Book of Abstracts
Workshop Struggling Nations - Phrasing
Famines
University of Iceland, Reykjavik,
19-21 May 2016
First Workshop of COMPOT Research Project
Comprehending the Core by Peeling the Concepts:
Analyzing Famines in their Historical Contexts (COMPOT)
Att Förstå Kärnan genom Skalning av Begrepp:
Analys av Hungersnöd i deras Historiska Sammanhang
Contents
General information
Workshop ‘Struggling Nations - Phrasing Famines’
3
Programme of the Workshop
4
List of participants
7
Abstracts in alphabetical order by surname
Declan Curran and Mounir Mahmalat
8
Heli Huhtamaa
9
Guðmundur Jónsson
10
Árni Daníel Júlíusson
11
Aidan Kane
12
Axel Kristinsson
13
Kersti Lust
14
Tiina Männistö-Funk
15
Mats Morell
16
Timo Myllyntaus
17
Mats Olsson
18
Tirthankar Roy
19
Marten Seppel
20
Eric Vanhaute
21
2
Workshop Struggling Nations - Phrasing Famines
The two-day workshop will be held at the University of Iceland,
Reykjavik, 19–20 May 2016. The workshop is organized under the
auspices of the research project Comprehending the Core by Peeling the
Concepts: Analyzing Famines in Historical Contexts (COMPOT).
COMPOT is financially supported by The Joint Committee for Nordic
Research Councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS)
[http://www.nos-hs.org/].
The workshop in Reykjavik is COMPOT’s first meeting. The main goal of
this workshop will be to discuss various definitions and typologies of
famines. A reason for choosing this subtheme is that defining what
famine and related concepts are seems to be one of the greatest
challenges for famine historians.
Principal investigators of the project: Mats Morell (Sweden),
Gudmundur Jonsson (Iceland), Timo Myllyntaus (Finland), Tirthankar
Roy (UK), Marten Seppel (Estonia), and Declan Curran (Ireland).
Advisory Board of the project: Cormac O’Grada (Ireland), Enn Tarvel
(Estonia), and Antti Häkkinen (Finland)
Organizing committee of the workshop:
Timo Myllyntaus, University of Turku ([email protected])
Tiina Männistö-Funk, University of Turku ([email protected])
Gudmundur Jonsson, University of Iceland ([email protected])
3
Programme of the Workshop
Wednesday 18 May
Arrival at Reykjavik
18:00 – 19:00
Informal Welcome Party at the restaurant Slippbarinn, Myrargata 2,
in the city centre
19:00 – Dinner (at own cost)
Thursday 19 May
9:30 – 10:45
Session 1. Introduction to COMPOT Studies
Gudmundur Jonsson, Reykjavik:
Introduction Session: Welcome and Orientation
Timo Myllyntaus, Turku:
Outlines and Goals of the Project
10:45 – 11:15 Coffee break
11:15 – 12:45
Session 2. Defining Food Crises and Famines
Chair and commentator: Antti Häkkinen
Timo Myllyntaus:
Turku Categories of Food Shortages and Population Crises
Heli Huhtamaa, Joensuu:
Assessing the Role of Climate in Food Crises: Examples from
pre-industrial Finland (c. 1500–1800)
12:45 – 14:00 Lunch at the University’s canteen Hama
14:00 – 15:30
Session 3. Comparative Famine Studies
Chair and commentator: Andrés Eiriksson
Mats Olsson, Lund:
Famines in the Nordic Countries, AD 536–1875
Marten Seppel, Tartu:
Diachronic and Synchronic Comparisons of Baltic and Nordic Famines
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
4
16:00 – 17:30
Keynote Speech (Arnagardur Building, room 311)
Marten Seppel: Introduction
Eric Vanhaute, Ghent:
Famines in History. What Is There to Be Learned?
