cover image: Do Glaciers Listen? : Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination

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Do Glaciers Listen? : Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination

2005

Winner, 2005 K.D. Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing

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.

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Authors

Julie Cruikshank

Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references: p. [288]-302
Control Number Identifier
CaOOCEL
Dewey Decimal Classification Number
979.8/3
Dewey Decimal Edition Number
22
General Note
Includes index Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
ISBN
0774811862 9780774851404
LCCN
GB2403.2
LCCN Item number
C78 2005eb
Modifying agency
CaBNVSL
Original cataloging agency
CaBNVSL
Physical Description | Extent
1 electronic text (xii, 312 p.)
Published in
Canada
Publisher or Distributor Number
CaOOCEL
Rights
Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
System Control Number
(CaBNVSL)gtp00521792 (OCoLC)752549926 (CaOOCEL)404168
System Details Note
Mode of access: World Wide Web
Transcribing agency
CaBNVSL

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