitude that
is the traditional way of looking at
risk but that is not enough we should
add the TLC okay
this is the principle of trust liability
and consent are themselves also the
subject when we define that what is a
like in case of nuclear power plant that
if we want to tell people what should be
done we should consider this this TLC
concept okay so that's how the the
problem of the need for the plant why it
is necessary to have a nuclear power
plant so that should be defined and
agreed among the parties and who pays
for the plant we will take the liability
of it if something happened who will be
benefited out of it and who will take
the benefit of it so deeds should be
considered when we are defining the risk
and the management of the technology so
Trust is a very critical important point
when we are talking about this kind of
risk management so there are some
informations are giving and thank you
very much
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