17:30 – 18:30
Reception, hosted by the UI’s Institute of History at Arnagardur Building,
4th floor
19:00 –
Dinner at Skólabrú restaurant, Pósthússtræti 17, in the city centre
Friday 20 May
8:30 – 10:30
Session 4. Famines, Environment and Historical Awareness in the North
Chair and commentator: Eric Vanhaute
Axel Kristinsson, Reykjavik:
The Haze Famine (1783 – 1785) in the Icelandic Historical Consciousness
Declan Curran, & Mounir Mahmalat, Dublin:
Interrogating the “Crisis-Reform” Hypothesis: A Case-study of Poor Law
Reform in Post-famine Ireland
Tiina Männistö-Funk, Turku:
Concepts of Famines, Concepts of Nations – Nationality, Politics and Social
Class shaping the Concept of Famine in the European Journalism
of the 1850s and 1860s
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee break
10:45 – 12:45
Session 5. Coping with Famines
Chair and commentator: Gudmundur Jonsson
Tirthankar Roy, London:
Contribution of State and Society to Famine Relief in India: A Survey of the
Literature
Mats Morell: Stockholm Responses to Crop Failures and Harvest
Fluctuations: National
and Local Levels. Swedish Examples, 1665-1845
Arni Daniel Juliusson, Reykjavik:
The Dearth of 1882-1888: Experiences and Understanding
5
12:45 – 14:00 Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30
Session 6. Quantifying and Classifying Famines
Chair and commentator: Declan Curran
Kersti Lust, Tartu:
How to Measure Sufferings? Demographic, Regional and Local Aspects of
Nineteenth Century Famines in Estonia
Gudmundur Jonsson, Reykjavik:
Towards a Typology of Subsistence Crises in 18th and 19th centuries
Iceland
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break
16:00 – 16:45
General Discussion on the Themes, Problems and Ideas of this Workshop
Chair: Mats Olsson, Lund
Opening Comments by Enn Tarvel, Tartu and Antti Häkkinen, Helsinki
17:00 – 18:00
Planning Meeting for Forthcoming Activities
Chairs: Timo Myllyntaus and Mats Morell
18:00 – 19:00 Break for relaxing and walking to the city centre
19:00 – 21:00
Dinner Downtown Seafood Grill Sjávargrillið, Skolavordustigur 14.
Saturday 21 May
9:00 – 17:30
Excursion “The Golden Circle”
Departure from the Hótel Ísland
Excursion is free of charge
19:00 –
Dinner Restaurant Matur og drykkur, Grandagarður 2, in the
city centre
Sunday 22 May
Departure from Reykjavik
6
List of participants
Paper presenters & commentators:
Declan Curran
Dublin City University
[email protected]
Antti Häkkinen
University of Helsinki
[email protected]
Heli Huhtamaac
University of Bern
[email protected]
Guðmundur Jónsson
University of Iceland
[email protected]
Árni Daníel Júlíusson
National Museum of Iceland
[email protected]
Aidan Kane
National University of Ireland
[email protected]
Axel Kristinsson
Reykjavik Akademia
[email protected]
Kersti Lust
University of Tartu
[email protected]
Tiina Männistö-Funk
University of Turku
[email protected]
Mats Morell
Stockholm University
[email protected]
Timo Myllyntaus
University of Turku
[email protected]
Mats Olsson
Lund University
[email protected]
Tirthankar Roy
London School of Economics
[email protected]
Marten Seppel
University of Tartu
[email protected]
Enn Tarvel
University of Tallinn
[email protected]
Eric Vanhaute
Ghent University
[email protected]
Andrés Eiríksson
University of Dublin
[email protected]
Ólof Garðarsdóttir
University of Iceland
[email protected]
Other participants:
Guðmundur Halfdanarson University of Iceland
[email protected]
Helgi Skúli Kjartansson
University of Iceland
[email protected]
Oskar Guðlaugsson
University of Iceland
[email protected]
7
Declan Curran and Mounir Mahmalat
Dublin City University
Ireland
Interrogating the “Crisis-Reform” Hypothesis:
A Case-study of Poor Law Reform in Post-famine
Ireland
This paper explores the extent to which socio-economic developments
in the aftermath of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1850) can be
regarded as a direct response to the famine onslaught, as opposed to
being part of the broader incremental socio-economic evolution of that
era which may merely have been expedited by famine-era distress.
