Human Trafficking, Human Security, and the Balkans by Richard H. Friman , Simon Reich (review)

REVIEWS igi glacial periods to Soviet collectivization. The heart of Crate's analysis comes in chapter three, in a detailed discussion ofwhat she terms theViliui Sakha 'cows-and-kin system', a dense network of social, cultural, ecological and economic relationships that knit humans and cattie into a web of interdepen dence. Whereas the Soviet period was characterized largely by the centrali zation of agriculture and relative stability, the post-Soviet period brought rapid decentralization and radical instability to theViliui Sakha. Households' most common adaptive strategy in these uncertain times, Crate shows, was to increase their domestic herd sizes substantially and, concomitantly, to revive various sorts of ecological knowledge connected with raising cattle. In extended descriptions backed up with detailed case studies, Crate shows how thisnew focus on cattle also transformed relationships among kin: in the labour exchanges necessary for procuring hay; in the movement of foodstuffs through extended families; and inan emerging distinction between households that own cattle and those that do not. Chapter four then follows one important strand of the cows-and-kin system, tracing villagers' relationships to land through the Soviet period and into the post-Soviet years with particular emphasis on the recollections of elders. In her final chapters, Crate asks perhaps themost pressing question, one that concerns not only theViliui Sakha she knows best but communities of all shapes and sizes around theglobe: can human cultures successfully adapt their lifeways to the unprecedented transformations caused by the convergence of global climate change and ever-intensifyingnatural resource exploitation (in theViliui Sakha case, this means nearby diamond mines)? The jury is stillout on this question, Crate suggests, but any workable solution must include respect for, and dialogue among, multiple understandings of what 'sustain ability'means. Crate begins thisdialogue in these chapters, both by reporting on focus groups she and her collaborators conducted on the topic of sustain ability among the Viliui Sakha and by drawing comparisons with other indigenous communities in the circumpolar north (especially Canada) and elsewhere. In these chapters, as in the book as a whole, it is delightful to see ethnography conducted in the former Soviet Union linked so closely to pressing concerns in broader anthropology and, indeed, in the social and natural sciences. Department of Anthropology Douglas Rogers Tale University Friman, Richard H. and Reich, Simon (eds). Human Trafficking, Human Security,and the Balkans. The Security Continuum: Global Politics in the Modern Age. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2007. vii + 214 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $19.95 (paperback). In the concluding chapter of their edited volume, Human Trafficking, Human Security, and the Balkans, Richard Friman and Simon Reich note that academic writers and policy practitioners often have a tendency to talk and, indeed, 192 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 200g think straightpast each other ? in a way that is detrimental to thework of both parties. Policy makers' interests in identifyingwhat actions should be taken in response toparticular social problems (in this case, human trafficking in theBalkans), argue Friman and Reich, can lead them down a very different conceptual path to that taken by students of policy, who strive to explain the origins and mechanisms of those problems. In Human Trafficking,the editors attempt to bridge that gap by bringing authors from the academy together with practitioners drawn from non-governmental and international organiza tions. The effort is laudable and the resulting text provides an illuminating and nuanced picture of one of themost troubling and persistent social prob lems seen across the Balkan Peninsula ? the traffickingofwomen for sexual exploitation and children for forced labour. At the same time, however, the collected works reflect the validity of the editors' concerns about the difficulty of reconciling theory and practice. Since the volume is, beyond all else, a book about social relations in the Balkans, it is not surprising that thework's key strength lies in the authors' rich description of the state of human traffickingin Southeastern Europe. The editors' introductory chapter and a contribution by JulieMertus and Andrew Bertone collate the latest available data on levels of traffickingthroughout the formerYugoslavia, in a way that highlights the clear regional nature of the problem. Lynellyn Long shiftsto amicro-level investigation inher 'Reflections from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia...

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.