Paper short abstract:

This communication discusses the necessity for the researcher to create a database which could be used by the shepherds in order to continuously update the transformations of their mountain paths which include prayer and remembrance places.

Paper long abstract:

As the inhabitants of a village in Northern Pakistan see it, praying is intimately related to their walk on the mountain paths towards the pastures. At the time of their construction these paths are named after deceased or living persons and become thereby prayer and remembrance places. Thereafter these places are experienced and actualized through the rhythm of the shepherds' walk.

These shepherds are organized into a village committee that requires from the researchers working in the village that they share their work and scanned data (pictures, videos, songs, interviews) with the villagers via the committee. This request gives an original answer to a contemporary question in anthropology: how to take into account in our study the diversity, the complexity and the transformations of social life? This communication aims to discuss the interactions between the researcher and the villagers from 2011 onwards and concludes on the necessity to create a database which could be used by the shepherds and in which they could continuously integrate the transformations of their landscape and the multiple experiences they live. As an alternative to a paper report, this shared tool would be an answer to the wish of the shepherds to save their information about the prayer and remembrance places.