This paper concerns post disaster reconstruction in the context of developingcountries, taking the tsunami reconstruction in Tamilnadu, Southern India as its case study. It looks at how current post disaster recovery processes interfere with pre disaster development processes and increase the vulnerability of affected settlements. It employs a conceptual framework to validate the argument that cultural dimensions of the affected communities are not effectively and sufficiently addressed in the current post disaster humanitarian and development processes. Firstly it explains the relevance of the conceptual framework that synthesises two different fields of enquiry i.e. cultural geography and morphology to analyse the role of culture in the evolution and development of traditional settlements in post disaster contexts. This is followed by the analysis of reconstruction processes in three tsunami hit fishing villages inTamilnadu, Southern India, in which the author has carried out primary research as part of his PhD study. Finally it concludes the impacts of such reconstruction process and their causes identified from this primary study.