A personal narrative, by Lala St. Fleur.
I used to live in Upstate New York, in a house with the Susquehanna River right in my backyard. In 2011, Tropical Storm Lee struck the east coast, the hurricane bringing heavy rains that flooded the Susquehanna, and all surrounding areas in New York and Pennsylvania alike. A state of emergency was enacted for my county and all others impacted by the Susquehanna, as our homes were all flooded in several feet of water. My family had to drive several counties over to find a cheap hotel that still had rooms, where we stayed for over a week to wait for the storms to pass and the waters to recede.
FEMA was called in, and inspected our house, but the relief money they gave us didn’t come close to covering the total damages and expenses. And no amount of money in the world would replace the priceless things lost; I used to be a hobbyist who drew and sketched, and all of the work I had done over the years was ruined. My family and I left Upstate NY in 2012, saying good riddance to that water-logged house and that river that had taken so much from us. We moved to NYC…only to be greeted by Hurricane Sandy that same year.
I am well aware of the very real dangers and consequences of climate change, global warming, and rising sea levels. I’ve waded up to my waist in river muck in my basement, struggling to wrap the fuse box and water heater in plastic and blankets as the water rose, only to toss everything down, grab whatever essentials we could pack into our car, and book it to drier, safer high ground.
I decided to enroll in college in 2014. At CUNY’s Brooklyn College, I chose an archaeological anthropology major with a double minor in history and classics. I worked on several projects examining the ways that the ever-changing natural environment shapes prehistoric, historic, and contemporary societies, with a focus on the cultural impact of ancient religious traditions. This included my creation of an ArcGIS Story Map that digitized major Natural Disasters of Ancient Japan (specifically: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis), from the Kofun Period to the Tokugawa Shogunate, which I made during junior year. I was increasingly fascinated about how everything from Japanese religious practices and mythological deities, to architecture, city planning, and government policy were influenced if not directly derived from their understanding of natural cycles and forces. And so, for my undergraduate senior thesis paper, I expounded upon that topic by writing about Japan’s cultural, economic, and political responses to geological events and disasters, from the prehistoric Jōmon and Yayoi periods up to the modern Tōhoku Disaster of 2011.
By looking at the ways that the Japanese peoples have reacted to geological changes for well over 10,000 years, it helped put things into perspective for me about the endless challenges societies face in response to geological events. But there are also equally endless possible solutions that await discovery as those events continue to be researched, so that potential crises are mitigated.
Now pursuing my master’s degree at the CUNY Graduate Center, in the MALS program’s archaeology track, my research has become further grounded in religious and environmental studies. I primarily use geomyths (mythology pertaining to geological phenomena) as my main source of inspiration for academic analysis and inquiry about the relationships between people and the (super)natural world around us.
I am currently working on my master’s thesis, which examines various topographical features and archaeological sites throughout Greece that have long been believed to be the entrances to the underworld, Hades.
I enrolled in the MALS 78500 course on Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Climate Change in order to further my education about climate change, its history, and its future. For my final project, I hope to incorporate paleoclimatology into discussions about how humans have reacted to geological events, and how the planet has reacted in kind to human intervention.
Your GIS story map of ancient Japanese natural disasters is fascinating! I love that your focus is at the intersection of religious/cultural studies and climate. When I was an undergrad at Queens College, I took an environmental literature course and for my thesis, I compared the freshwater crisis and water privatization to ancient religious practices where water was thought to be a sacred element. I concluded that the freshwater crisis and water privatization shows our spiritual decay and how we are attempting to play god in a way. Your personal experience with hurricanes is also very interesting. I’m always curious about the impressions the environment we live in leaves in our psyche. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! Environmental literature is right down my alley, yes. Which religious practices did you look at, if you don’t my asking. I came across the same conclusion in my Story Map & undergrad thesis, where the Japanese also thought that their earthquake-tsunamis and volcanic eruptions were a sign of moral and spiritual decay, going all the way back to Shinto, Nichiren, and the Namazu. My family’s from down south, and considered “old-timey” when they say people aren’t praying enough when disasters strike.
I looked at several religious practices! Here are some that I mentioned in my thesis:
-how water is used in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious practices such as baptisms, prayers, etc.
-what water symbolizes in indigenous and aboriginal communities
-the Hindu belief that the Ganges river is holy
-the “great flood” mythology shows up in a few religions [Zoroastrian, Chrsitianity, Judaism, Hinduism, to name a few!]
Ah, love it! The Flood Myth in particular is always a great subject when it comes to looking at the history of climate change, going all the way back to Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim, and how ancient societies respond culturally, spiritually/religiously to catastrophic (super)natural events.
Great personal narrative that weaves together a lot! The intersection of religion and paleoclimatology is such a fascinating topic! I found Hansen’s Chapt. 8 on paleoclimatology to be a gripping narrative! There is not enough historical work like this being done on climate. I firmly believe that we need to learn from the past rather than try to just invent our way out of this crisis.
Thank you for your powerful narrative. I was able to link the methodology of your post with your course of study, through the lens of historiography. You link your own life to the changes in the environment and in a way, you also do the same with your research, relating archaeology with Climate Change.
As someone whose family also suffered through Sandy, I completely understand the trials and tribulations your family was put through and can appreciate the power of contextualizing personal narrative around the larger suffering of the world.