Mountain Communities Research Articles

From the Editor

From the Editor David J. Robinson As has now become almost routine, this edition of JLAG contains a highly differentiated collection of articles. The first takes us to one of the world’s best preserved wilderness areas --the Baja California peninsula. The authors insist that given the potential risks of poorly-controlled development a detailed physical geographical regionalization was urgently needed based on biotic richness and endemism. Their detailed analysis provides clear evidence that around thirty percent of the peninsula is still inadequately protected. Such conservation gaps have to be urgently assessed and remedied if the peninsula is to maintain its unique identity. The next article examines, with much-underused IRS data, the pattern of not only circular migration of Puerto Ricans, especially through the newly-emerging hub of Orlando, Florida, but also the income characteristics of the migrants. Though within Puerto Rico no data is available at the level of US counties, on the mainland the authors provide us with new maps of the county destinations of Puerto Rican migrants in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. In the next paper the focus switches to northern Peru, to the city of Cajamarca, to examine a critical factor in the city’s development: an adequate water supply. A team of German colleagues provide us with a detailed analysis of the water storage volume of a key watershed serving the city. Much has been published recently of Latin American water issues but here we are taken underground to appreciate the relevance of hydro-geological structures. Statistical analysis allows us to see that not only is soil conservation essential to preserve the stored water source, but attention must be paid to subsurface water paths. We next move from Peru to Brazil to read of a process associated with the private sector: ‘land-grabbing’ by national and multinational corporations. But here the story is quite distinctive given the fact that most of the grabbing of land is not only tolerated but actually assisted by the State. Under the blanket of the Growth Acceleration Program both state and federal governments have initiated private/public partnerships for implementing mega-projects, and if and when land is needed for their implementation by the various corporations the Constitution and relevant laws are conveniently set aside. Those who suffer are landowners and squatters, targets of eviction and clear victims of the Brazilian rush to develop at any cost. Morelia, Mexico, presents a much less radical context for the next paper that asks key questions that are relatively scarce in the published literature: what do residents of this city think of their ‘historic center’? One often forgets that in spite of the prestige afforded cities bestowed with entry on the World Heritage List (in this case since 1991), people have to live with the everyday consequences of such a citation. Security, parking, public transport, rising housing costs---the list of perceived issues is a familiar one, but one that visitors especially need to appreciate. Heritage for some often means daily inconvenience for many others. [End Page 3] Our next move is to Guatemala, to the Sierra de las Minas and the mountain community of Santa Rosalía, to read an analysis of yet another common question: why do people continue to live, apparently illogically, in zones that are sites of frequent natural physical hazards—in this case landslides? We learn from interview data and cartographic analysis that the diversified economic livelihoods provide cultural rootedness that defies re-location given the various hazards. Moving would be far more costly in cultural terms that merely persistently coping and rebuilding. From real physical hazards we next turn to the electronic world of the Internet. Though one might think, given the frequency of the word ‘globalized’ in so many contexts, that anybody can get in touch from one (real) place with anyone else (in another real place) via the Internet, Gustavo Buzai’s analysis of connections between Buenos Aires and neighboring cities, such as Asunción and Santiago de Chile, demonstrates just how dependent Latin American sites are on connections that go not directly from Argentina to Uruguay, but rather Argentina to the USA, and then back to Uruguay! Real geographic proximity...

Natural Hazards, Diverse Economy and Livelihoods in the Sierra de las Minas, Guatemala

Los residentes de la pequeña comunidad montañosa de Santa Rosalía en la Sierra de Las Minas, Guatemala, viven con la amenaza de riesgos naturales. A pesar de experimentar lluvias estacionales poco predecibles y los retos que estas conllevan, los residentes de Santa Rosalía continúan viviendo bajo circunstancias de aislamiento y vulnerabilidad. En nuestra investigación hacemos uso de análisis cartográficos, una evaluación histórica y datos de entrevistas para entender la manera en que personas sujetas a riesgos naturales continúan desarrollando sus vidas en sitios con estas características. En este trabajo integramos las teorías de diversidad de medios de vida, diversidad de economías, y sistemas humanos y naturales acoplados bajo un solo marco conceptual a través del cual evaluamos la diversidad de actividades y potencial de construcción de resiliencia para la gente y sitio.

