Ethnic Minorities and Marginality in the Pamirian Knot: Survival of Wakhi and Kirghiz in a Harsh Environment and Global Contexts
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Geographical Journal, Vol. 169, No. 3, September 2003, pp. 215–235 BlackwellEthnic Publishing Ltd minorities and marginality in the Pamirian Knot: survival of Wakhi and Kirghiz in a harsh environment and global contexts HERMANN KREUTZMANN Institute of Geography, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Kochstr. 4/4, D-91054 Erlangen, Germany E-mail: [email protected] Accepted for publication in February 2003 This paper challenges the thesis that mountain areas are regions of refuge. The refuge concept attributes irrelevant exchange and limited communication to isolated mountain habitats which mainly depend on production for home consumption. In contrast, it is shown that exchange relations in all walks of life have been affected not only recently but for nearly two centuries in Central Asia, although the continued importance of subsistence strate- gies in the agricultural sector can be observed. The Pamirian Knot provides the moun- tainous interface between South and Central Asia for case studies of two ethnic communities – Wakhi mountain farmers and Kirghiz pastoralists – in order to exemplify socio-political developments in similar mountain environments. Examples are presented from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and the People’s Republic of China. The territories have been separated since the late nineteenth century by international boundaries conceived as the result of the imperial ‘Great Game’. Emphasis is placed on developments in the livestock sector and it is shown that adaptation to changing socio-political frameworks has affected the livelihood strategies of nomads and mountain farmers alike. KEY WORDS: Pamir, Central Asia, survival strategies, ethnicity, colonialism and post-colonialism, mountain pastoralism, Kirghiz, Wakhi unique communities characterized by their Introduction religious belief systems, relict or archaic languages, he remote valleys and plateaux of High Asia and certain behavioural patterns. According to the are well known for their inhabitants who refuge concept these communities have chosen Tsurvive under harsh conditions at high their lifestyle, but are also marginal groups in the altitudes. For example, the ecologically defined context of nation states and market participation. In upper limits of wheat and barley are found here. In contrast, this paper argues that strategies for addition, people who have chosen to live here are ‘security enhancement’ (Thompson 1997) in remote frequently identified as inhabiting ‘regions of locations can be based on agro-pastoral strategies refuge’ (Skeldon 1985) because conventional think- with a high degree of self-support, but which, at ing suggested that only external pressures, persecu- the same time, incorporate non-agrarian income tion and poverty could drive people to live at the opportunities such as mining, trade, porterage, highest possible locations. The refuge concept is smuggling and raiding. Nevertheless, the agricul- based on agrarian strategies and interrelated tural sector – either in supplying goods for domes- subsistence production by explicitly excluding tic consumption or for barter trade and markets supra-regional exchange relations. It is argued that – has undergone tremendous changes initiated this search for security is responsible for seclusion mainly by external socio-political developments in from the outside world and for the creation of a similar manner as all other means of survival (cf. 0016-7398/03/0003-0215/$00.20/0 © 2003 The Royal Geographical Society 216 Ethnic minorities and marginality in the Pamirian Knot Funnell and Parish 2001; Humphrey and Sneath great deserts of Chinese Turkestan and the huge desolate 1999; Kreutzmann 1998 2003; Ortner 1989; van plateau of Tibet separate the Khirghiz from India and Spengen 2000). One of the key areas of overlap all outside influences in that direction. On the east between the remoteness of mountain livelihoods and west they are also shut in by deserts so that they and integration into world markets seems to be the come in contact only with nomads like themselves. Inner Asian mountain belt. Huntington and Cushing 1924, 12 Our knowledge about the people of the Pamirs, Hindukush and Karakoram is based on contempo- Consequently they feature prominently as non- rary narratives, and is influenced by travelogues modern people when it comes to progress: from early nineteenth-century ‘explorers’ and subsequent travellers who personally faced the Among nomads like the Khirghiz education and difficult environmental conditions by traversing the science are even less developed than government . roof of the world (bam-e dunya). In addition, The absence of contact with outside people and their archived