Andean Meltdown: A Climate Ethnography of Water, Power, and Culture in PeruAndean Meltdown examines how climate change and its consequences for Peru's glaciers are affecting the country's water supply and impacting Andean society and culture in unprecedented ways. Drawing on forty years of extensive research, relationship building, and community engagement in Peru, Karsten Paerregaard provides an ethnographic exploration of Andean ritual practices and performances in the context of an altered climate. By documenting Andean peoples' responses to rapid glacier retreat and urgent water shortages, Paerregaard considers the myriad ways climate change intersects with environmental, social, and political change. A pathbreaking contribution to cultural anthropology and environmental humanities, Andean Meltdown challenges prevailing theoretical thinking about the culture-nature nexus and offers a new perspective on Andean peoples' understanding of their role as agents in the shifting relationship between humans and nonhumans. |
Contents
Water Power and Offerings | 24 |
The Offering Must Go On | 43 |
The Hole in the Channel | 69 |
The Apu That Is Dying | 94 |
The Glacier That Shines Like a Star | 120 |
Notes | 153 |
References | 171 |
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Common terms and phrases
activities adapt to climate alasitas Andean communities anthropogenic Anthropology Arequipa Cabanaconde Campiña canals Ceruti Chivay climate change Colca River Colca Valley cosmology cosmopolitics country’s cultural Cusco district environment ethnographic fieldwork Gelles glacier melt glacier retreat global warming Godofredo Gose growing number Hanansaya highlands of Peru Hualca Hualca Huancayo Huaytapallana human hydrological cycle impact Inca indigenous interviewed irrigation Juan Junta de Usuarios layas Lima lives Majes channel mestizo migration mountain nature nonhuman offering ceremony offtakes organization pachamama Paerregaard Paucartambo Pedro people’s percent Peru Peru’s Peruvian Photo by author pilgrimage pilgrimage's pilgrims political population Quechua Qulque Punku's Quyllurit'i regidor regional government religious ritual practices Salas Carreño Sallnow Seprigina Sinak’ara social Spanish Stensrud symbolic Tapay Tapay's Tapay’s water tion told ukukus University Press villagers water committees water crisis water flow water management water metabolism water scarcity water sources water supply water tariff water users