Yours today, mine tomorrow? : a study of women and men’s negotiations over resources in Baltistan, Pakistan

Abstract

How people manage their resources in order to sustain a living is a topic of central importance both to those working to improve the lives of the women and men of the mountain communities of the Himalayas, and those concerned with conserving the biodiversity of mountain habitats. This study explores the nature of women and men’s negotiations over resources in a high altitude village in Baltistan, Northern Areas of Pakistan. It seeks to better understand how women and men negotiate control and access to resources under changing contexts, and what this implies for both their livelihood situation and the ways in which they manage their resources. The focus on negotiations over resources in this study offers an alternative perspective of people’s relationship to their environment to studies which, for example, focus on the identification of fixed rules and rights over resources, or studies which focus on community resource management exclusively in relation to government regulations and policy, as if the community was an entity acting in unity. Fieldwork was conducted in Basho Valley, Baltistan, stretching over a period of four years. Empirical data was collected through participant observation and interviews. The findings show that a focus on negotiations reveals the importance of the dynamics of local power relations, processes of social differentiation, and issues of identity and morality in understanding women and men’s relationships between each other and ultimately with their environment. The study suggests that a better grasp of the dynamics of negotiations over resources will contribute to a better understanding of how policy is both interpreted and influenced by these processes.