Anthropology in humanitarian assistance: Volume 4

This book introduces the role of anthropology in humanitarian crises. From an anthro-pological standpoint, disasters represent radical disruptions that challenge the existing social and cultural orders, including those of the helpers.

Attempts to understand the lives of societies and, in the present sphere, the acti-vating mechanisms and effects of conflict and catastrophe, are expressed through very different approaches. Some favour a specific theme, based on specific technical know-ledge, whether in a legal, economic or medical dimension. Other approaches, however, endeavour to unite these sectorial methods through a principal concern to emphasise the sequences, causal relationships and consequences of such phenomena. The geo-political approach and the anthropological approach are both of this nature.