A rare case of malignant schwannoma of the brachial plexus

We report a rare case of malignant schwannoma of the brachial plexus treated during a surgical campaign aimed at the poorest communities in the Cuzco region of Peru. A Peruvian 40-year-old-female from a mountain community presented with a mass on the lateral side of her left supraclavicular space. No imaging tools were available during this surgical campaign and so a biopsy of the tumor was carried out. Histopathological examination revealed it to be a low grade malignant schwannoma. A nerve enucleation of the tumor was chosen as neither chemotherapy nor radiotherapy was available. The tumour was a firm mass 4 cm x 3 cm x 2 cm in size. After excision of the lesion the patient presented neurological sequelae (deltoid, bicep, and tricep weakness) but her condition improved over the next 3 years. We report this case of malignant schwannoma of the brachial plexus as its incidence is very rare (the reported incidence is 0.001%) and because of its challenging treatment in poor healthcare conditions. © 2013 Baishideng. All rights reserved.

Medicinal plant use in two Andean communities located at different altitudes in the Bolívar Province, Peru

Ethnopharmacological relevanceThe study documents current medicinal plant knowledge and use in two Andean communities and depicts the dynamic nature of ethnobotanical relationships by illustrating cultural integration of biomedicine and local plant medicine into a complementary system. Aim of the studyIn order to elucidate the importance of medicinal plants, the following research questions were addressed: Which position do medicinal plants have in the local health care system? Which plants are used medicinally, and do they differ between the communities? Is their use supported pharmacologically? Materials and methodsFieldwork was done for seven months in 2010. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 120 informants in Uchumarca and Pusac/San Vicente de Paúl, and the medicinal plant species mentioned by the informants were vouchered. ResultsIn total, 2776 plant remedy use reports were recorded. Most people in both communities know at least some medicinal plants, usually from their parents, grandparents, sometimes from books. There are different types of local plant specialists, who are consulted above all for the treatment of diseases thought to have a magical origin or for recommendations of plants to treat minor diseases. Overall, 140 medicinal plants were documented, with a conformity of over 90% between the communities. The effective use of the most frequently cited medicinal plants is supported by scientific literature. Most uses were reported for the treatment of gastrointestinal (17%), nervous (14%), respiratory (14%), urological (13%) and dermatological diseases (8%); nervous diseases were more prevalent in the mountain community, while dermatological and urological diseases were more common in the valley. ConclusionsPeople combine medicinal plant use and biomedicine depending on the kind of disease, their beliefs, and their economic situation. The local use of different available medical resources is reflected by the combination of related epistemologies to explain disease causes. Medicinal plant use and biomedicine complement each other to form the local health care system.

Sex ratio and individual variability analysis within mountain communities of the western Alps

Sex ratio and individual variability analysis within mountain communities of the western Alps

Sex ratio and individual variability analysis within mountain communities of the western Alps

Sex ratio and individual variability analysis within mountain communities of the western Alps

Association of anorexia with sarcopenia in a community-dwelling elderly population: results from the ilSIRENTE study

There is increasing evidence that anorexia of aging can cause physical and mental impairment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between anorexia and sarcopenia in elderly persons aged 80 years or older. Data are from the baseline evaluation of 354 subjects enrolled in the ilSIRENTE study. The ilSIRENTE study is a prospective cohort study performed in the mountain community living in the Sirente geographic area (L'Aquila, Abruzzo) in Central Italy. We defined anorexia as the presence of loss of appetite and/or lower food intake. According to the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) criteria, diagnosis of sarcopenia required the documentation of low muscle mass plus the documentation of either low muscle strength or low physical performance. The relationship between anorexia and sarcopenia was estimated by deriving odds ratios from the multiple logistic regression models considering sarcopenia as the dependent variable. Nearly 21 % of the study sample showed symptoms of anorexia. Using the EWGSOP-suggested algorithm, 103 subjects (29.1 %) with sarcopenia were identified. Thirty-four (46.6 %) participants were affected by sarcopenia among subjects with anorexia compared to 69 subjects [24.6 %] without anorexia (p < 0.001). After adjusting for potential confounders including age, gender, functional and cognitive impairment, physical activity, urinary incontinence, comorbidity, congestive heart failure, COPD, depression, anti-cholinergic drugs, and TNF-α plasmatic levels, participants with anorexia had a higher risk of sarcopenia compared with non-anorexic subjects (HR 1.88, 95 % CI 1.01-3.51). Anorexia is common among community-dwelling older subjects in Italy. Our results suggest that among old-old subjects, anorexia is independently associated with sarcopenia.

