Abstract:In August 2010 the Himalayan Region of Ladakh, Northwest India, experienced severe flashflooding and mudslides, causing widespread death and destruction. The causes cited were climate change, karmic retribution, and the wrath of an agentive sentient landscape. Ladakhis construct, order and maintain the physical and moral universe through religious engagement with this landscape. The Buddhist monastic incumbents-the traditional mediators between the human world and the sentient landscape-explain supernatural re… Show more
“…Individual cases of dip are experienced as skin diseases such as such as boils, leprosy and so forth, inflicted upon them by capricious sadag and lu (Mumford 1989: 101-2;Mills 2003: 289). When dip contaminates the territorial homes of mountain deities, they become offended and dangerously retributive, sending afflictions in the form of pestilence or disasters such as earthquakes, avalanches, hailstorms and floods, for example the 2010 cloudburst (Butcher 2013;Mills 2003: 206;Mumford 1989: 135-7). Many of my own respondents were concerned that new forms of pollution produced by economic activities and social practices associated with Indian state development were stimulating greater concentrations and widespread distribution of dip.…”
Without microbes, no other forms of life would be possible. But what does it mean to be with microbes? In this book, 24 contributors attune to microbes and describe their multiple relationships with humans and others. Ethnographic explorations with fermented foods, waste, faecal matter, immunity, antimicrobial resistance, phages, as well as indigenous and scientific understandings of microbes challenge ideas of them being simple entities: not just pathogenic foes, old friends or good fermentation minions, but much more. Following various entanglements, the book tells how these relations transform both humans and microbes in the process.
“…Individual cases of dip are experienced as skin diseases such as such as boils, leprosy and so forth, inflicted upon them by capricious sadag and lu (Mumford 1989: 101-2;Mills 2003: 289). When dip contaminates the territorial homes of mountain deities, they become offended and dangerously retributive, sending afflictions in the form of pestilence or disasters such as earthquakes, avalanches, hailstorms and floods, for example the 2010 cloudburst (Butcher 2013;Mills 2003: 206;Mumford 1989: 135-7). Many of my own respondents were concerned that new forms of pollution produced by economic activities and social practices associated with Indian state development were stimulating greater concentrations and widespread distribution of dip.…”
Without microbes, no other forms of life would be possible. But what does it mean to be with microbes? In this book, 24 contributors attune to microbes and describe their multiple relationships with humans and others. Ethnographic explorations with fermented foods, waste, faecal matter, immunity, antimicrobial resistance, phages, as well as indigenous and scientific understandings of microbes challenge ideas of them being simple entities: not just pathogenic foes, old friends or good fermentation minions, but much more. Following various entanglements, the book tells how these relations transform both humans and microbes in the process.
“…Springs and swampy areas, which contain many watering holes, are not considered sacred per se, but are sometimes said to be inhabited by the klu , the spirits of the underworld. This chthonic being is said to be quite capricious: if the klu are kept happy, water and wealth will be plenty, if they are polluted or injured, or if humans do not treat the environment with care, they will react by withholding water or sending disease, in particular skin diseases (Butcher, 2013b, p. 148; Dollfus, 2003; Mills, 2003; Samuel, 1993, p. 162; Wangchok, 2009).…”
Section: Reciprocity and The Sacred Geography: Fertility And Destructionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These beings dislike social transgressions and can be offended by a lack of harmony between people and an uncaring attitude. In the absence of a corrective ritual, divine beings may decide to no longer protect humans (Butcher, 2013b, pp. 165–170; Day, 1989; Mills, 2003; Phylactou, 1989; Srinivas, 1998).…”
Section: Reciprocity and The Sacred Geography: Fertility And Destructionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Water not only sustains life, it can also be destructive, as is the case with floods. This has been analyzed in a number of studies: from a 16th century record, Akester looks at the politics of floods and religious control and the construction of a temple in flood‐prone Lhasa to curtail the threat of flooding, said to occur because of the increasing presence of conflicts and the “steady deterioration of faith and morale” (Akester, 2001, p. 9); Butcher (2013a) examines how the authoritative narratives of the monastic scholarly elite of Ladakh attribute the flood of 2010 to local deities, who sent the flood as a retribution for “for the increase in ritual and physical pollution, and a decline in moral values” (Butcher, 2013a, p. 106); Gergan (2017) studies how a recent earthquake in the Eastern Himalayan state of Sikkim is interpreted by members the Lepcha community as a result of the anger of the local deities towards the construction of dams.…”
Section: Reciprocity and The Sacred Geography: Fertility And Destructionmentioning
In the Himalayas, water is seen by some as intricately linked to humans and produced through ethical actions. Its materiality, as a lack or excess of rain or snow, as healthy or receding ice, as destructive hail or flash flood, is a reflection of humans' moral attitude and an outcome of a process of reciprocity that links humans to nonhumans, the land, and divine beings. This perspective departs from the conception of water seen through development projects and from studies about climate change, which tend to objectify water through an epistemology that isolates nature from culture. Water as the materiality of ethics is examined by drawing on cases from Ladakh and Zanskar in the Himalayas and by reviewing studies from other parts of the Himalayas. In particular, water as the materiality of ethics is analyzed through three perspectives: how water is produced as people interact with a sacred geography, how snowy peaks are produced as objects of morality through affective attachment and encounters, and how water is produced as part of multispecies assemblages. A review of an ontology of water defined by reciprocity is important considering the significant changes currently taking place in the Himalayas and which are brought about by climate change and state production through large‐scale development projects. It can enrich our understanding of their implications for the cultural life of the often marginalized peoples of the Himalayas and contribute to narratives about the Anthropocene.
This article is categorized under:
Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented
Human Water > Rights to Water
“…Examples from other countries in the region demonstrate the emergence of local beliefs in the water management challenges and crises of the 21st century. In the Buddhist region of Ladakh in Northwest India, for examples, severe flash floods have been understood in the context of karmic retribution coupled with the retribution of an agentic and sentient landscape (Butcher, ). As Andrea Butcher (: 104–105) has argued, these local beliefs are a key part of large‐scale solutions and cannot be ignored: … narratives linking climate change with shamanic belief and pollution concerns help to reveal the localized and contextualized explanations of disaster and environmental management in transforming landscapes in ways that empirical ecology studies cannot accommodate.…”
Section: Global Precedents: Water Democracy In (In) Actionmentioning
This article is a discussion of the "discourse on the unthinkable" surrounding potential future democratic engagements with rivers as non-human persons or natural objects. In the context of the Asia-Pacific region, this article suggests that the developments in material philosophy entitled "new materialism" are essential tools in the reconceptualisation of rivers as democratic entities but that local socio-historical conditions must also be taken into the account. In order to make its case, the article not only surveys the context for considering rivers as non-human persons in a juridical context but also discusses the new material context that assists modern democracies in the renegotiation of the demos that forms the body politic of democracy -often in the face of neoliberal exploitation and a legacy of extremes in instrumentalism. The article argues that the incorporation of water in the democratic project of enfranchisement is an essential exercise born of many Western beliefs and ideals but articulated uniquely at a regional and national level.
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