Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination (Brenda and David McLean Canadian Studies)
Zoomicon-zoom-in
Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination (Brenda and David McLean Canadian Studies)
Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination (Brenda and David McLean Canadian Studies)

Do Glaciers Listen?: Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters, and Social Imagination (Brenda and David McLean Canadian Studies)

By
Julie Cruikshank (Author)  

Hardback

Available / dispatched within 1 - 4 weeks

Quantity
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. 23 b&w illustrations, 10 maps
Julie Cruikshank is professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of Life Lived Like a Story (winner of the 1992 MacDonald Prize); Reading Voices; and The Social Life of Stories. In 2012 she was awarded a Clio Lifetime Achievement Award for The North by the Canadian Historical Association
  • Contributor: Julie Cruikshank
  • Imprint: University of British Columbia Press
  • ISBN13: 9780774811866
  • Number of Pages: 328
  • Packaged Dimensions: 152x229mm
  • Packaged Weight: 600
  • Format: Hardback
  • Publisher: University of British Columbia Press
  • Release Date: 2005-05-18
  • Series: Brenda and David McLean Canadian Studies
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Biography: Julie Cruikshank is professor emerita in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of Life Lived Like a Story (winner of the 1992 MacDonald Prize); Reading Voices; and The Social Life of Stories. In 2012 she was awarded a Clio Lifetime Achievement Award for The North by the Canadian Historical Association

Delivery Options

Home Delivery

Store Delivery

Free Returns

We hope you are delighted with everything you buy from us. However, if you are not, we will refund or replace your order up to 30 days after purchase. Terms and exclusions apply; find out more from our Returns and Refunds Policy.