Improving Quality of Life in Remote Mountain Communities

This article explores how physical remoteness influences the quality of life of people living in mountain communities in Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province. Basing its analysis on data obtained from a quality of life assessment carried out in Badakhshan, the article compares how quality of life indicators differed between villages that are more remote in terms of their access to markets, services, and transport, and those that are closer to small urban economic hubs. Indicators in a range of domains including the household economy, built environment, health, and education were poorer in remote villages. However, less tangible aspects of life such as trust between people, social cohesion, cultural life, and people's own perceptions of the quality of their lives were similar or better in these locations. Nevertheless, we argue that remoteness acts as an important barrier to improving many aspects of health and wellbeing in remote mountain villages. Market-led approaches by themselves are inadequate for helping to promote quality of life improvements in these communities. This research suggests that the holistic framework, mixed funding, and innovative approaches that the Aga Khan Development Network is pursuing as the main implementing partner of the National Solidarity Program in the province—including infrastructure development, strengthening local governance, and cross-border development programs with Tajikistan—stand a better chance of improving quality of life.

Dance and Martial Arts in Timor Leste: The Performance of Resilience in a Post-Conflict Environment

This paper is an ethnographic study of dance traditions and martial arts training in rural upland mountain communities and the urban capital, Dili, in Timor Leste, and how ‘speaking beyond trauma’ is articulated through body movements. It explores the relationship between individual body movement and socio-political–ecological movements, both at the level of the local (rural villages) and the global (global governance outfits). It examines the intersection/s between indigenous traditional Timorese dances (such as soro tais, sau batar, foti raba, likurai, bidu, tebedai, tebe-tebe and other dances) and external ideational influences brought in by the presence of UN Peacekeeping and Police and international aid workers (including aikido martial arts). What do dance traditions tell us about the resilience of cultural identity in a post-war, post-revolutionary, post-conflict environment? What kinds of impact do external ideational influences, including martial arts forms, have on local communities? How are gender systems and gender relations in the community transformed? It suggests that embodiment and local knowledges formed through practices and regimens of bodily discipline, grace and physical training (such as in ritual, martial arts and performing arts, for example), can complement and/or challenge abstract theoretical writings on ‘embodying peace’ in post-war countries.

Reconciling Sustainable Development of Mountain Communities With Large Carnivore Conservation

While the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, physically and culturally, the wildlife of remote mountain regions is being affected both positively and negatively by such interconnectedness. In the case of snow leopards, the conservation impact has been largely, and rather unexpectedly, positive: Species-focused conservation projects, such as Project Snow Leopard (PSL) in Gilgit-Baltistan, remain mainly externally driven initiatives. PSL, initiated as a small pilot project in 1998, has relied on an approach that includes the use of an insurance scheme, the deployment of mitigation measures, and the empowerment of local governance. This approach has been successful in reducing the conflict with snow leopards and has built greater tolerance toward them. PSL is managed by local communities and cofinanced by them. PSL communities throughout the region are bearing the burden of carnivore conservation, and they are unwittingly subsidizing their populations by “feeding” them their livestock even though they are an economic threat to them. In this article, we argue that external intervention in the form of efforts that help alleviate the consequences of conflict through local empowerment have had a positive impact on the local mountain societies. We also show that such interventions have resulted in tangible conservation results, with the number of snow leopards staying at least stable. Our experience also shows that while the incentive component is critical, it is also part of a larger approach—one that includes developing and supporting local governance structures, improving access to education, and offering a range of tools to reduce the conflict that can be implemented locally. Finally, we suggest that investing in this approach—one that recognizes the species and local-context complexities surrounding the implementation of conservation incentives—can continue to inform international practices and guidelines for reducing human–wildlife conflicts worldwide.