Specifically, we analyse the reform of the Irish Poor Law in 1862 in
order to assess the imprint of famine experiences on this process. A
text analysis is undertaken on the following documentary material, in
which reference to the famine conditions of 1845-50 will be analysed:
(i) commission report prior to 1862 legislation; (ii) parliamentary
debates preceding the legislation; and (iii) contemporary commentary
in aftermath of the poor law reform.
This theme is particularly pertinent to one recent stream of economic
research which has formulated a “crisis-reform” hypothesis,
contending that economic crisis induces policy reform. Our paper
challenges this hypothesis, arguing that the persistence of economic
and social institutional structures has not been adequately
incorporated into this hypothesis. Methodologically, our paper
highlights the importance of case-study analysis to interrogate the
hypothesised “crisis-reform” process – an approach which has been
absent from the macro-level empirical “crisis-reform” studies.
More generally, we argue that research into the aftermath of famine
crises would be well advised to distinguish between post-famine
economic recovery and post-famine economic (or socio-economic)
reform: the former (which in the Irish case largely consisted of a
resumption of pre-famine trade and industrial patterns) may not be
indicative of the latter.
8
Heli Huhtamaa,
University of Eastern Finland and University of Bern
Finland / Switzerland
Assessing the Role of Climate in Food Crises:
Example from Pre-industrial Finland (c. 1500–1800)
It is widely agreed that famines are not “natural disasters” which are solely
caused by environmental factors or bad weather. However, famines and food
shortages have followed climate anomalies and extremes over the history. In
the Nordic countries, records of harsh climate and bad weather are found
beside the descriptions of hunger and struggle for survival from medieval
times until the 19th century – in the contemporary sources and latter
interpretations alike. Moreover, examples from the Nordic history are
commonly used to demonstrate the climate-driven societal change, crisis
and even collapse. Thus, the strong connection between climate and food
crisis, especially in the pre-industrial far north, appears to be almost an
established fact.
Yet, climate is a complex system. Prior the instrumental meteorological
observations (which are commonly available from the two most recent
centuries – at best) our knowledge of the fluctuations of this complex system
rely on paleoclimatological research. In paleoclimatology past climates are
reconstructed from indirect evidence (such as tree-ring, written document or
ice-core data) or modeled by computing the physical processes of the climate
system. These reconstructions and models include uncertainties and
discrepancies, which should be taken into consideration when exploring the
possible linkages between the past food crises and climate variability.
Nevertheless, if a food crisis has coincided with any climatic event indicated
by a paleoclimatological reconstruction or a model, every so often the crisis
and the climate event have been directly linked – by historians and
paleoclimatologists alike.
By focusing on pre-industrial Finland (c. 1500–1800), this paper discusses
some of the key concerns that emerge when exploring the role of climate in
food crises. How to identify, define and quantify the possible climatic impact
in famine and food shortage? In addition, the paper aims to pay attention to
the challenges that arise when the climate-society interactions are
conceptualized with the so-called cause-effect models. Furthermore, with the
climate-famine example, this paper aims to provoke discussion on the two
spheres of famine – the physical and the social, and how to consider these
both spheres in research, without understating the one or the other.
