Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Hussain provides context on the animal (the snow leopard) and the area (mountainous Baltistan) in question by examining how both Islam and residual traces of Bon, the area’s now extinct pre-Islam religion, influence local attitudes. . . . Readers interested in animal conservation will find much to ponder in this thoughtful study."
* Publishers Weekly *
"[A] fascinating account of snow leopard con-servation in Baltistan... Shafqat’s dissection of conservation discourse exposes the inverse cor-relation between resource distribution and responsibilities in conservation."
* Journal of Anthropological Research *
"[A] breath of fresh air, suggesting room for optimism amidst the gloom of despairing writing on the snow leopard."
* Conservation and Society *
"The theoretically dense and historically rich chapters provide a nuanced understanding of how the life of the snow leopard is intertwined with the life of the goat and other livestock that are kept by the poor Balti herders in open corrals to meet their everyday nutritional needs... Shafqat Hussain’s careful analysis invites us to consider the agentivity of this elegant predator in harsh remote terrains, and by combining empirical evidence and scientific analyses, explains how domestic livestock continue to sustain the numbers of this vulnerable cat in the wild."
* Pacific Affairs *
"Carefully documenting the history of the snow leopard and its trade around the world, evaluating the science asso-ciated with snow leopard conservation and its uncertainties, and contextualizing it with rich ethnographic work, Hussain makes an important contribution to highlight the challenges and dynamics of operationalizing global conservation priorities at the local level."
* Journal of Asian Studies *
