Andean Meltdown: A Climate Ethnography of Water, Power, and Culture in Peru

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Univ of California Press, 2023 - History - 210 pages
"Using case studies from four field sites in the Peruvian highlands where the author has conducted long-term fieldwork, Andean Meltdown offers an ethnographic account of how Andean people make sense of and adapt to climate change. Karsten Paerregaard investigates how climate change prompts them to not only reorganize their daily activities, adjust their ritual traditions, and reshuffle their worldview, but also take action to protect and gain control over their water resources, the environment, and ultimately their lives. Examining the multiple ways climate change intersects with environmental, social, and political change in Peru, Paerregaard also explores how the state and other external actors influence Andean people's climate experience and perception and how new practices and imaginations emerge from rapid environmental change. The book's claim is that climate change and its impact on Andean society must be investigated within the broader context of current social, political, and cultural change in Peru"--
 

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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About the author (2023)

Karsten Paerregaard is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology in the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. He is the author of Return to Sender: The Moral Economy of Peru's Migrant Remittances.