Julie Cruikshank – författare

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.

This anniversary edition of Julie Cruikshank's multi-award winning and widely acclaimed work demonstrates the ways in which natural and cultural histories become entangled. Its insights are as rigorous, engrossing, and important as ever.

Do Glaciers Listen? examines conflicting understandings of glaciers in the Saint Elias Mountains, a rugged area where Alaska, British Columbia, and the Yukon Territory meet. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, significant geophysical change coincided with social upheaval from a growing European colonial presence and increased trade among Indigenous Peoples.

The European visitors saw glaciers as inanimate and subject to empirical investigation. However, Indigenous oral histories described glaciers as sentient, responding to human behaviour and shaping the physical and cultural environments through which they move.

Through these contrasts, Cruikshank demonstrates how local knowledge is produced, rather than discovered, through colonial encounters, and how it often conjoins social and biophysical processes. The result is an interdisciplinary tour de force filled with insight about our relationship to the world around us.