Mountain People Research Articles

Autonomous District Councils and the Governor’s Role in the Northeast India

The office of governor with respect to the Sixth Schedule states does have many important functions unlike the other states of the country, and for that matter even the Fifth Schedule area states. The governor has been endowed with some discretionary power to maintain balance between the Constitution and the autonomy and identity of the smaller minority hill tribes of the northeast region, especially in the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. The object of the article is to examine the discretionary power of the governor in the context of the autonomous district councils (ADCs) under the Sixth Schedule areas of northeast India. Specifically, the discretionary powers that are bestowed with this office need serious look as to their operation as well as relevance. The second section of this article briefly describes the historical as well as constitutional origin of the ADCs. The third section deals with the relevant constitutional provisions per se vis-à-vis the discretionary powers of the governor under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution with some examples, especially relating to Mizoram. The concluding section provides some general remarks regarding the relevance of ADCs in ensuring real autonomy of the hill tribes in the context of the various structural and operational constraints.

The Development of Russia-Mountain People Interaction in the last quarter of XVIII century in the Context of Factors, Prospective and Problems of Integrating of Mountain People into Imperial State System

The Development of Russia-Mountain People Interaction in the last quarter of XVIII century in the Context of Factors, Prospective and Problems of Integrating of Mountain People into Imperial State System

Dereliction of Duties or the Politics of ‘Political Quadrangle’? The Governor, Hill Areas Committee and Upsurge in the Hills of Manipur

This article looks into the role of the Governor of Manipur, particularly its ‘special responsibility’ under Article 371C of the Constitution of India, ‘in order to secure the proper functioning’ of the Hill Areas Committee (HAC), and attempts to explore whether there is dereliction of duties on the part of the governor in fulfilling what the constitution intents. Consequently, it examines whether the HAC is able to perform its functions under the Manipur Legislative Assembly (Hill Areas Committee) Order, 1972, to ‘safeguard the interest of the people of the Hill Areas’. The article identifies the existence of the politics of ‘political quadrangle’ which unleash a peculiar ‘political process’ in which the role and functions of the governor and the HAC are constrained in protecting the rights and interests of the hill people. This ‘politics’ is largely shaped by the very peculiar political process in the state, particularly the electoral trend and government formation, in which there is propensity to change government with the corresponding change in the ruling party at the centre. This has a significant role to play as the majoritarian state government’s reluctance for tribal autonomy is perpetuated by the existence of the same political regime at the centre, with a politically affiliated and politically appointed governor, in which acting on the ‘advice of’ largely becomes ‘diktat of’ the ‘council of ministers’, thereby circumscribing the role and functions of the governor and the HAC. The recent upsurge in the hills of Manipur is a clear case of the state Legislative Assembly overriding the HAC on scheduled matters that affect the hill areas.

From Fragmented to Integrated Knowledge for Sustainable Water and Land Management and Governance in Highland–Lowland Contexts

The crucial role mountain ecosystems play for mountain communities and people living in the lowlands is emphasized by the 3 mountain-specific targets of Agenda 2030 (targets 6.6, 15.1, and 15.4). To achieve these targets, sound and integrated knowledge is needed for policy- and decision-making that fosters sustainable management of water and land resources in mountain areas, including equitable negotiation of trade-offs between stakeholders. The Water and Land Resources Centres in Kenya and Ethiopia and the recently approved Global Land Programme working group on Land Systems for Mountain Futures are just 2 of a number of initiatives launched by the Centre for Development and Environment and its partners to integrate and share knowledge for evidence-informed policies and practices aimed at safeguarding key mountain ecosystem services.

Return of the Frontier

The colony in British India had at one time designed an inner line to distinguish two separate systems of administration for the frontier areas and the nonfrontier areas of colonial Northeast India. Constructing the frontiers as areas of strife and conflict and from which the nonfrontiers always needed to be secured, the British in creating the line made an instrument of policing the frontiers that has not only persisted but transgressed the colonial administrative structure into the postcolonial era. Although it was designed really for the protection of the nonfrontier areas of Assam from the raiding of the hill tribes of the frontier, in implementation the line prohibited non-natives of the frontiers from adopting interest in land or products of land located behind it. Contemporary movements demanding an inner line in three states of Northeast India have gone back to the idea of a line that divides the territory into two nonhomogenous areas, disallowing non-natives within the inner line from an extended involvement in the areas outside of the line, thus, refrontierizing themselves and giving them the peculiar characteristics of the frontier, wanting to lend themselves an exterior identity that is distinct from the identity of the regular nonfrontier territory in India.

