Two - Causal Grounds

Summary

Chapter 2 is about the social and semiotic mediation of causal grounds. In particular, the way people come to understand and alter the sequencing of events or the channeling of forces. Focusing on the multiple processes that mediate people’s understandings of landslides in a Mayan village in highland Guatemala, it shows the ways causal grounds relate to physical forces, communicative practices, and social conventions. It highlights the political, economic, affective, and ecological stakes at work in such forms of mediation.