Highlands are an environment with a set of specific characteristics which influence strictly the settling process as well as the survival of the human societies. Geography and history have shown several interesting contextual adaptations throughout the Earth; these processes are strongly influenced by the cultural roots mainly referring to the (macro) regional socio-economic and political organizations but looking smaller and deeper they share common basic problems: to survive on the Mountain and to exploit the contextual resources.
A worldwide quick glance outlines that: besides different kinds of regional networks and ruling system find place a lower reticle of small communities strictly ruled by a truly short-range inter communal trade, clan and/or extended familiar parental systems, chiefdoms, dense networks, agro-pastoral economy. Drawing a sketch they are networks made by a great number of heterogeneous weak or singular subjects (ranging between the single person to a little groups) and/or relationships so dense connected directly and indirectly (direct active linkages and passive influences) to form an agglomerated entity. Some historical examples are:
- alpine communities, mainly on borders where contacts and shared “feelings” go beyond the national identity;
- near-eastern LBA and IA cultures like the Median, Trialeti, Urartu;
- the viking villages
- and geographically different but similar in exploitation, the island people.
All these different humans societies share the basic organization in heterogeneous interdependent economical units, by which each group tends to exploit at best his resources (material and unmaterial) to gain advantages for itself by the networking with the neighborhood. Who can forget the medieval French farmer described by Jacques Le Goff working for itself and to gain possibilities to acquire what he doesn’t produce? Or the Assyrian market organization in Anatolia which USE this background to collect resources? Or at least the common behavior in some place until now in the Alps to take advantage from the common periodical markets? Or the Albanian semi-feudal system until the 1930?
Such system, I call it Local Territorial System (LTS), appear to be worldwide present as well as deeply contextualized in the output shape but also it shares widely its “atoms” all the composing elements and processes. I mean not to generalize and not to follow an ecological path, but if a curve can be drawn about how much the environment and humanity influence themselves reciprocally, it appears that in constricting environments (mountains, forests and islands) the nature prevails and the technological advancements could change the “mole” of the processes as well as the informative paths but not the all-day dialectic. Closely to us, it appears the huge weight of modern farming tools and IT also in the highlands, I will not here syndicate the relevance of them, it’s far my competences and studies, but I ask: they change the relationship of men with the fields? How are they highland-spreed? Is the villages’ death also the death of the LTS? I would not affirm anything but isn’t it something that we have just observed? I leave these and other questions to modern anthropologists, I take the past.
The main characteristics of this freshly outlined LTS is to appear as a collective agent in the regional organization having a “inter change node” or more than one as a bridge between ranks. By that the LTS is really a subject influencing the whole territorial networking and assessment as well.
A blog is not the correct place to deploy scientifically this concept, but is a common place to present and share idea. The LTS I have observed diachronic, show how my research area (SE anaolia) is affected in the whole social and political history by the dialectic between macro and micro regional assessment and by the micro networks and the environments. Specifically, referring to the works of Zymansky, Diakonoff, Toumanoff, Kleiss, Lang, Biscione, the inner characteristics of autonomy, independence, direct relationship of the small folk with the local power instead with any form of kingship have marked the regional organization itself. The PhD research will answer at them but I’m strictly convicted that the LTS as research entity is effective outline the historical social networks.
