Awards

• Winner of James Fisher Prize for First Books on the Himalayan Region 2019 (United States)

Overview

Regional geopolitical processes have turned the Himalayan region of Ladakh, in northwest India, into a strategic border area with an increasing military presence that has decentered the traditional agropastoralist economy. This in turn has led to social fragmentation, the growing isolation of elders, and ethical dilemmas for those who strive to maintain traditional subsistence activities. Simultaneously, climate change is causing glaciers-a vital source of life in the region-to recede, which elders perceive as the consequence of a broken bond with the natural environment and the deities that inhabit the landscape. Caring for Glaciers looks at the causes and consequences of ongoing social and cultural change in peoples' relationship with the natural environment. It illuminates how relations of reciprocity - learned through everyday life and work in the mountains with the animals, glaciers, and deities that form Ladakh's sacred geography - shape and nurture an ethics of care. Integrating contemporary studies of affect, landscape, and multispecies anthropology, Caring for Glaciers contributes to the anthropology of ethics by examining the moral order that develops through the embodied experience of life and work in the Himalayas.

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9780295744001

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Reviews

In an outstanding example of multispecies anthropology based on 18 months of field research in Ladakh, northwest India, Gagne (anthropology, Univ. of Guelph) examines the consequences of war since 1948, the militarization of the border, demographic shifts, economic transformations, and unpredictable rainfall on agro-pastoral communities. . . .Highly recommended. * Choice *

In an outstanding example of multispecies anthropology based on 18 months of field research in Ladakh, northwest India, Gagne (anthropology, Univ. of Guelph) examines the consequences of war since 1948, the militarization of the border, demographic shifts, economic transformations, and unpredictable rainfall on agro-pastoral communities. . . .Highly recommended. --Choice

This refreshing, honest-to-life portrayal of ethnographic moments makes this an essential book for anyone interested in understanding contemporary issues in the Himalayas and changing human-cryosphere relationships. . . . Gagne demonstrates that the region becomes meaningful through the entanglements of land, animals, and humans. In Caring for Glaciers, readers learn that the ethics of care, which maintain these entanglements, are eroding. It is therefore a sobering gift. * Journal of Asian Studies * In an outstanding example of multispecies anthropology based on 18 months of field research in Ladakh, northwest India, Gagne (anthropology, Univ. of Guelph) examines the consequences of war since 1948, the militarization of the border, demographic shifts, economic transformations, and unpredictable rainfall on agro-pastoral communities. . . .Highly recommended. * Choice *

Author Information

Karine Gagné is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Guelph.

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