Hermann Kreutzmann - Böcker

By emphasizing on the Pamir region a comprehensive overviewof path-dependent and recent developments in a remote mountain region isprovided in this book. Overall neglect in the mountainous periphery iscontrasted by shifting the centre of attention to the Pamirssituated at the interface between South and Central Asia. From colonialtimes to now there has been a debate on grasping and locating the area. Herefield-work based contributions are collected to provide a variety ofperspectives on the Pamirs highlighting transformation and transition inPost-Soviet societies as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The similarecological environment across borders features the common groundwhile analyzing development processes in a set of case studies that aim athighlighting certain aspects of regional development.

By emphasizing on the Pamir region a comprehensive overviewof path-dependent and recent developments in a remote mountain region isprovided in this book.

In Pamirian Crossroads and Beyond Hermann Kreutzmann offers insights in his fieldwork-based research in High Asia during four decades. A human-geographical perspective is pursued in which case studies about colonial and post-colonial boundary-making, exchange relations of mountain communities across international borders, the transformation of agricultural and pastoral practices and the effects of modernisation strategies in neighbouring countries are centred in the Hindukush, Wakhan Quadrangle, Pamirian Crossroads, Karakoram Mountains and Himalaya. Empirical evidence is augmented by in-depth archival research, thus allowing a perspective from the 19th to the 21st century. By shifting the focus to mountain peripheries and emphasising spaces in between urban centres of power in Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the Central Asian Republics different arenas of confrontation and effective changes emerge.

In conventional views, pastoralism was classified as a stage of civilization that needed to be abolished and transcended in order to reach a higher level of development. In this context, global approaches to modernize a rural society have been ubiquitous phenomena independent of ideological contexts. The 20th century experienced a variety of concepts to settle mobile groups and to transfer their lifestyles to modern perceptions. Permanent settlements are the vivid expression of an ideology-driven approach. Modernization theory captured all walks of life and tried to optimize breeding techniques, pasture utilization, transport and processing concepts. New insights into other aspects of pastoralism such as its role as an adaptive strategy to use marginal resources in remote locations with difficult access could only be understood as a critique of capitalist and communist concepts of modernization. In recent years a renaissance of modernization theory-led development activities canbe observed. Higher inputs from external funding, fencing of pastures and settlement of pastoralists in new townships are the vivid expression of 'modern' pastoralism in urban contexts. The new modernization programme incorporates resettlement and transformation of lifestyles as to be justified by environmental pressure in order to reduce degradation in the age of climate change.