Cultural adaptation and recovery following Hurricane Sandy

Cultural Adaptation Following Hurricane Sandy

Cultural Psychology and Adaption During Hurricane Sandy

The objective of this study is to examine Hurricane Sandy and the adaptation of the population through the lens of the psychological cultural adaptation model.

Cultural adaptation holds that evolutionary forces shape "innate genetically determined behaviors." (Boyd and Richerson, 2002) Stated specifically is the following:

"Culture profoundly alters human evolution, but not because culture is learned. Rather, culture entails a novel evolutionary tradeoff. Social learning allows human populations to accumulate reservoirs of adaptive information over many generations, leading to the cumulative cultural evolution of highly adaptive social institutions and technology. Because this process is much faster than genetic evolution, it allows human populations to evolve cultural adaptations to local environments, an ability that was a masterful adaptation to the chaotic, rapidly changing world of the Pleistocene." (Boyd and Richerson, 2002)

Stated is that the idea of cultural adaptation is such that they do not "arise gradually as they do in genetic evolution. New symphonies don't appear bit by bit as a consequence of the differential spread and elaboration of slightly better and better melodies. Rather they emerge from people's minds, and their functional complexity arises from the action of those minds. The same goes for aspects of culture -- art, ritual, and technology…" (Boyd and Richerson, 2002)

I. Cultural Adaptation

Cultural adaptation is examined in the work of Torrance (2002) and specifically that of Bacolor, Philippines following typhoons. The location was devastated with 10,000 people staying 36 hours on rooftops exposed to the elements without food or water. For the determined who resettled this area, houses were adapted by raising them up on stilts. This is just one example of cultural adaptation following a disaster. Houses on the Gulf of Mexico are largely situated on stilts and this is true for many structures on the southern coast of the United States. Cultural adaptation can be seen in the type of clothing worn in a particular region or by the lack of clothing worn in a particular region. Cultural adaptation has many aspects that are instituted by a culture when the need to adapt arises.

III. Cultural Adaptation of Work Methods and Relaxation of Rigidity

It is reported in Time Business and Money that a lesson learned from Hurricane Sandy is one that was needed in today's work environment. Bacevice (2012) states "Resilience was on display in New York City this past week. Subways and commuter trains ground to halt, leaving people with few transportation options throughout the region. Many employees made it to work anyway. A maintenance employee at the New School, where I lecture part-time, amazingly walked from his home in Queens to the West Village campus to help get facilities back online for students." Bacevice states that individuals who are "categorized as 'knowledge workers,' very rarely have a need to be "physically present at any specific workplace." (2012) Bacevice goes on to state as follows:

"Considering how compromised the transit systems and urban infrastructure have been in the metropolitan area recently, I have to wonder whether we could have avoided some of the mess if organizations and employers had adopted flexible work practices that give employees more control around how, where, and when they do their work. If widespread flexible work structures were in place, fewer employees would have felt the need to get to work. By leaving the region's roads, buses, and trains mostly to the workers who truly needed them, it's arguable that the recovery efforts in our community would have been simplified. It's also arguable that people would have been able to get more work done, considering all the time they wouldn't have spent commuting." (Bacevice, 2012)

Bacevice holds that for individuals in careers that disruption and failure result in critical results, "flexible work practices are another way to build resilience in organizations. The slack given to employees enables them to adapt to disruptions and adverse conditions. Over the course of the past week, I was able to continue with business as usual because I had my laptop, VPN connection, multiple mobile phones, and the flexibility to focus on results rather than "face time" or the need to travel back and forth to any specific workplace. These tools enable me to work from anywhere." (2012)

Summary and Conclusion

It is certain that cultural adaptation arises out of need hence the old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention…." (author unknown). It is certain that humankind has the potential to rise to just about any occasion and to cope through adaptations to the normal or traditional methods and processes and this was true in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy as well. Cultural adaptation is a framework that assist in the understanding of how human beings cope in times of crisis and disaster and illustrates a cultural evolution capacity to not only survive but to flourish in the face of disaster and defeat.