Description

From back cover of Book: This collection of new and revised essays by Professor Robert E. Rhoades represents a seasoned and insightful personal statement on the conditions of the world’s mountains. Drawing on more than forty years of experience in the Andes, Himalayas, Alps and Appalachia, he sets forth his views on why humankind needs to listed to the mountains. This book combines the strengths of autobiographical writing and analytical mountain anthropology. It carries the reader from the author’s earliest engagements as an “expert flatlander” in Nepal through his conversion to a dedicated defender of traditional mountain wisdom. In recent years, Rhoades has witnessed the destruction of mountain cultures as globalization makes inroads into regions which he once visited as isolated “islands in the sky”. He analyzes how exploitation by the powerful lowlands has led to poverty, out-migration, warfare and conflict, climate change and the demise of traditional mountain ways. To reverse this downward spiral, Rhoades calls on governments, development workers and scholars to unite and develop an integrated science of the mountains, which is relevant to the well-being of mountain people.