Abstract: Disasters are complex phenomena affected by both the natural world and social relations. To go beyond the problematic dichotomy between nature and culture as well as anthropocentricism in disaster anthropology, this paper proposes the concept of “dwelling biotope” to analyze the complex entanglement of natural and social factors in resilience construction, which is central in disaster studies. With an ontological turn, disaster anthropology can utilize theories and methods of topography to embrace a broadened holist perspective and a more pragmatic approach so as to investigate resilience construction and other related issues.

Key words: disaster research, ontological turn, dwelling biotope, resilience construction, topology