When tradition meets modernity

There is a group called the Galesh in the Alborz mountains of the northern provinces, Gilan, Mazandaran, and Golestan, Iran, whose language and culture is severely endangered due to modernisation of the local economy and lifestyle. The Galesh are herdsmen, who previously lived a semi-nomadic gender segregated life. The wives and children settled in the nearest village, and only the men went to the their workplace or in search of new seasonal pastures for their cows. This monograph is a documentation of five life stories from a Galesh community in the village of Ziarat, situated in the Province of Golestan, east of the Caspian Sea in Iran. Nowadays, because of its proximity to Gorgan, Ziarat is growing and the village is undergoing rapid modernization, which in the near future could lead to the disappearance of all its rural and cultural characteristics, including its dialect.