Insiders and Outsiders in Baluchistan: Western and Indigenous Perspectives on Ecology and Development

The evolutionary ecologist knows implicitly that his professional activity, like all other human activity, takes place within the evolutionary process. Ecology as a type of study has been pursued in various paradigms, most particularly a systemic "ecosystems" paradigm, and an evolutionary paradigm. Social scientists are prepared for questions of politics and morals, but with rare exceptions do not adequately understand ecology. The organization of human activity commonly transcends the boundaries of ecosystems or habitats, and cannot therefore be usefully analyzed in terms of the ecologists' universe of study. Baluchistan is the western province of Pakistan. The name comes from the Baluch, who comprise the majority of the population throughout most of the province, as well as in the neighboring province of Iran and the adjoining part of southern Afghanistan. In Makran, the south-western division of the province of Baluchistan in western Pakistan, and across the border in Iran, the nomadic pastoralists play a particularly significant social role.