9
Guðmundur Jónsson,
University of Iceland
Iceland
Towards a Typology of Subsistence Crises in 18th and
19th Centuries Iceland
Contrary to most other European countries, Iceland experienced
population stagnation and even decline during the 18th century. This
adverse development is commonly linked to several major economic
and demographic shocks which had catastrophic effects on the
population. Subsistence crises became less severe during the 19th
century and their causes seem to have shifted from disease and
natural catastrophes to economic factors. This paper provides a survey
of subsistence crises in Iceland during the 18th and 19th centuries
using economic, demographic and climate data as well as the author’s
food supply estimates. We seek to identify the timing, character and
causes of the crises, and offer estimates of death tolls. A discussion
follows on the possible explanations for the elimination of subsistence
crises in the 19th century.
10
Árni Daníel Júlíusson,
National Museum of Iceland
Iceland
The Dearth of 1882-1888: Experiences and
Understanding
In the years 1881-1882, a rather scary situation developed in Iceland.
Sea ice gathered in spring 1881 and finally nearly surrounded the
country. The summer was bad and hay harvest, which was crucial for
the survival of the livestock, too. The winter of 1881-1882 was
problematic because of continuous storms, so the sheep could not be
grazed as usual. The final straw was a disastrous cold spell in late
spring, after a promising start. The result was a dearth that took hold
and was especially pronounced in the west and northwest of the
country, with near-famine or famine conditions in at least one county.
Reports were gathered and a distress signal sent to England,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the US. Soon help flowed in the form
of grain shipments, several hundred tons of grain bought with money
collected from the public of these countries.
A curious dispute soon erupted: An article appeared in The Times of
London pronouncing that the famine in Iceland was phony, the
situation was fine, with the other side pointing to obvious signs of
distress. Paradoxically, many thousand sheep were sold from Iceland
this very year to the British Isles; when this was pointed out the
defenders of the distress call said that the gold the sheep brought to
Iceland was crucial to the survival of the country. The next year was
better, thankfully, because a third year of this kind in a row would
certainly have caused famine. The cold spell continued until 1888;
then the danger was over.
In this paper, these events and disputes will be discussed, along with
some remarks on the understanding of 20th century historiography of
this event.
11
Aidan Kane,
National University of Ireland
Ireland
Chronologies of Subsistence Crises and Data
Resources:
Examples from Ireland
Famines and subsistence crises in mid-19th century Ireland are
especially challenging to scale and explain, due to data constraints.
This paper explores the potential of two previously unavailable data
sources covering most of the 18th century for illuminating these and
related issues. The first comprises detailed annual fiscal accounts for
the Irish parliament from 1695 to 1800. Revenue data has long been
used relatively informally to enable macro periodisations for Ireland in
this era; in principle this detailed and consistent dataset allows for
more systematic procedure to identify such patterns. However, a
puzzle does arise, in that some of the key revenue series seems not at
all to reflect even the very significant famine of 1740-1741. This may
alert us to a disconnect between some fiscal indicators and broader
economic conditions at that time, although some patterns in early
public relief efforts in the expenditure data are illuminating. A second
data set is very finely grained trade data 1698-1784. This details
exports and import by volume and at official prices for c. 530
commodities, for around 25 Irish ports for each year, distinguished
also by broad source/destination region of the trade. We focus
particularly on patterns of imports of grain up to c. 1750 by region:
these can be usefully connected to an existing literature on
subsistence crises for this period, though with considerable caution as
to pinning down precise timings.
(Presentation cancelled)
12
Axel Kristinsson,
Reykjavik Akademia
Iceland
The Haze Famine (1783 – 1785) in the Icelandic
Historical Consciousness
The massive volcanic eruption that started in 1783 at Laki instigated a
time of hardship in Iceland that has been called the ‘Haze Famine’
(Móðuharðindin) and lasted until 1785. This was perhaps the worst
famine in Iceland’s history but also the last one of catastrophic
proportions. During this time the population dropped by 20%, from
about 50,000 to 40,000.