Plastic landscapes, plastic identities: Akha identity on the threshold of definition

In his study of communities in upland Southeast Asia, James Scott cites the practice of shifting cultivation as being reflective of state evasion. The Akha tribe of Northern Thailand destabilises this correlation, and demands a more nuanced notion in which identity is actively negotiated between state intervention and traditional landscape plasticity. While historically employed as a method of state evasion, shifting agriculture has become enmeshed in Akha ritual performance as a signifier of identity. While Scott claims that shifting agriculture implies a divorce from state interaction, the Akha employ subversive agriculture techniques and adopt state policies according to highly localised conceptions. According to Forsyth and Michaud, hill people capitalise upon their capabilities within a shifting political and economic context—with the Akha adopting a system of composite swiddening and invisibly subverting state land use policies. Under a system Janet Sturgeon conceptualised as ‘landscape plasticity’, forests can become swidden fields and then revert back to forests as the Akha assert their agency to sustain mutable landscapes that incorporate both present and future use. Thus, the Akha negotiate boundaries of topography and modernity to subvert state intervention and adopt a plasticity of landscape and identity.

‘A taste of this lively language’: attitudes towards languages other than English in lonely planet phrasebooks

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses language attitudes towards non-English, mostly non-Western, languages in the phrasebooks published by Lonely Planet for English-speaking travellers to multilingual regions of the Global South. Specifically, this paper examines attitudes towards the languages exemplified in Lonely Planet’s second edition of Africa: Phrasebook and Dictionary (2013), second edition of India: Phrasebook and Dictionary (2014), fourth edition of Pidgin: Phrasebook (2015), third edition of Hill Tribes (2008), second edition of South Pacific Phrasebook (2008), and third edition of Southeast Asia: Phrasebook and Dictionary (2013). In so doing, this research argues that the phrasebooks describe these languages and their speakers as exotic, monolithic, simplistic, and deterministic; and construct the traveller’s efforts to use these languages as acts of benevolence.

Social-boundary defence, mountain people and obsidian in the Absaroka and Beartooth mountains of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, USA

The model of social-boundary defence predicts that forager groups that can assist each other during times of hardship will maintain close social relationships and permissive access to one another’s...

FOLK MEDICINE OF THE LOWER TEREK COSSACKS (19th - EARLY 20th CC.)

The article deals with an underinvestigated problem of ethnography of the Lower Terek Cossacks - folk medicine. The author of the article considers the methods of treatment of the most common diseases among the Lower Terek Cossacks in the 19th-early 20th cc. - the diseases of heart, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary system, head, musculoskeletal system, skin, as well as neuropsychic, children’s diseases and others. It is shown that using the medicines of vegetable and animal origin, hirudotherapy, diets, physical action and accumulated empirical knowledge, healers managed to treat many diseases, thereby compensated for a shortcoming of medical institutions and healthcare personnel. The analysis of the collected field ethnographic data testifies to the wide use of irrational methods of treatment in folk medicine. The popularity of healing magic is explained by the fact that in most cases it achieved the desired result and had a certain psychotherapeutic effect. Folk medicine of the Lower Terek Cossacks has much in common with that of the Dagestan peoples in the methods of treating various diseases and its close connection with the ecological characteristics of the environment. Ethnographic materials show that in extreme cases (bullet wounds, puncture wounds), the Lower Terek Cossacks sought treatment from mountain physicians who were skilled in treating gunshot wounds. Examples of interaction between the Lower Terek Cossacks and mountain peoples in various spheres, including folk medicine, indicate that the Lower Terek Cossacks have blended in with the North Caucasus cultural space and become an integral part of it though they were not the indigenous population of the region.

