Merapi and Its Dynamic 'Disaster Culture'

The deep time depth of human life near Merapi volcano in Central Java and complex engagement of residents with a very dynamic and sometimes dangerous environment has produced a rich body of oral traditions linked to geological phenomena. Merapi is both a geophysical entity and a mythical one for those who live near it and plays an important cosmological role as part of a sacred axis that connects the volcano to the seat of power in the Yogyakarta palace (kraton) and the Southern Sea. Interdisciplinary research that entwines geosciences with social science considerations is important when considering any volcanic context but in the Merapi context it is requisite. The social importance of volcanism in Javanese contexts became increasingly relevant from the advent of modern scientific assessments beginning in the eighteenth century. These interpretations were at times catastrophism-tinged, however, and reliant upon an eruption date now interpreted as apocryphal. Advances through contemporary scientific studies convey nearly real-time seismic data and webcam imagery to residents and use tomography, drone photogrammetry, and other new ways of visualizing and imaging volcanic processes, events, and structures. Contemporary scientific research is also increasingly explicit in acknowledging the importance of oral traditions as potential artifacts of carefully observed geological events that helped past people understand and mitigate hazards. These oral traditions, still prevalent, can also help convey information to local residents. The stories told about Merapi are not epiphenomenal to scientific understanding of it, but instead, they can aid culturally embedded communication to potentially prevent loss of human life.