Andean Meltdown

Book excerpt: "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"--