Morphological signatures of high-altitude adaptations in the Andean archaeological record: Distinguishing developmental plasticity and natural selection

High-altitude hypoxia is one of many environmental stressors affecting human populations in the highland Andes. Living highland Andeans show adaptive physiological responses to these conditions through both developmental plasticity and natural selection. Given the longevity of human settlement in this region, these same responses ought to have affected ancient Andeans. This paper tests whether developmental plasticity or natural selection best explains the morphological signatures of adaptations to high-altitude hypoxia in ancient highland Andeans. I compare four groups of skeletons: two groups from lowland regions and two groups from high elevations. Previous work shows that the two highland groups have small bodies and voluminous ribs compared with the lowland groups indicating morphological adaptations to high-altitude environments. This paper compares patterns of intrinsic variation and sexual dimorphism in body size, limb lengths, and rib morphology in highland and lowland groups to test if developmental plasticity or natural selection underlies these morphological differences. The four groups share similar patterns of sexual dimorphism and intrinsic variation in body size and limb lengths. The two highland samples show greater degrees of sexual dimorphism in rib morphology than the lowlanders. Patterns of intrinsic variation in rib morphology do not sort by altitude. Both natural selection and developmental plasticity in response to high-altitude hypoxia likely shaped skeletal morphology in ancient highland Andeans.

‘How our forebears lived’: the modern nation, its folklore and ‘living’ heritage in twentieth-century Australia

ABSTRACTThis article examines the creation of the Swan Hill Folk Museum, which opened in 1966 following an upsurge of interest in Australia’s pioneer and environmental history and heritage. Initially designed by the modernist architect Roy Grounds in collaboration with Eric Westbrook, the director of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Folk Museum offered an innovative interpretation of the past aimed to bolster regional development and tourism. We examine the genesis of the Folk Museum, later renamed the Swan Hill Pioneer Settlement, as a negotiation between local, regional and national narratives about the cultural, environmental and historical impacts of settler colonialism in Australia. The economic success of the Swan Hill Folk Museum in the 1960s and 1970s would inform the creation of numerous open-air pioneer museums throughout Australia during the second half of the twentieth century, and these shaped understandings of the histories, geographies and heritages of rural Australia.

Myth and reality of the eco-crisis in Nepal Himalaya

The Himalaya extends from the Pamir in the west to the valley of the Brahmaputra in the east for nearly 2,500 km and passes through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan. The Himalayan area by virtue of its complex geologic structure, snow-capped peaks, a variety of natural landscapes, mountain peoples of unique socio-cultural diversities and adaptation mechanisms has attracted outsiders from the past. The favorable government policies and peaceful native people of the Nepal Himalaya have welcomed thousands of tourists, trekkers and researchers to fulfill their various aspirations and interests. However, the country is often blamed for causing the so-called eco-crisis in the region. During the 1970s and 1980s, publishing several books and articles with attractive titles, some mountain experts showed solidarity with those who propounded a hypothetical theory of Himalayan environmental degradation on the basis of the limited samples collected from a few localities. In this context, the present study is an attempt to review the available literatures and case studies in order to evaluate the potentiality of the so called eco-crisis/environmental degradation in the Nepal Himalaya areas. It also attempts to analyze the present scenarios in relation to the key factors within the area to judge its validity.The Geographical Journal of Nepal Vol. 10: 39-54, 2017

Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services in High Mountain Areas: A Literature Review

High mountain areas are experiencing some of the earliest and greatest impacts of climate change. However, knowledge on how climate change impacts multiple ecosystem services that benefit different stakeholder groups remains scattered in the literature. This article presents a review of the literature on climate change impacts on ecosystem services benefiting local communities and tourists in high mountain areas. Results show a lack of studies focused on the global South, especially where there are tropical glaciers, which are likely to be the first to disappear. Climate change impacts can be classified as impacts on food and feed, water availability, natural hazards regulation, spirituality and cultural identity, aesthetics, and recreation. In turn, climate change impacts on infrastructure and accessibility also affect ecosystem services. Several of these impacts are a direct threat to the lives of mountain peoples, their livelihoods and their culture. Mountain tourism is experiencing abrupt changes too. The magnitude of impacts make it necessary to strengthen measures to adapt to climate change in high mountain areas.

FAO's Work in Sustainable Mountain Development and Watershed Management—A 2017 Update

The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has propelled the effective implementation of sustainable mountain development. The 2030 Agenda recognizes that livelihoods and natural resources cannot be addressed separately. Investing in the sustainable development of mountain communities and ecosystem conservation will provide benefits for humanity as a whole. Since its appointment as task manager for Chapter 13 of Agenda 21 in 1992, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has worked for sustainable mountain development and has thus contributed to increasing global awareness of the importance of mountain ecosystems and the plight of mountain peoples.

