The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi
This paper suggests how natural disasters may serve as the final propulsion for changes already taking place within a society. While focusing on shifts in human–non-human animal relations, this text also discusses their embedding in broader transformations of human–environment relations and the und...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Tartu Press
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Sign Systems Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/22509 |
| _version_ | 1797821320255242240 |
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| author | Muzayin Nazaruddin Riin Magnus |
| author_facet | Muzayin Nazaruddin Riin Magnus |
| author_sort | Muzayin Nazaruddin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This paper suggests how natural disasters may serve as the final propulsion for changes already taking place within a society. While focusing on shifts in human–non-human animal relations, this text also discusses their embedding in broader transformations of human–environment relations and the underlying economic and cultural change. It carves out interspecific dependencies that constitute an agro-ecosystem and follows their demise as the agricultural species are switched to market economic production in a post-disaster context. It thereby suggests that the human-facilitated semiotic fitting of the agricultural species is replaced by human-imposed fitting in which the species composition is largely determined by the market prices. At the same time, the paper draws attention to the cessation and transformation of human–non-human communication as a marker, but also an experiential corollary, of modernization and market economy. As a case study, it focuses on the 2010 Mt. Merapi eruption in Indonesia and its aftermath in the villages on its slope. The study analyses how the shift from using plough buffalo to utilizing market economic cattle farming reflects not just an economic, but also an affective and semiotic change stemming from a shift in the intensity and kind of human–animal relations.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T09:50:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d428c7ede364479eaf16e21f545747cf |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1406-4243 1736-7409 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T09:50:26Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | University of Tartu Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sign Systems Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-d428c7ede364479eaf16e21f545747cf2023-05-24T12:33:09ZengUniversity of Tartu PressSign Systems Studies1406-42431736-74092023-05-0151110.12697/SSS.2023.51.1.06The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. MerapiMuzayin Nazaruddin0Riin Magnus1Department of Semiotics, University of TartuDepartment of Semiotics, University of Tartu This paper suggests how natural disasters may serve as the final propulsion for changes already taking place within a society. While focusing on shifts in human–non-human animal relations, this text also discusses their embedding in broader transformations of human–environment relations and the underlying economic and cultural change. It carves out interspecific dependencies that constitute an agro-ecosystem and follows their demise as the agricultural species are switched to market economic production in a post-disaster context. It thereby suggests that the human-facilitated semiotic fitting of the agricultural species is replaced by human-imposed fitting in which the species composition is largely determined by the market prices. At the same time, the paper draws attention to the cessation and transformation of human–non-human communication as a marker, but also an experiential corollary, of modernization and market economy. As a case study, it focuses on the 2010 Mt. Merapi eruption in Indonesia and its aftermath in the villages on its slope. The study analyses how the shift from using plough buffalo to utilizing market economic cattle farming reflects not just an economic, but also an affective and semiotic change stemming from a shift in the intensity and kind of human–animal relations. https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/22509human–non-human animal relationspost-disaster social changemodernizationpolitical ecologyanthropological zoosemioticssemiotic fitting |
| spellingShingle | Muzayin Nazaruddin Riin Magnus The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi Sign Systems Studies human–non-human animal relations post-disaster social change modernization political ecology anthropological zoosemiotics semiotic fitting |
| title | The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi |
| title_full | The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi |
| title_fullStr | The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi |
| title_full_unstemmed | The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi |
| title_short | The post-disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies: From talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of Mt. Merapi |
| title_sort | post disaster transformation of interspecies dependencies from talkative buffalo to desemiotized cows on the slope of mt merapi |
| topic | human–non-human animal relations post-disaster social change modernization political ecology anthropological zoosemiotics semiotic fitting |
| url | https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/22509 |
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