11
‘If we possess
our why of life
we can put up
with almost
any how ’.
F r i e d r i c h Ni etz s c h e
If disaster interventions do not
consider the role of religion they
are missing a very important point.
SO says DR Claudia Merli, an anthropologist at Durham
University who has witnessed firsthand how people use
religious ideas to frame disasters in an attempt to put
order back into their lives.
Despite the secular views of those who inhabit the richer,
more developed and technologically advanced parts of the
world, religion still plays a fundamental role within societies.
Religion influences what many people wear, what language
they speak, the food they eat and most of all how they
perceive the world. In times