MULTISCALE HOME: Shifting Landscapes and Living-in-Movement in Haiti

• Published in: Cultural anthropology 2021-11, Vol.36 (4), p.548-555
• Main Author: NEIBURG, FEDERICO
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ayiti ak Karayib la; casas en múltiples escalas; catástrofes naturales; Cholera; Colloquy; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Crises; desastres naturais; dezas natirèl; Diaspora; Haiti and the Caribbean; Haiti e Caribe; Haití y Caribe; kay an plizyè echèl; Landscape; lavi an mouveman; Livelihood; living‐in‐movement; mobilidade e diáspora; Mobility; mobility and diaspora; moradia em múltiplas escalas; movilidad y diáspora; multiscale housing; natural disasters; Pandemics; Tragedy; vida em movimento; vida en movimiento
• ISSN: 0886-7356; 1548-1360
• DOI: 10.14506/ca36.4.02

In January 2010, a catastrophic earthquake ravaged Haiti. In areas such as Port-au-Prince, the tragedy was compounded by an ensuing cholera outbreak. Here, conditions of prolonged crisis illuminate people’s resilient house-ing responses at the intersection of two dynamics: the vital relational character of Haitian houses and the necessity of mobility for producing new life. Rooted in the Haitian post-plantation world, the house (kay) does not constitute a bounded space but is rather realized conceptually and materially at diverse scales: people belong to many interdependent houses and houses belong to many interrelated people, sutured across space and time and between the living and the dead. In the wake of the 2010 disaster, and now amid the COVID-19 pandemic, new challenges and opportunities have arisen for diasporic families as they craft ways to enact and secure multiscale forms of livelihood. Nan mwa janvye ane 2010, yon tranbleman tè vyolan te frape Ayiti. Nan kèlke zòn tankou Pòtoprens, kapital la, trajedi a te vin agrave akòz yon epidemi kolera. Kriz pwolonje sa a montre detèminasyon moun yo nan yon entèseksyon ki gen ladan l de dinamik: 1) youn ki montre karaktè relasyonèl ak vital kay ayisien yo; 2) lòt la ki konsantre l sou mouvman pou bay lavi a sans. Kay, ki gen rasin li nan mond apre peryòd plantasyon an, li pa sèlman yon espas ki separe ak yon fwontyè fizik, men konseptyèlman e materyèlman nan plizyè echèl: moun yo fè pati plizyè kay entèdepandan, epi tou kay yo apateni ak plizyè moun ki entèrelasyone, gras a lyen ke yo genyen ki limite nan espas ak nan tan, ant moun vivan yo ak sila ki mouri yo. Nan dezas 2010 la ak nan moman pandemi Kovid-19 la, fanmi yo gen nouvo defi ak opòtinite pandan y ap kreye nouvo mwayen nan plizyè dimansyon pou lavi ka kontinie. En enero de 2010 un violento terremoto devastó Haití. En zonas como la capital, Port-au-Prince, la tragedia se vio agravada por una epidemia de cólera. La crisis prolongada ilumina la resiliencia de las personas en la intersección de dos dinámicas: una, que señala el carácter relacional y vital de los hogares haitianos y, otra, que tematiza la movilidad para producir vida. Enraizada en el mundo de la post-plantación, la casa (kay) no es sólo un espacio delimitado por fronteras físicas, sino que se realiza conceptual y materialmente en escalas múltiples: las personas pertenecen a varias casas interdependientes y las casas pertenecen a varias personas interrelacionadas, en vínculos suturados