documents from colonial administrators, own lack of inquisitiveness prevent the Kirghiz from messengers, surveyors and spies exist which need making scientific discoveries . Thus civilization remains to be interpreted in the context of imperial interests stationary. The Khirghiz are not savages, but the gulf in ‘spheres of influence’. Two ethnic groups between them and the more enlightened nations is predominantly feature in these reports: the Wakhi growing wider. The influence of European civilization and the Kirghiz. In the most remote locations they has begun to reach them, but their mode of life will provided transport by yaks (Bos grunniens), probably change only a little so long as they depend Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) and horses to chiefly upon grass of the plains and high plateaus. the rare travellers and trans-montane traders to Huntington and Cushing 1924, 21 safeguard their journeys across high passes. Geo- graphical research in the Pamirs has a long tradition, Huntington was one of the first geographers to do especially during colonial times and during the fieldwork among the Kirghiz and placed their case ‘Great Game’ when this area was the focus of the quite prominently in a textbook (Huntington and then two super powers – Russia and Great Britain Cushing 1924). His assessments influenced theories (cf. among others Bobrinskiy 1908; Gordon 1876; about remoteness and development in the moun- Dunmore 1983; Jaworskij 1885; Olufsen 1904; tainous periphery, although he visited the area Snyesreff 1909; Wood 1841). Lord Curzon published, at the peak of the ‘Great Game’. in The Geographical Journal, a three-piece treatise The aim of this paper is to challenge the thesis on The Pamirs and the source of the Oxus (Curzon that physical remoteness goes hand in hand with 1896) in which he summarized the state of the absence of political interference and negligible knowledge at the end of the nineteenth century, commercial exchange relations. The varied spec- highlighting the remoteness, the harsh living con- trum of possible developments is exemplified in five ditions and the geopolitical characteristics of the brief case studies from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, area. For a long period his advocacy of the ‘forward People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) and policy’ influenced the basis of imperial dealings Pakistan in which structural developments are with this part of the world. His compilation was emphasized in an environment that experienced of special interest to the Foreign Office in London international boundaries for the first time a little due to the establishment of Pamirski Post, the more than a century ago, but where ecological Russian outpost in the Pamirs, in 1891. This garrison conditions are not that variable across these borders. was partly given up in June 2002 when Russian To contrast earlier views the local actors are the soldiers were meant to evacuate Murghab – the Wakhi and Kirghiz mountain dwellers who have modern name for Pamirski Post. Most recent develop- responded in different ways to external pressures ments in the wake of the Iraq War suggest that their and their incorporation in nation states (Figure 1). presence on the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border The twentieth century brought even stronger ‘winds might continue. of change’ than the previous century. The stand- Nearly a century ago Ellsworth Huntington (1905 ards of living, mobility and levels of political and 1907) identified the inhabitants of Central Asia, commercial participation were modified by socio- and especially the Kirghiz nomads, as the antipodes political systems which significantly influenced life- of Western civilization: styles, levels of educational attainment and survival conditions in remote mountain locations such as So low are they in the scale of civilization that they the Pamirs. The ‘Cold War’ created hermetically know almost nothing of manufacturing, science or closed frontiers and stifled exchange across borders. art . According to our standards the Khirghiz are Separate societies with affiliated cultural expressions dirty, lazy, and unprogressive . On the south the and economic options came into being. Only after Tashkent US- Alichur Pamir Chudschand Yashil Köl chur A BEK. Ali k su Sasik Köl Murghab Lakhshak Bash Gumbaz T Khorog 5888 6370 Taxkorgan Targakakti Dawan a Dawan g Qizil Ribat 5620 h Dawan d 6654 u Qizil Ribat m Ethnic minoritiesandmarginalityinthePamirianKnot Zor Köl b Koh-e Tezek Dawan a s 4694 Sari Koram h 5698 Pamir Burgatai Dawan AK Yol Mazar -e Kalan Dawan Mulk Ali Dafdar Pik Povalo h 5804 Besh Ötök as Chakmaktin Köl Shveikovski b Köl Karajilga Dawan um Mazar 5744 ghd Paik r Pamir-e Khurd K Ta i Koh-e Pamir Wakhjir ara ir Pik Karla am Bozai Gumbaz Kilik Chukur m 6724 P 6320 i Pa Marksa a l Shambede Langar s w Langar Zung l