Claiming the High Ground: Sherpas, Subsistence and Environmental Change in the Highest

Stanley Stevens brings new ecological and historical perspectives to his

study of a subsistence society in ever-increasing contact with the outside

world. The Sherpas of the Mount Everest region, famous for their

mountaineering exploits, have frequently been depicted as victims of the

world’s highest-altitude tourist boom. But have the Sherpas and their

homeland been transformed by tourism? He is the first to analyze the

complex interaction of local environmental knowledge, cultural beliefs, and

socio-economic and political conditions in changing sherpas subsistence

strategies, land use practices, and local resources management

institutions. Claiming the High ground is must reading for all those

interested peoples and concerned about the conservation of the earth’s high

places.

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