Review of In the Shadow of Melting Glaciers: Climate Change and Andean Society, by Mark Carey (original) (raw)
Related papers
Unsettling Times Living with the Changing Horizons of the Peruvian Andes
As in many other parts of the Peruvian Andes, the peasants of rural Recuay report receding glaciers, altered patterns of precipitation, and disappearing species of plants and wildlife among the many things that may unsettle the everyday. Susan Whyte's concept of uncertainty highlights the fact that climate change emerges in different ways in particular situations. It informs water politics and local lives but is not a priori the most important part of the story. Rather than adapting to climate change, people adapt climate change to their social worlds. Así como en varias partes de los Andes peruanos, los campesinos del Recuay rural dan parte de glaciares en retroceso, padrones de precipitación alterados, y la desaparición de especies de plantas y fauna silvestre entre las numerosas cosas que puedan perturbar lo cotidiano. El concepto de Susan Whyte de la incertidumbre acentúa el hecho de que el cambio climático se manifiesta de distintas maneras en situaciones particulares. Informa políticas sobre el agua y las vidas locales pero no es a priori la parte más importante de la historia. En vez de adaptarse al cambio climático, la gente adapta el cambio climático a sus mundos sociales.
Critique of Anthropology, 2019
In the World Bank funded development program PSI Sierra, which aims to modernize irrigation technologies in the Peruvian highlands, the complexity of climate change is reduced to the manageable issues of water scarcity and lack of modern technology. By focusing on the encounters between farmers in Colca Valley and PSI engineers, the author argues that most of these encounters can best be analyzed as failed encounters or “disencounters”, which confirm diverging interests and exacerbate differences. The article discusses three modes of disencounters: (a) diverging definitions of problems; (b) different technological practices in terms of flexibility, and (c) distrust emerging from an embodied history of structural inequality. The author argues that instead of supporting farmers to deal with their own-defined problems, the program—through these disencounters—produces other effects: (a) increased uncertainty; (b) the reproduction of hierarchies, and (c) the de-politicization of climate change, inequality, and poverty.
Perceptions of and adaptation to climate change in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru
Climate change and glacial disasters directly affect the Andean periglacial populations in the environmental, social, economic and cultural spheres. Regional atmospheric warming is causing an increasing retreat of glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru. The melting of these glaciers causes, among other consequences, the formation of new glacial lagoons and an increase in volume of the pre-existing lagoons; both phenomena increase the possibility of glacial disasters. Thus, this paper reports an investigation of perceptions and adaptations to climatic change and glacial disasters in the Cordillera Blanca, Department of Ancash, Peru, through the ethnographic method with the campesino communities of Vicos and Humacchuco; this method included observations and semi-structured interviews with managers and campesinos. The measures adopted by the managers are, predominantly, engineering to reduce disasters, such as increasing of dike sizes and lagoon drainages. The retreat of the glaciers, as noted by the campesino communities themselves, is the main perception of the impacts of climate change. We suggest that the choice of safe places to live in campesino communities is the main strategy of adaptation and is related to an ancestral ethnoknowledge. The reterritorialization of sites susceptible to glacial disasters is not only due to the need to have a place (to plant, to live), but is also due to the topophilic feelings formed by the affective link between a person and a place. There is a central and structural issue that adds to these problems: the development model prevailing in Peruvian postcolonial society tends to complicate possible strategies for adapting to climate change in the Andes.
Taking Boaventura de Sousa Santos' argument that there is no global social justice without global cognitive justice as its starting point, this article suggests that there is no global climate justice without global cognitive justice (implying both ontological justice and epistemological justice). If we take "the ontological turn" in anthropology and other disciplines and its focus on indigenous ontologies seriously, however, we seem to end up in a situation that is difficult to maneuver in relation to conventional understandings of climate justice. When discussing climate change in relation to multiple ontologies, there are two risks: 1) reproducing what I call "the coloniality of reality", arguing that indigenous ontologies are actually nothing but a cultural (mis-representation of the world; 2) reproducing a conservative relativism that leads to nothing but the maintenance of status quo and that bears a resemblance to climate change denial. A thorough ethnographic understanding of what I would call "the moral meteorology" of the Andes and a broadened understanding of climate change, however, make it possible to navigate between the Scylla of coloniality and the Charybdis of relativism and to articulate a radical critique of fossil-fueled capitalism from a relational ontology, demanding climate justice while denouncing coloniality, and discussing the political ontology of climate change without ignoring its political ecology-and vice versa. Prenant l'argument de Boaventura de Sousa Santos selon lequel il n'existe pas de justice sociale globale sans la justice cognitive globale, cet article suggère qu'il n'y a pas de justice climatique mondiale sans justice cognitive globale (impliquant à la fois la justice ontologique et la justice épistémologique). Si nous prenons «le tournant ontologique» dans l'anthropologie et d'autres disciplines et que nous mettons l'accent sur les ontologies autochtones au sérieux, nous semblons finir dans une situation difficile par rapport à la compréhension conventionnelle de la justice climatique. Lorsqu'on parle du changement climatique par rapport aux multiples ontologies, il existe deux risques: 1) reproduire ce que j'appelle «la colonialité de la réalité», arguant que les ontologies autochtones ne sont en réalité qu'une culture (une mauvaise représentation du monde) et 2) Reproduisant un relativisme conservateur qui ne conduit qu'à l'entretien du statu quo, se rapprochant du déni du changement climatique. Une compréhension ethnographique approfondie de ce que j'appelle «la météorologie morale» des Andes et une compréhension élargie du changement climatique permet cependant de naviguer entre la Scylla de la colonisation et les Charybdis du relativisme et d'articuler une critique radicale des fossiles, A alimenté le capitalisme. Cela diffère d'une ontologie relationnelle-exigeant la justice climatique tout en dénonçant la colonialité et en discutant de l'ontologie politique du changement climatique sans ignorer son écologie politique-et vice versa. El artículo parte del argumento de Boaventura de Sousa Santos en cuanto se refiere a que no habrá justicia social global sin justicia cognitiva global. Así, el artículo plantea que no habrá una justicia climática global fuera de una justicia cognitiva global (implicando tanto a la justicia epistémica como a la justicia ontológica). No obstante, si tomamos con seriedad "el giro ontológico" de la antropología y otras disciplinas y su enfoque en las ontologías indígenas, pareciera que llegamos a una situación analítica difícil de manejar en relación a las nociones convencionales de justicia climática. De esta manera, analizando el cambio climático en relación a ontologías múltiples, nos encontramos frente a dos riesgos: 1) el de reproducir lo que denomino "la colonialidad de la realidad" que no es sino la idea de que las ontologías indígenas no son más que (mis-) representaciones culturales del mundo; 2) el riesgo de reproducir un relativismo conservador que no hace nada más que mantener el estatus quo y que lleva cierta semblanza con la posición de la negación del cambio climático antropogénico. Empero, la apreciación etnográfica profunda de lo que llamo "la meteorología moral" en los Andes y una comprensión más amplia del cambio climático nos permiten navegar entre la Escila de la colonialidad y el Charibdis del relativismo y así articular una crítica radical del capitalismo fósil desde una ontología relacional, simultáneamente exigiendo justicia climática y denunciando la colonialidad, analizando así la ontología política del cambio climático sin omitir su ecología política y viceversa.