Frédéric Bourdier, Maxime Boutry, Jacques Ivanoff, and Olivier Ferrari. From Padi States to Commercial States: Reflections on Identity and the Social Construction Space in the Borderlands of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar

From Padi States to Commercial States: Reflections on Identity and the Social Construction Space in the Borderlands of Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar Frederic Bourdier, Maxime Boutry, Jacques Ivanoff, and Olivier Ferrari Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2015, 168pp.The case studies in this book encompass the utilization of, and an extension of, James Scott's concept. Deriving from anthropological works that focus on the adaptation strategies of the border population (p. 15), the book focuses on the enactment of alternative histories and (borderland) societies well on a revisiting of contemporary state-society relations, borrowing from the concept of Zomia. The authors add to the debates regarding Scott's Zomia, in their words de-territorialize (p. 15) the concept of Zomia and focus on the Inner Zomians, defined cast-out and widely dispersed migrants, modern resisters residing within ethno-national borders (p. 15).The argument is that even though Zomia territory has been penetrated by the emergence of a based on a paddy cash crop economy that serves a system of statehood where rice-farming constitutes the basis of power (p. 16), the post-colonial structures of control remain partial (p. 16). This can be seen in the cultural and economic exchanges well social and ethnic dynamism established between the commercial state and the Zomia communities.To be more precise, the quote on page 24 narrates the main focus of the book:. . . the modalities of the implementation of identities and the transformation of the interethnic relations provoked by development . . . starting from the center, reconfigure a Zomian reality that remains geographically hard for the center to access and exploit . . . we are attempting to understand the strategies that have been developed by the populations who are no longer external to the state and have become integrated, but who still remain externalized, either through their own will or through the state's paradoxical discourse resulting from a desire to integrate these groups without putting an end to stigmatization. (p. 24)The chapters celebrate the creativity and adaptability of the (inner) Zomians and address the questions of domination, resistance, and resilient acts through the politics of ethnic identification and construction. Despite the encroachment of the nation-states' developmental programs-some have even penetrated into Zomia territory and have impacted the socioeconomic development of minorities-the political economy of the borderlands operates as an element of reflection for our complementary understanding of a socio-cultural that cannot be restricted to a geographical landscape (p. 16) but arguably extends to cultural (ethnicity, religion, ideology) of the Inner Zomian . . . that is not only ethnic . . . but also socio-ethnic (p. 18).The book does not limit itself to locating resistance, or the processes of not-being-governed (Scott 2009), between two opposite categories such ethnic/minority groups versus the state, but the within the group, coupled with their appropriative capabilities to adapt to differences and survive through the creation of new ethnic identities within the nation-state system.The inner Zomia refers to the particular strata (p. 2) within the populations and other territorial groups-namely, the Jarai of Cambodia (Chapter 2), Chinese entrepreneurs or taukays and migrants (Chapter 3), the Moken or sea-gypsies (Chapter 4), and the minority groups of Moklen and Urak Lawoi vis-a-vis the dominant populations of Thai, Sino-Thai, and Malay Muslims (Chapter 5)-that move and flow between the dual dynamics either in their relationship with the state or with other minorities (p. 18).In Chapter 2, Frederic Bourdier's analysis locates the infinity of ethnic identity of the hill people and the resilience of Zomia in the borderland of northeast Cambodia despite the penetration of states activities. …

Mountain People in the Muang: Creation and Governance of a Tai Polity in Northern Laos

This paper traces the history of Luang Namtha, an intermontane valley basin in northern Laos, based on the narratives of non-Tai ethnic groups that collectively constitute a majority in the region. The narratives demonstrate the possibility of alternative histories of muang polities, which are a core part of our understanding g of Tai social and political organization. These narratives describe a central role for mountain people in the muang, including the formation, population, and development of what appears to be a Tai polity. This analysis suggests the need to open up our understanding of “traditional” Tai political spaces to accommodate an expanded historical agency for upland groups conventionally circumscribed within their own upland setting. This paper argues that the first step towards a more nuanced understanding of muang is recognizing them as cosmopolitan areas in which many sources g

