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Recent Economic Changes in Boir Ahmad: Regional Growth without Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Reinhold L. Loeffler
Reinhold L. Loeffler*
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University
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Extract

I concluded my previous paper on this subject with the remark that the people of Boir Ahmad, faced with the depletion of their pastures, the unavailability of new land, the difficulty of obtaining higher education, and the low wages earned from migrant labor, were looking toward the future trusting a merciful God to open, as they say, five doors for each one that was closed. That was in 1971. Since then, doors have indeed been opening up for the people of Boir Ahmad, a process which is filling them with new expectations for the future, but which is also changing basically the structure of their traditional way of life. These changes are most pronounced in the western and eastern parts of Boir Ahmad, i.e., in the nearer and farther environs of the administrative centers of Yasuj and Deh Dasht. In the present paper I shall describe these changes, using as an example a village 36 kilometers to the northwest of Yasuj, the Deh Bozorg Sisakht, commonly called Sisakht, the largest village of Boir Ahmad (pop. in 1976: 2596).

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1976 , pp. 266 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 1976

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References

Notes

1. Loeffler, R. “The National Integration of Boir Ahmad,” Iranian Studies, Vol. VI, Nos. 2-3 (Spring-Summer 1973), pp. 127-135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. The material on which this paper is based was collected between February and August 1976. I am grateful to Western Michigan University for a sabbatical leave; to the Ministry of Culture and Arts (Iran) and especially Mr. Khalighi, for granting the research permit; and last but not least, to the people of Sisakht and Boir Ahmad for their untiring willingness to share their experiences with me.

3. The following computation is based on 30 milk-giving animals (21 goats and 9 sheep), which corresponds to a herd of about 45 animals of one year or older, a sizeable herd by Sisakhti standards. If the estimate is slanted in either direction, it is rather toward the favorable side, as the productivity figures are optimistic (with an overall loss rate of only 10 percent and only moderate needs and consumption in the producing household of animals and dairy products) and the cost figures, especially for 1976, are rather conservative. Also, I did not take into account the general decline of milk productivity due to the depletion of pasturage and the consequent later onset of vegetation and the milking season.

4. Loeffler, R. “Aktuelle ethno-sozio-logische Probleme des Nomadentums.” In Besters, H. et al., eds., Nomadismus als Entwicklungsproblem (Bertelsmann Universitatsverlag, 1969), pp. 68-78.Google Scholar

5. National Census of Population and Housing, November 1966; Vol. 164: Boyer Ahmad and Kohkiluyeh Farmandarikol (Teheran: Plan Organization, Iranian Statistical Centre, 1968), p. 1.Google Scholar

6. Lambton, Ann K. S. Landlord and Peasant in Persia (London, 1953), passim.Google Scholar