Traditional uses of wild food and medicinal plants among Brigasc, Kyé, and Provençal communities on the Western Italian Alps

An ethnobotanical field study on the traditional uses of wild medicinal and food plants was conducted in three linguistically distinct mountainous communities located at the East End of the Occitan macro-area, in the Western Italian Alps. Interviews with a total of 81 mid-aged and elderly informants were undertaken using standard ethnobotanical methods. The uses of 92 vascular plants belonging to 40 different plant families were recorded. Comparison of the collected data with the ethnobotanical findings of previously conducted studies in other Occitan/Provencal valleys (specifically the Stura and Varaita valleys) has shown that nearly the half of the uses recorded in this study were not reported in other valleys, strongly suggesting a heterogeneous character to Occitan ethnobotany. The specific uses of certain wild plants as famine foods and medicines in this region are highlighted.

A randomized controlled trial of the plastic-housing BioSand filter and its impact on diarrheal disease in Copan, Honduras.

Point of use drinking water treatment with the BioSand filter (BSF) allows people to treat their water in the home. The purpose of this research was to document the ability of the Hydraid plastic-housing BSF to reduce diarrheal disease in households who received a BSF in a randomized controlled trial. The trial of the Hydraid plastic-housing BSF was carried out in rural, mountainous communities in Copan, Honduras during April of 2008 to February of 2009. A logistic regression adjusting for clustering showed that the incidence of diarrheal disease in children under 5 years was reduced by approximately 45% (odds ratio = 0.55, 95% confidence interval = 0.28, 1.10) in households that had a BSF compared with those households without a BSF, but this finding fluctuated depending on season and was not statistically significant. Households with a BSF had significantly better drinking water quality regardless of water source or season.

Climate change, poverty and livelihoods: adaptation practices by rural mountain communities in Nepal

Effects of climate change tend to be more severe where people rely on weather dependent rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods. In rural mountain communities with limited livelihood options, adaptive capacity is low due to limited information, poor access to services, and inequitable access to productive assets. Few studies have reported on the current status of rural and remote mountain areas in Nepal with little known about adaptation strategies in use. This article is based on a study in the remote mountainous Jumla District of Nepal to explore how climate change is affecting the livelihood of local communities and how different wellbeing groups are differentially impacted. Looking from a wellbeing lens, adaptation practices by households as well as local support mechanisms were explored to predict the severity of effects now and into the future. Using a climate vulnerability and capacity analysis (CVCA) process, major climate hazards and their effects on livelihood resources were analyzed. In addition, participatory social research methods were used to analyze the coping strategies of different wellbeing groups. Results show that changing weather patterns have significantly challenged the livelihoods of a community, experiencing resource degradation, food scarcity, lack of basic services, and increasing social inequalities. The changing climate is an additional burden to the poor people in the mountains who are already living in poverty, are vulnerable and excluded with predictions of additional risks to livelihoods and further inequity in the future.

Where China meets India: Burma and the new crossroads of Asia

China and India have always been separated not only by the Himalayas, but also by the impenetrable jungle and remote areas that once stretched across Burma. Now this last great frontier will likely vanish - forests cut down, dirt roads replaced by superhighways, insurgencies ended - leaving China and India exposed to each other as never before. This basic shift in geography is as profound as the opening of the Suez Canal and is taking place just as the centre of the world's economy moves to the East. Thant Myint-U has travelled extensively across this vast territory, where high-speed trains and gleaming shopping malls now sit alongside the last remaining forests and impoverished mountain communities. In Where China Meets India he explores the new strategic centrality of Burma, the country of his ancestry, where Asia's two rising giant powers - China and India - appear to be vying for supremacy. Part travelogue, part history, part investigation, Where China Meets India takes us across the fast-changing Asian frontier, giving us a masterful account of the region's long and rich history and its sudden significance for the rest of the world. Thant Myint-U is the author of The River of Lost Footsteps and has written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the New Statesman. He has worked alongside Kofi Annan at the UN's Department of Political Affairs and currently works as a special consultant to the Burmese government.

