ABSTRACT
The manifestation of strategies for controlling spaces in Gilgit-Baltistan are multiple and reflections of both social and cultural histories of the region as well as the modes of integration into national and global forces, as enacted along the KKH. People from the region employ three generalized strategies attempting to insert local voices into the production of the local. First, there is the localization of the Silk Route myth. Through festivals and local histories, people of the region are attempting to find a place for themselves in history, just as the Pakistani nation is through its construction of the Silk Route past. Second, there is the genderization of space, in particular the exclusion of local women from certain social spaces and the engendering of select spaces as women’s spaces. The genderization of space is one of the most visible and prevalent strategies of reclaiming a local and reinforcing patriarchal power. The third strategy in claiming local spaces is overt attempts to keep tourists at bay and the simultaneous designation of particular tourist spots as immoral and corrupting. Throughout Gilgit-Baltistan there are varied attempts at keeping tourists out of local village spaces.