In the 20th century historical consciousness in Iceland, the whole
early modern period was considered a time of extreme misery and this
view of history still prevails although historians have started the long
and painful process of reevaluation. In this paper, I shall consider the
relationship between the two, the Haze Famine and the historical view
I shall designate as ‘declinism’ that saw Icelandic society of the early
modern period as having declined dramatically from the ‘golden age’ of
the Commonwealth period (930-1262). I shall not be discussing the
Haze Famine in any detail but rather how people’s perception of it
interacted with their general perception of Icelandic history.
13
Kersti Lust,
University of Tartu
Estonia
How to measure sufferings?
Demographic, regional and local aspects of
nineteenth century famines in Estonia
Nineteenth century Estonia (i.e. Estland and northern part of Livland)
saw several severe subsistence crises. The paper considers various
quantitative indicators of these crises: the demographic effects; the
amount of government’s famine relief distributed to the communities
to provide for the needy; rise of grain prices; reduction of crop yields,
and the proportion of farms that changed heads. It analyses how
appropriate indicators for measuring the scale of crisis are the
increase in mortality and drop in the number of births. It explores how
pronounced were the regional differences in mortality, prices, harvest
yields, famine aid, etc. at the level of districts and parishes and how
they can be explained. It also discusses the question to what extent
was the scale of famine influenced by the development of previous
conflict in the localities. The severity of famine in the localities resulted
not only from objective factors like harvests and overcrowding, but at
least partly from local social tensions between the manor lord and the
peasants, especially in isolated areas such as the islands.
14
Tiina Männistö-Funk,
University of Turku
Finland
Characteristics of Famine
in the European Newspapers of the 1850s and 1860s
The 1850s and 1860s Finnish famines drew attention in European press. A
lot of the writings described the desperate situation of the starving Finns
and expressed sympathy towards them. Many of the published texts also
called for action to collect money for Finnish famine relief or reported about
such activities. Although famine was a local crisis, through media coverage it
became a transnational phenomenon.
This paper studies foreign newspaper articles on the 1850s and 1860s
Finnish famines. Through a close reading of diverse newspaper texts dealing
with Finnish food shortages and crises, we can study the concept of famine
as it was shaped in the public discussion and discourses, meanings that it
bore and its social, societal, cultural, economic and political connections in
the mid-19th century Europe.
For this paper, digitized newspapers from Austria, Great Britain and Sweden
have been studied. From these three countries, a relatively broad selection of
newspapers from the 1850s and the 1860s is available in digitized and
searchable form, which enables both the formation of a general picture of
European famine journalism and a comparison of the reactions and
conceptions across national borders.
This paper will first take a look at the formation of famine into a news item,
describe typical famine writings and ponder on medial presentations as part
of famine. Secondly, it will consider the concept of famine in the light of the
newspaper writings and their historical context. Thirdly it will scrutinize the
way in which political and national interests influenced the attention and
attitude towards specific famine crises.
Famine becoming news was linked to an overall change in the concepts of
famine. The increasing medial coverage of famines also had impacts on food
crises, and not only on discursive level. Famine journalism was part of the
transnational upper class discourse and activity. The attitude of local upper
class affected the reactions elsewhere, but famine as news was also framed
by international political, economic and cultural interests that had an
impact of the perceived scale, reasons and effects of any local famine.
15
Mats Morell,
Stockholm University
Sweden
Responses to Weather Related Crop Failures and
Harvest Fluctuations: National and Local Levels
Swedish Examples, 1665-1845
This paper discusses responses to crop failures and grain harvest fluctuations in
Sweden starting from the late 17th century and up to 1844-45. National, regional
and local levels are studied.
Firstly I deal with actions taken on governmental level to alleviate manifest crop
failures and how these measures worked. The background to these efforts laid in
the fact that Sweden in the period from 1720 to 1820 regularly imported grain
amounting, in “normal years” to around 10 per cent of consumption. Apart from
acute crisis years the imported grain was foremost used for provisions in the only
major city, Stockholm and for the greatest deficit area, the mining and iron making
districts in mid Sweden.
