ABSTRACT

Gunung Merapi (Mountain of Fire) is the guardian of a cosmogonic-sacred landscape, and one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Its eruptions are well studied, however, the relationships among ritual, science, protection and grassroots disaster management arising after the 2006 and 2010 eruptions are mostly overlooked. This paper fills this gap in the literature, through qualitative research that explores local perceptions and places respiratory protection in a larger ecology of protective practices during, and after, volcanic crises. In a previous study, 99% of respondents in Yogyakarta used masks to protect from inhaling volcanic ash. In order to understand the respiratory protective practices developed, in the last decade, to cope with Merapi's eruptions, we need to engage with the emergence of the local volunteer-led grassroots monitoring systems. Although these networks were formalised by agencies, they were originally set-up in a bottom-up fashion to respond to pyroclastic flows and other life-threatening volcanic hazards. Our research found that they play a key role in the distribution of masks and respiratory health narratives, thus influencing the wide adoption of certain types of respiratory protection. Disaster management agencies, village heads, ritual experts and volunteers participating in these monitoring networks share spiritual signals (dreams) and scientific ones (seismic data, health narratives) and masks as part of their response to volcanic crises. Our findings about these Merapi networks challenge dominant assumptions in the Disaster Risk Reduction literature that tend to equate building resilience with the substitution of problematic ‘cultural beliefs' for ‘scientific facts’.

摘要

Gunung Merapi（火山）是宇宙起源圣地的守护者，也是世界上最危险的火山之一。它的喷发得到了很好的研究，但是，人们大多忽视了 2006 年和 2010 年喷发后出现的仪式、科学、保护和基层灾害管理之间的关系。本文通过定性研究填补了文献中的这一空白，该研究探索了当地的看法，并将呼吸保护置于火山危机期间和之后的更大范围的保护措施生态中。在之前的一项研究中，日惹 99% 的受访者使用口罩来防止吸入火山灰。为了了解在过去十年中为应对默拉皮火山喷发而发展起来的呼吸保护措施，我们需要参与当地志愿者主导的基层监测系统的出现。尽管这些网络是由机构正式建立的，但它们最初是以自下而上的方式建立的，以应对火山碎屑流和其他危及生命的火山灾害。我们的研究发现，它们在口罩的分发和呼吸系统健康叙述中发挥着关键作用，从而影响某些类型呼吸系统保护装置的广泛采用。参与这些监测网络的灾害管理机构、村长、仪式专家和志愿者分享精神信号（梦想）和科学信号（地震数据、健康叙述）和面具，作为他们应对火山危机的一部分。