Paper short abstract:

The aim of this contribution is to show how the paradigm of “sentinels” can be useful in a promising field of anthropological research such as the Alps in the Anthropocene, and how this paradigm can enlighten the interspecies relations in contexts of climate and ecosystem uncertainty.

Paper long abstract:

The aim of this contribution is to show how the paradigm of “sentinels” can be effectively used in a promising field of anthropological research such as the Alps in the Anthropocene, and how this paradigm can enlighten the interspecies relations in contexts of climate and ecosystem uncertainty. "Sentinel Devices", the third issue of the American magazine Limn, dedicates to the theme of sentinel devices a wide review of articles and surveys resulting from a whole series of contributions investigating the sentinel role (of environmental changes) played by some “non-human devices”. Among these, some interesting ideas look at animals as real sentinels, able to anticipate and mark the signs of ongoing climate and ecosystem uncertainty, and the potential dangers associated with it. The research was carried out with the peasant communities of the Mont‐Blanc area (Italy) and is part of a broader research framework on the Anthropocene and perception of climate change in the Alps. As I would show, local actors such as hunters, chamois, high mountain ecosystems, soils, are thus configured as “alpine sentinels” of an ongoing global change, often difficult to grasp, sometimes perceived and sometimes obscured by the same communities called to cope with it.