ABSTRACT

This paper tells a story about Mount Merapi, Indonesia, an active volcano with more than a million inhabitants. It looks at the relationships between a state-run scientific observatory and villages at the edge of the caldera. It discusses the ways in which different knowledge traditions intersect with each other. The scientific observatory in the lowlands conceives of the volcano according to relatively recent (since the late 1960s) modernist conceptions of the earth system. Impoverished farming communities long established near the caldera of the volcano practise a highly syncretic, much older, and inventive form of Islam that fuses animism with Hinduism and Buddhism. In their cosmos, volcanoes are spiritual beings. The earth is composed of human ancestry, nature is inseparable from culture, and matter is indistinguishable from morals. This paper is concerned with how we can make sense of these differences and disagreements about nature when the nature of the disagreement is about the fundamental make-up of the earth itself. It considers how knowledge traditions on Merapi transform each other, how scientists have been influenced by animism and Islam, and how animist farmers have been unexpectedly influenced by scientific notions of the substance of the earth. My proposal is that designers, policymakers, humanities, and social science scholars will benefit from thinking more about how knowledge traditions are shared and transform each other. Attending to multiple knowledge traditions in volatile environments creates opportunities for enhancing resilience between communities. It also provides insights into how communities understand the meaning of resilience in complex and multifaceted ways related to cultural and local natural histories. In order to meaningfully engage with communities, attending to the complex fabric of ideas and values that make up what it means to be resilient is urgently necessary.