Coping with climate-induced water stresses through time and space in the mountains of Southwest China

Southwest China’s Yunnan province has been affected throughout history by climate-induced water stresses, with the 2009 drought as a recent example. To deal with such stresses, mountain farmers have developed many local coping strategies. This paper provides case studies of these coping mechanisms in three mountain communities in Baoshan Municipality, Yunnan province. To minimize water-related environmental and economic vulnerabilities, our results show that upland farmers employ strategies both individually and collectively, which vary according to agroecological zone, economics, and historical period. Climate change is also emerging as an ongoing environmental challenge. We explore China’s options for introducing and implementing adaptation policies that link with farmer strategies to respond more effectively to water stresses induced by climate change and other forces.

Marginality, adaptation and farming in the New Zealand high country

New Zealand’s mountain areas are sparsely populated, and the direct impact of disasters in these areas is largely on agricultural communities and communication networks. Subject to earthquakes (mainly in the Southern Alps) and volcanic eruptions (on the Central Plateau of North Island) New Zealand’s mountain areas are more generally subject to problems of erosion and land slips and in the south, irregular, extreme snow falls. The impact of exceptionally heavy snow falls over the past 150 years of European settlement is relatively well documented. While modern technology might be thought to have lessened such impacts, the recent snowstorm of 2006 in South Canterbury highlights how such hazardous events continue to impact on communities in mountain and upland areas. The increased dependence on modern communication technologies and changes in the operation and management of modern farm systems are shown to compound the social and economic impact of such events. This impact is significantly modified by the size and structure of the farms concerned.

Communities Constructing Their Own Alternatives in the Face of Crisis

Abstract Based on our work in mountain communities in Mexico (and in other parts of Latin America), we suggest the need for a “dialogue of knowledge systems” or dialogo de saberes, a concept used in Latin America that is akin to the concept of transdisciplinarity used by some European scholars. If these societies are to liberate themselves from the globalized straitjackets imposed by international economic integration with its imperatives of “free” trade and markets, then communities have to expand beyond the improvement of individual capabilities and the exercise of individual freedoms. Although individual improvement and self-betterment continue to be significant objectives for direct intervention, we focus on the primacy of collective determinations of the worth of their activities and the focus on collective entitlements by assuring the viability of community processes for individual participation. An alternative strategy for participating communities is proposed.

Linking Mountain Community Practices to Sediment-Related Disaster Risk Reduction in Reihoku, Japan

Linking Mountain Community Practices to Sediment-Related Disaster Risk Reduction in Reihoku, Japan

The Sweet Hereafter by Atom Egoyan: Extreme loss and psychic survival

In a small mountain community of British Columbia a school bus swerves off the road, causing the death of 14 children. Mitchell Stephens, a New York lawyer, immediately enters the fray with the idea of instigating a large‐scale lawsuit to obtain compensation for the victims, making contact with each of the parents who had lost children in the accident. Many are persuaded to join his cause. The lawyer, bombarded by phone calls from his daughter, a drug addict, even turns to Dolores Driscoll, the bus driver, who survived the accident. The latter, however, with the support of her paraplegic husband, refuses to become involved in the lawsuit. Another character who is vigorously opposed to the collective cause is Billy Ansel, a garage owner who had already lost his beloved wife and witnesses the death of his two children from the pick‐up truck in which he is following the school bus. Among the survivors there is, finally, the 14-year‐old Nicole Burnell, who had dreamt of becoming a folk singer and now finds herself paralysed from the waist down. Nicole is initially persuaded by the lawyer and by her parents – in particular by her father Sam, with whom she has had an incestuous relationship – to testify in favour the party seeking compensation, but when she steps into the witness box, realizing that such legal action was misguided, she offers a ‘false’ account of the accident, invalidating the case. Two years after the tragedy of the school bus, Mitchell Stephens bumps into Allison, a friend of his daughter’s, on an airplane and ends up revealing to her some of his painful experiences.