Diversity and Allelopathic Potential of Weeds among Panamanian Coffee Crops

Worldwide, coffee is one of the most highly consumed and produced crops. Coffee production is a significant activity in the Panamanian economy, mainly in rural communities and among indigenous groups in the Chiriqui province highlands. Weeds growing alongside coffee plants can provoke considerable economic losses for producers by interfering with the growth, development and yield of coffee crop in cultivated areas. Designing an effective program to control weeds depends on identifying the different species found in the coffee plantations. The objective of this study was to assess the biological diversity and negative allelopathic potential of weeds in a coffee field to generate enough information that would better allow farmers to control them. As a result, we identified forty-two different species of weeds in all sampling transects within the study area. Emilia sonchifolia and Impatiens walleriana were the most abundant. In respect to phytotoxic activity, Emilia sonchifolia and Hyptis capitata showed the highest activity against the seed germination of dicotyledonous species Amaranthus hypochondriacus, exhibiting IC50 values of 160 and 178 µg mL-1, respectively. Finally, we proceeded to evaluate the organic extracts of two coffee weeds in a panel of bioassays to demonstrate to the farmers that weeds may also have useful applications for human health. Borreria verticillata showed antimalaric activity while Blechum pyramidatum displayed inhibition of the α-glucosidase enzyme. These results allow us to propose a rational and systematic management of coffee weeds.

BLACKSMITH LOCKS OF DAGESTAN (FORGOTTEN PAGES OF DARGIN ETHNOCULTURE)

Article is devoted to it to the phenomenon of the Dagestan ethnographic culture «forgotten» by scientists as superimposed forge locks. They aren't also in the state museums of the republic. Dagestanis had still such locks in which the locking mechanism widely known in the Middle Ages was used, as in Russia until recently, and in the east and the West. At the same time, the type of the lock (delivery note), a form of a design, its variation, an original forge pattern, names testify to the original ethnocultural phenomenon which sources aren't up to the end clear. Superimposed forge locks for the first time were revealed by us at Dargins of Dakhadayevsky district. Still in due time the famous caucasiologist E. M. Shilling paid attention that the ethnoculture of Dargins contains the interesting materials of archaic type which didn't remain at other mountain people of Dagestan. Field material demonstrates that such locks were generally manufactured by masters of villages Amuzgi and Harbuk. The description of a design of locks, in particular their spring mechanism is given. Some data on names of locks are provided in article and the attempt to explain their origin becomes. Material shows that all versions of names of forge locks of a local origin. In the Dargwa language the word "meg" means "iron", "metal". The same word, as a rule, designates also the lock. Forge superimposed locks of Dargins - the unique phenomenon of cultural history of Dagestan bearing on itself a seal of early traditions of metal working. It is obvious that it is necessary to continue searches of new materials and studying of this phenomenon of culture.

Mountains: A Special Issue

The special issues of the Annals allow the editors to highlight themes of international significance that showcase the breadth and depth of geography in a format accessible to a broad array of readers. This ninth special issue of the Annals of the AAG focuses on mountains. The understanding of mountain environments and peoples has been a focus of individual geographers for centuries and for the organized discipline of geography for more than a century; more recently, the geographical interest in mountain regions among researchers has been growing rapidly. The articles contained within are from a wide spectrum of researchers from different parts of the world who address physical, political, theoretical, social, empirical, environmental, methodological, and economic issues focused on the geography of mountains and their inhabitants. The articles in this special issue are organized into three themed sections with very loose boundaries between themes: (1) physical dynamics of mountain environments, (2) coupled human–physical dynamics, and (3) sociocultural dynamics in mountain regions.

Research Article Mitochondrial DNA control region analysis of three ethnic populations in lower Northern part of Thailand.

The lower northern part of Thailand contains various genetically diverse ethnic populations. The sequences of the mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region were studied in three ethnic populations inhabiting Phitsanulok Province. One hundred and nine nucleotide sequences - 53, 29, and 27 from Hmongs (Hill tribe), Lao Songs, and Thai-Siams, respectively - were collected. The haplotypes were generated from 1130 nucleotides of the entire control region. Eighty-six haplotypes were found in the three ethnic populations, and no shared haplotypes were found between populations. Point heteroplasmy was noted at position 311 (C→Y). Haplotypes with ACAC-insertion at position 512 were observed in immigrant individuals from the Lao Song population. The Thai-Siam population showed higher genetic diversity than the other populations. The Hmong and Lao Song populations showed less genetic diversity than those living in their original area. The neutrality testing suggested that the result might be influenced by genetic drift.