The crown achieved much grain through in kind taxes. Part of this was stored for
the provisioning of the army in peacetime, but these stocks were also used for relief
in times of crop failures. Quite early the crown also used the grain stocks contracyclically in order to stabilize the grain prices, selling or buying grain when prices
were high or low respectively. Later the government rather relied on the market and
strove to (re)direct sales from surplus to deficit regions in failure years, in order to
alleviate local crises. Either authority purchased grain, which was distributed for
bread and sowings in affected regions or they remitted cash allowances to
inhabitants in affected regions from which they could buy grain on the market. The
perception of crisis also shifted, from stressing the absolute lack of food, towards
the inability, through unemployment for many people to pay for food (at elevated
prices).
Secondly the paper discusses the role of the collective parish storehouse
associations, which were chartered in many localities from the mid-18th century
onwards. Local landowners, mostly landed peasants, managed the storages.
Landowners delivered grain capital in proportion to their size of holdings. People in
need could borrow grain at an interest. Amortizations and interest payments were
made in grain. The claim that these storages had no function what so ever in
famine alleviation will be briefly discussed.
Thirdly the paper relates some case study findings on how fodder and grain harvest
failures and milder harvest fluctuations were handled on individual household
level.
Fourthly and lastly the paper considers efforts made by authorities to detect
upcoming crises, and to collect early indicators of harvest outcomes, i.e. to organize
crop statistics.
16
Timo Myllyntaus,
Turku University
Finland
Categories of Food Shortages and Population Crises
Intuitively, famine sounds a tangible and comprehensible term.
Nevertheless, when analysed closer, it turns an ever more complicated
concept. For example, Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary defines
famine simply as “a situation, in which many people do not have
enough food to eat.” As a result, one immediately asks whether there
is any difference between food shortages and famines.
Famines have a long history. The term has been mentioned in the
Bible several times, and there the main emphasis is to regard it as one
sort of God’s punishments. An impression is that in religious thinking
its clear definition has been less important than the need to describe it
as a divine attempt to afflict sinful communities. In various places, the
Bible claims that “famines were sent as an effect of God's anger
against a guilty people”.
Famines are not alike. Their causes, forms of their manifestations and
consequences vary. This presentation aims to sketch profiles for
different famines as well as define key features of them. In various
cultures, the most common nominator for “famine” is hunger, and
therefore in many languages, the term for famine is derived from a
word for hunger or its synonym, such as Hungersnot in German,
hungersnød in Norwegian, nälänhätä in Finnish, голод in Russian or
fome in Portuguese. However, reasons for hunger are numerous.
This paper classifies definitions of famines in three categories: those
based on food supply, food consumption and mortality. A challenge is
separate famines from other societal crises. Famines are often
interrelated to various social, economic and political crises – hardly
ever it can be explained monocausally, just by a harvest failure, for
example. Measuring the severity of food shortages is another challenge
for famine historians. Has any famine ever been attributed an
“absolute deficit of food”? That is one of the issues examined in this
paper.
17
Mats Olsson,
Lund University
Sweden
Famines in the Nordic Countries, AD 536–1875
The first part of this paper aims at identifying the timing of famines in
the Nordic countries since the Middle Ages. This is done by using
qualitative famine reports from the literature since quantitative data
on famines are scarce or non-existent, at least before the early modern
period. We supplement the reports with climate data and price data.
Our survey indicates that widespread famine was always a rare
occurrence in the Nordic countries, despite frequent crop failures. The
second part studies the regional famine pattern and its demographic
characteristics in Sweden 1750-1910. This part is based on
demographic data on parish level from the official statistics and price
data.
We identify two periods of excess mortality: the last major famine in
Sweden in the early 1770s and the excess mortality in 1809 due to
epidemic outbreaks. Examining the age-specific mortality and
seasonality pattern in these two years of mortality crises in Sweden we
show a highly similar pattern explained by similar causes of death
being involved: dysentery and typhus. All age groups were affected
during the crisis, but children over the age of one were the hardest hit.
