Do glaciers listen? :

"Do Glaciers Listen? explores the conflicting depictions of glaciers to show how natural and cultural histories are objectively entangled in the Mount Saint Elias ranges. This rugged area, where Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory now meet, underwent significant geophysical change in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which coincided with dramatic social upheaval resulting from European exploration and increased travel and trade among Aboriginal peoples.

European visitors brought with them varying conceptions of nature as sublime, as spiritual, or as a resource for human progress. They saw glaciers as inanimate, subject to empirical investigation and measurement. Aboriginal oral histories, conversely, described glaciers as sentient, animate, and quick to respond to human behaviour. In each case, however, the experiences and ideas surrounding glaciers were incorporated into interpretations of social relations.

Focusing on these contrasting views during the late stages of the Little Ice Age (1550-1900), Cruikshank demonstrates how local knowledge is produced, rather than discovered, through colonial encounters, and how it often conjoins social and biophysical processes. She then traces how the divergent views weave through contemporary debates about cultural meanings as well as current discussions about protected areas, parks, and the new World Heritage site. Readers interested in anthropology and Native and northern studies will find this a fascinating read and a rich addition to circumpolar literature." - Provided by publisher

Call Number:

GB2403.2 .C78 2005

Title Responsibility:

Julie Cruikshank.

Author Information:

Julie Cruikshank’s research focuses on practical and theoretical developments in oral tradition studies, specifically how competing forms of knowledge become enmeshed in struggles for legitimacy. Her ethnographic experience is rooted in the Yukon Territory, where she lived and worked for many years recording life stories with Athapaskan and Tlingit elders. She has also carried out comparative research in Alaska and Siberia. Her current work draws on theoretical trends linking the anthropology of memory with environmental anthropology. She is presently investigating historical and contemporary encounters among environmental earth sciences and indigenous oral traditions within the recently designated World Heritage Site that spans the borderlands of Yukon, northwest British Columbia and Alaska.

Production Place:

Vancouver :

Producer:

UBC Press,

Production Date:

c2005.

Band Tribe Geography Time:

Tlingit; Dene

Reviews:

Wenzel, George W. "Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination." Arctic, vol. 60, no. 2, 2007, p. 209+. https://link-gale-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/apps/doc/A166433638/C....

Baldwin, Andrew. "Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. by Julie Cruikshank. Vancouver and Toronto: UBC Press, 2005. Xii + 312 Pp. Illustrations, Maps, Notes, Bibliography, and Index. Cloth $85.00, Paper $29.95." Environmental History 12, no. 4 (2007, 2007): 1005-6, http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/10845453/v12i0004/1005_dgllk....

Wallis, Robert J. "Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters and Social Imagination." Time and Mind 2, no. 1 (2009, 2009): 93-7, http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/1751696x/v02i0001/93_dgllkceasi.

Mason, Rachel. American Anthropologist, vol. 109, no. 3, 2007, pp. 554–555. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4496740.

Gellert, Paul K. Contemporary Sociology, vol. 36, no. 3, 2007, pp. 260–262. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20443796.

Norden, Christopher. "Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination." Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 15, no. 1 (2008, 2008): 265-6, http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/10760962/v15i0001/265_dgllkc....

Zarger, R. K. (2007). Do glaciers listen? local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination. Journal of Ecological Anthropology, 11(1), 80-81. Retrieved from http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-co...

Wilson, Eric G. "Julie Cruikshank. do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. 2005. Pp. Xii, 312. $85.00." The American Historical Review 111, no. 3 (2006, 2006): 799-800, http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00028762/v111i0003/799_jcdgl....

Henshaw, A. (2007), Do glaciers listen? Local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination – By Julie Cruikshank. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 13: 230-231. https://rai-onlinelibrary-wiley-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/doi/ful...

Recommended For:

Research

Catalogue Key:

5453742

Law Subject(s):

Colonialism

Environmental Law

Law & History

Traditional Knowledge and Law

Table of Contents: