Attributed Causes Of Environmental Problems
A Cross-Cultural Study Of Coping Strategies

In June 1991, after the largest eruption of the Philippine volcano Pinatubo in the twentieth century, the Aeta (Ayta) explained the catastrophe as having been caused by human misbehaviour that disturbed both the environment and the sacred places of the spirits and the Supreme Being. The Aeta belong to the oldest indigenous population of the Philippines and supplement their subsistence with hunting and gathering. Most Aeta held the drilling of the Philippine Oil Company responsible for the disaster, a claim that was confirmed by manganitos, the mediums of the spirits. Some manganitos suggested further causes for the catastrophe: they blamed the government for having cleared a forest in order to build a large road and the U.S. Air Force for holding military exercises near the site of the volcano, they were convinced that the Pinatubo was 'taking revenge' for this human interference and demanded. among other measures, that the government and the U.S. Air Force provide for animal sacrifices in order to stop the eruption.