Climate change and Social Pacts / Cambio Climático en los Contextos de Pactos Sociales
By Elizabeth Rahman and Marissa Gonzalez Scanlan - 8th November 2019
How do humans effect the weather? What are the ‘human drivers’ of climate change? We all think differently about our social responsibility for the conditions of our existence, including the climate conditions. In Fuerteventura, one of the Canary Islands, folktales relate a series of social pacts, with water, the sea and the wind and the islanders themselves, the Mahoreros. Some locals observe changes in the weather as due to irresponsible behaviours by people unaware of how human actions can effect the island's delicate ecosystem.
¿Cómo es que el ser humano afecta el clima? ¿Cuáles son los ‘conductores humanos’ del cambio climático? Todos tenemos una opinión distinta sobre nuestra responsabilidad social con respecto a las condiciones de nuestra existencia, incluyendo las condiciones climáticas. En Fuerteventura, una de las Islas Canarias, cuentos populares recuentan una serie de pactos sociales entre el agua, el viento, el mar y los mismos isleños, los mahoreros. Algunos locales piensan que el cambio climático en la isla es el resultado del comportamiento irresponsable de personas que no son conscientes de cómo sus acciones pueden afectar el ecosistema delicado de la isla.
Elizabeth Rahman is a social and medical anthropologist based at the University of Oxford. Her research interests include the anthropology of lowland South America, Rural Spain (Canaries), human capabilities, pedagogy, perinatal care, homegrown mindfulness techniques and a holistic interpretation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Elizabeth is a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI), Fellow of Oxford’s Fertility and Reproduction Studies Research Group (FRSG) and an anonymous reviewer of several leading anthropology and public health journals.
Marissa Gonzalez is an Archaeology and Anthropology undergraduate student at Keble College, University of Oxford, with a current interest in traditional sustainable practice, the anthropology of food, and cultural mixing/creolisation - particularly in Latin America and East/Southeast Asia