Mortality was highest during the summer and early fall as epidemics
spread rapidly through water and food. Thus, while Nordic people
clearly were vulnerable to economic fluctuations, conditions rarely
deteriorated to famine levels, which can be explained as a combination
of a reasonably well-functioning market, a diversified economy, a
population density in line with resource availability and the absence of
serious political or war-related conditions conducive to famine.
The entire paper is available via the following link:
Dribe, Martin, Mats Olsson, and Patrick Svensson, Famines in the
Nordic countries, AD 536–1875, Lund Papers in Economic History, No.
138, 2015 General Issues, 41 s.
https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/publication/8001054
18
Tirthankar Roy,
London School of Economics and Political Science
United Kingdom
Contribution of State and Society to Famine Relief in
India:
A Survey of the Literature
The essay revisits two well-known theories of causation of Indian
famines – weather-induced harvest shocks, and price shocks without
harvest failure – and asks what difference they make to our
understanding of how the British colonial state in India (1857-1947)
and Indian society responded to famines. The essay concludes that the
theories need to be revised by factoring in accumulation of experience
dealing with famines, which reacted on and modified causal links in
the long run.
19
Marten Seppel,
University of Tartu
Estonia
Diachronic and Synchronic Comparisons of Nordic
and Baltic Famines
The paper deals with three research questions that look at the famines
in the Nordic and Baltic countries both diachronically and
synchronically. First a comparative overview of the chronology of the
major famines in Northern Europe will be given. This section will also
discuss the reasons why we still puzzle over giving the simplest list of
famines and food crises in Scandinavian and Baltic regions. The
second part of the paper will analyse the causes of major famines. In
particular, the famines of 1601-1603 and 1696-1697 will be taken
under synchronic observation since these famines hit the whole of
Northern Europe. The third and the final part of the paper will draw
the main conclusions and ask whether it makes sense at all to
comparatively study famines in the Nordic and Baltic countries. It
seems that despite different social and political factors, the main
famines were dictated by the same climate and weather shocks. At the
same time this does not mean that local and regional political, social
and economic factors did not play a role in the development of any
particular famine.
20
Eric Vanhaute,
Ghent University
Belgium
Famines in History: What is there to be learned?
Famine crises have been the subject of extensive scientific research for a
long time. Traditionally the central focus, triggered by Malthusian and
Marxian perspectives, was on macro processes such as the relationship
between famine crises and demographic crises, and the impact of
subsistence crises on societal uprisings. In the 1980s the focus shifted to
famines as social and communal processes that cause the accelerated
destitution of the most vulnerable groups in a community. In this multidimensional interpretation agency became central, particularly people’s
actions regarding a decreasing ‘command over food’. The entitlement
approach moved the focus from availability of food (production based)
towards the distribution of food (market based). Taking into account
institutions that determine these entitlements, such as households and
village communities, integrates a third, transfer based perspective. This
paradigm shift has configured famines as ‘community crises’, where scarcity
and human suffering is accompanied and aggravated by a social breakdown,
through which communities lose their ability to support a significant part of
their members. That is why famines are unique experiences that occupy a
finite span of historical time and human experience, while also being
recurring patterns that reveal insight into a society’s deeper and more
enduring difficulties.
The notion of famine as an event (sudden crisis), process (accelerated
destitution) and structure (the breakdown of societal networks) creates the
need for an integrated and historical-comparative famine research model.
This includes individual, household and communal coping strategies dealing
with acute forms of stress as well as reactions and interventions from public
authorities. I explore this approach through four guiding questions: 1/ How
do we detect and measure famines? 2/ How do we explain famines? 3/ How
do we assess the impact of famines? 4/ How is the historical trajectory of
famines related to contemporary hunger and food crises?
I will substantiate this analysis with some new findings about the trajectory
of famines in Europe.
21