A Mountaineer in Motion: The Memoir of Dr. Abraham Jobe, 1817-1906 (review)

Reviewed by: A Mountaineer in Motion: The Memoir of Dr. Abraham Jobe, 1817-1906 Kevin T. Barksdale (bio) A Mountaineer in Motion: The Memoir of Dr. Abraham Jobe, 1817-1906. Edited by David C. Hsiung. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2009. Pp. 224. Cloth, $37.95.) Abraham Jobe describes his memoir as a "hastily written sketch" that "ignores style" and is "reckless . . . with details" (2). Jobe warns that his "biographical sketch" is "not for publication" or "the literati" but is simply for the "perusal of my children and friends" (2). Thankfully, his manuscript found its way into East Tennessee State University's Archives of Appalachia and the hands of historian David C. Hsiung. From Jobe's youth in Tennessee's Cades Cove to his final days residing in the rapidly developing communities of eastern Tennessee, Hsiung teases out the historical and historiographical significance of Jobe's rich and revealing life. This autobiographical account of Abraham Jobe, who was born in the rugged mountains of East Tennessee, offers readers a glimpse into life in the nineteenth-century South. Over eighty-six years, Jobe witnessed the tragedy of Indian removal, the horrors of war, and the rise of the New South. The sprawling memoir allows its author and editor to offer insight into a diffuse range of subjects related to southern Appalachia, the Civil [End Page 571] War period, and Amerindian culture and politics. Jobe's dynamic occupational path reveals the complexity of southern Appalachia's economy, characterized by commercial agriculture, rural industry, and external market connections. As a salesman in Jonesboro, Tennessee, and store owner in Ringgold, Georgia, Jobe "participated in [southern Appalachia's] market revolution" (25). As he traveled the American South speculating in land and collecting debts from customers as distant as New Orleans, he stood on the forefront of Appalachia's economic transformation. Following the Civil War, Jobe found himself at the center of the New South's economic evolution, and his entrepreneurialism and regional boosterism placed him among a growing cadre of southern mountain business leaders. Jobe contributed to the growth of Appalachia's markets and southern trade linkages by constructing a woolen mill in North Carolina; a post office in Elk Park, North Carolina; and a branch of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad. He was also active in the development of eastern Tennessee's timber and iron industries. As Hsiung's commentary and Jobe's employment history demonstrate, the economy of southern Appalachia remained closely linked to regional and national markets, experienced economic developments comparable to those in the remainder of the South, contained a diversity of industries, and was driven by ambitious local entrepreneurs and boosters. Jobe's memoir provides a window into the life of a committed Unionist in war-torn eastern Tennessee. His account of the war and its aftermath joins a growing collection of contemporary sources recounting the terror, tumult, and factionalism of Civil War southern Appalachia. Jobe's description of partisan violence between Tennessee Unionists and Confederates, bushwhacking, bridge-burning plots, and political assassinations confirms what historians have written about this period. His arrest by local Confederates and harrowing flight to Ohio reveal his level of involvement in Unionist politics. During Reconstruction, Jobe continued his involvement in regional politics. His relationship with Andrew Johnson led to his appointment as a southern postmaster and to increased political influence within the Republican Party. Jobe's chronicle of the decade including the Civil War reveals the cataclysmic effects of divisive politics and combat on mountain communities. Throughout the course of his life, Jobe interacted a great deal with native peoples. From his youth in Cades Cove among the Cherokee to his postbellum work as a Bureau of Indian Affairs special agent to Minnesota's Chippewa, Jobe's life encompassed the tragic decades surrounding Indian removal and "civilization" efforts. Jobe's connections to the Cherokee are numerous, and his memoir provides insight into the community's removal [End Page 572] struggle. His "far flung" business ventures brought him into contact with the Creek, and despite Jobe's racism, his memoir and his familiarity with the Muscogee and Cherokee languages reveal his grudging respect for the South's indigenous cultures (25). Jobe's...