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How Cultural And Biological Diversity Are Not Incompatible

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How Cultural and Biological Diversity are Not Incompatible (Option One Essay) What is Cultural and Biological diversity? Cultural diversity is the existence of multiple cultures or ethnic groups in a society. Biological diversity means the variability among all different living organisms. Both articles, “Ecological Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North pakistan” by Fredrik barth and “Changes in The Land” by William Cronon suggest that both cultural and biological diversity are not incompatible with each other. Does this mean that one does not affect the other other? Well, in Barth’s article he describes inter group relations that appear beneficial to all groups involved in the Swat region, North Pakistan. While in the other hand Cronon states a situation where one group almost completely removes another. Barth examines three groups in their relationships with the natural habitat and with one another in terms of using the concept of a niche, meaning “the place of a group in the total environment, its relations to resources and competitors” (Barth, 1079). The three groups Barth examins are the Pathans who are the sedentary agriculturalists; Kohostanis who practice agriculture and transhumant herding; and lastly the Gujars who are nomadic herders. The Gujars are under a single political leader that organizes groups by lineages and clans. The Pathans are seemed as the most powerful ones. All groups had different political systems that worked with one another. Within

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