Do glaciers listen? : local knowledge, colonial encounters, and social imagination / Julie Cruikshank.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1. Matters of locality : -- 1. Memories of the Little Ice Age -- 2. Constructing life stories : glaciers as social spaces -- 3. Listening for different stories -- Part 2. Practices of exploration : -- 4. Two centuries of stories from Lituya Bay : nature, culture, and La Pérouse -- 5. Bringing icy regions home : John Muir in Alaska -- 6. Edward James Glave, the Alsek, and the Congo -- Part 3. Scientific research in sentient places : -- 7. Mapping boundaries : from stories to borders -- 8. Melting glaciers and emerging histories.

"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." "Focusing on 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 rich addition to circumpolar literature."--Jacket.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.