Embodied narratives of disaster

The expression of bodily experience in Aceh, Indonesia

Bibliographic Data

ID2252884
AuthorsAnnemarie Samuels (0000-0002-7379-5591, Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology Leiden University P.O. Box 9555 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume22
Issue4
Pages809-825
Publication date2016-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-0987 • E-ISSN: 1467-9655
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9655.12493
OpenAlexW2525483884
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited38

The devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004 caused massive destruction to coastal Aceh, Indonesia, and left countless numbers of people dead or wounded. This article focuses on the embodied narratives of three Acehnese women who survived the disaster and, like many others in Aceh, told their stories 'through' their bodies. A detailed ethnographic account of their narratives reveals how the body stretches temporally between the 'narrated event' and the 'narrative event', both through the representation of the body in narratives and through the embodied performance of narratives. Moving beyond meaning-centred analyses of narratives, I argue that the central accomplishment of these narratives is that they convey poignant bodily experiences to others and thereby create a shared, post-disaster, world. Ultimately, through these embodied narratives of disaster people remake their world, with others, in the wake of its 'unmaking

Aesthetics · Art · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Ethnography · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Asian Studies and History · Disaster Management and Resilience · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology

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