Amended animation: negotiating with the 'more-than-human' topographies of belief systems as a platform to approach climate change in the Himalayas

在整个喜马拉雅地区（主要是，但不完全是，在佛教文化领域），存在着一种共同的观点，即景观是由一个有知觉的超自然生物的万神殿。这一生动的景观通过“道德气候”的概念与人类的行为紧密相连--这种观念认为，人类对景观之神的挑衅会以农作物歉收、冰雹和/或不利天气的形式产生报复。这些信念决定性地塑造了土著环境知识，即使在一般民众承认进口的“科学/唯物主义”知识体系的情况下，这些信念也常常持续存在（并共存）。喜马拉雅地区极易受到即将发生和正在发生的气候变化的影响;在此背景下，作为环境行动框架基础的观念和信仰体系可能会变得更加重要。该项目旨在更清楚地了解土著人关于自然环境感知的世界观及其与人类行为的联系，并质疑这些观点如何影响对气候变化的看法和采取的行动。该研究询问，首先，对"有感知“或”超越人类“的景观的共同信念如何影响对威胁的看法，机会，或对气候变化采取的行动（可能包括历史气候变化）。其次，我会考虑这种世界观是否鼓励对气候变化采取实际行动、宿命论或被动态度（包括完全诉诸仪式和祈祷）。这可能会提供关于土著人民为减缓气候变化所作努力的有用信息，这些信息可适用于其他地方。最后，将考虑该地区地缘政治结构和敏感性的作用：即它们如何抑制或增强人类与“超人类”景观之间的关系，从而在此基础上采取哪些行动来减缓气候变化。气候变化的未来路径与当地人民的偏好和决策有着内在的联系，而这些偏好和决策往往存在于传统和土著知识体系中;因此，这些研究结果可能对制定未来的气候政策和干预措施具有重要意义。该项目的具体实地地点尚未最终确定，但可能在印度北方、尼泊尔或不丹境内。

Across the Himalayan region (predominantly, although not exclusively, within culturally Buddhist areas), there exists a shared outlook that the landscape is animated by a pantheon of sentient supernatural beings. This animated landscape is integrally linked to human actions through the notion of a 'moral climate' - the idea that the provocation of landscape deities by humans engenders retaliation in the form of crop failure, hail and/or unfavourable weather. These convictions have decisively framed indigenous environmental knowledges, and often persist (and coexist) even when imported "scientific/materialistic" knowledge systems are acknowledged within the general population. The Himalayan region is extremely vulnerable to imminent and ongoing climatic changes; under this backdrop, perceptions and belief systems which undergird frameworks for environmental action may attain heightened significance. This project seeks to gain a clearer understanding of the indigenous worldview concerning the perceived sentience of the physical environment, and its imputed connection with human behaviour, and questions how these views might inflect perceptions of - and actions taken towards - a changing climate.The research asks, firstly, how a shared belief in a 'sentient' or 'more-than-human' landscape can inform perceptions of threats, opportunities, or actions taken towards climate change (which may include historical climate change). Secondly, I will consider if this worldview encourages practical action, fatalism or passivity [which includes a sole recourse to ritual and prayer] towards climate change. This may impart useful information on indigenous efforts towards climate change mitigation, which could be applied elsewhere. Finally, the role geopolitical structures and sensitivities across this region will be considered: namely, how they might inhibit or enhance how the relationship between humans and a 'more-than-human' landscape is expressed, and thus what actions might be taken towards climate change mitigation on this basis. Future pathways for climate change are inherently connected with local people's preferences and decision-making, which are often situated in traditional and indigenous knowledge systems; as such, these findings may prove significant to pitching future climate policies and interventions. A specific field site for this project has yet to be finalised, but is likely to fall within Northern India, Nepal, or Bhutan.