New Books Network Karine Gagné, "Caring for Glaciers: Land, Animals, and Humanity in the Himalayas" (U Washington Press, 2019)
Nov 9, 2025
Karine Gagné, an anthropologist and author, dives into the intricate ethics of care between land, animals, and humans in Ladakh’s Himalayan communities. She discusses how climate change and militarization are reshaping these relationships. Gagné highlights the importance of elders' narratives for understanding environmental changes and the moral obligations tied to caring for their land and animals. She also reflects on the impact of modernity on traditional livelihoods and collective memory in the face of ongoing challenges.
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Fieldwork Rooted In Personal Friendship
- Gagné traces her path from film to Tibetan NGO work to ethnography in Ladakh over many years of travel and friendship.
- Her close friendships with Tibetan herders inspired focus on human-animal-land relations and glaciers.
Everyday Ethics Shape Climate Meaning
- Ethnography reveals multiple, coexisting moral explanations for environmental change beyond authoritative doctrine.
- Karine Gagné shows everyday practices and embodied relations shape moral reasoning about glaciers and landscape.
Geography, Water, And Border Politics
- Ladakh's high-altitude settlements depend on glacier-fed irrigation and a fragile, cold-desert ecology.
- Its borderland history and militarization shape social change and resource governance.
