Transformation bergnomadischer Gruppen in mobile Gelegenheitsarbeiter eine Fallstudie aus Nord-Belutschistan, Pakistan

Abstract

The decline and change of nomadism are visible throughout the dry belt of the Old World, and the topic has already been frequently treated. Yet it is still interesting to consider the causes, the intensity, and the degree of irreversibility of such processes with respect to specific cases. A particularly impressive example is provided by the Pathan live stock-keepers practising vertical-short range nomadism in the north of the mountainous province of Baluchistan (Pakistan). Under the impact of the British colonial administration (1878-1947), the Government of Pakistan (since 1947) and the presence of Afghan refugees (since 1979) a radical transformation has taken place: the former mountain nomads have now become mobile casual labourers. In former terms, they still display elements of nomadism; structurally, however, they practise a completely different economy and life-style. They depend entirely on extra-pastoral sources for their subsistence and are compelled to undertake many kinds of migration. Spatial mobility has practically become a survival strategy. Such strategies are not restricted to the nomadic habit. On the contrary, they represent a general, and as yet underestimated, phenomenon in all the developing countries where increasing numbers of people are compelled to share extremely limited resources at constantly changing locations in order to survive.