traditional agriculture, central places, and postdisaster urban relocation in Peru¹

In the aftermath of the 1970 earthquake‐avalanche disaster in Peru, survivors of the devastated city of Yungay refused to let their city be relocated in a safer area. Research suggests that as well as having strong emotional ties to the site of their destroyed home, the survivors' refusal to relocate demonstrates a rational assessment of the functional prerequisites for urban growth. These folk perceptions of urban settlement parallel closely the basic formulations of central place theory from geography.