Social Welfare Functions of the Shrine of Bari Imam How the Shrine
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Berichte und Kommentare 205 References Cited Whitaker, James Andrew 2012 Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia. Review. Tipití – Castro, Eduardo B. Viveiros de Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland 1992 From the Enemy’s Point of View. Humanity and Divin- South America 10/1: 71–73. ity in an Amazonian Society. (Transl. by C. V. Howard.) n.. d The Landscape Imagination. Incorporating Amerindi- Chicago: University of Chicago Press. an Perspectivism into an Historical Ecology of Knowl- 1998 Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism. edge. <http://stonecenter.tulane.edu/uploads/Whitaker,_ Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4: 469– Andrew_The_Landscape_Imagination_WebVersion- 488. 1366225741.pdf> [20. 10. 2015] 2011 The Inconstancy of the Indian Soul. The Encounter of Willerslev, Rane Catholics and Cannibals in 16th-Century Brazil. (Transl. 2004 Not Animal, Not Not-Animal. Hunting, Imitation, and by G. Duff Morton.) Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. Empathetic Knowledge among the Siberian Yukaghirs. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10: 629– Fausto, Carlos 652. 1997 A dialética da predação e familiarizaçãoentre os Parkanã da Amazônia oriental. PhD Thesis. Rio de Janeiro: Uni- versidade Federal. 2002 The Bones Affair. Indigenous Knowledge Practices in Contact Situations Seen from an Amazonian Case. Jour- nal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 8: 669–690. 2007 Feasting on People. Eating Animals and Humans in Ama- zonia. Current Anthropology 48: 497–530. 2012 Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia. (Transl. by D. Social Welfare Functions Rodgers.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. of the Shrine of Bari Imam (Cambridge Latin American Studies, 96) Lima, Tânia Stolze How the Shrine Nationalization Policy 1999 The Two and Its Many. Reflections on Perspectivism in a Backfired Tupi Cosmology. Ethnos 64: 107–131. 2000 Towards an Ethnographic Theory of the Nature/Culture Distinction in Juruna Cosmology. Revista Brasileira de M. Azam Chaudhary Ciências Sociais 1: 43–52. Overing, Joanna, and Alan Passes (eds.) Introduction 2000 The Anthropology of Love and Anger. The Aesthetics of Convivality in Native Amazonia. London: Routledge. This article will discuss the state occupation of Ramos, Alcida Rita shrines in Pakistan, the special focus being its im- 2002 Pacificando o branco: Cosmologias do contato no Norte pact upon the pilgrims in the light of the saints’ re- Amazônico. São Paulo: Editora da UNESP. ligious thought. The shrine of Bari Imam has been 2012 The Politics of Perspectivism. Annual Review of Anthro- pology 41: 481–494. selected as a case study. In a nutshell, my argument views the changes at the shrine after state control Rival, Laura M. as working against Bari Imam’s original thoughts 2002 Trekking through History. The Huaorani of Amazonian Ecuador. New York: Columbia University Press. and as adversely affecting his “clients,” especially 2005 The Attachment of the Soul to the Body among the Huao- those who belong to minority and marginal groups. rani of Amazonian Ecuador. Ethnos 70: 285–310. I further argue that in fact, if not in pronouncement, the very concept of nationalization (constructing Rivière, Peter G. 1974 The Couvade. A Problem Reborn. Man (N. S.) 9: 423– mosques, building schools, libraries, or research 435. centers at the shrine compounds) had targeted the 1994 WYSINWYG in Amazonia. Journal of the Anthropologi- educated urban middle class population and not cal Society of Oxford 25: 255–262. the poor, the illiterate rural people and particularly 1997 Carib Soul Matters – Since Fock. Journal of the Anthro- not those belonging to the marginal and minority pological Society of Oxford 28: 139–148. groups (prostitutes, transvestites, malangs etc., or Taylor, Anne Christine even women in general). These poorest of the poor 1996 The Soul’s Body and Its States. An Amazonian Perspec- had been the “real” clients of many shrines, such as tive on the Nature of Being Human. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 2: 201–215. those of Bulleh Shah, Shah Hussain, Lal Shahbaz, and of course the shrine of Bari Imam, all of which Vilaça, Aparecida were taken into state custody. I would like to go a 2002 Making Kin out of Others in Amazonia. Journal of the step further and argue that the way “formal Islam” is Royal Anthropological Institute 8: 347–365. 2005 Chronically Unstable Bodies. Reflections onAmazonian propagated and interpreted by the state and reflected Corporalities. Journal of the Royal Anthropological In- in its shrine reforms leaves little space and relevance stitute 11: 445–464. for the above mentioned marginal groups. In many Anthropos 111.2016 https://doi.org/10.5771/0257-9774-2016-1-205 Generiert durch IP '170.106.35.76', am 23.09.2021, 17:30:25. Das Erstellen und Weitergeben von Kopien dieses PDFs ist nicht zulässig. 206 Berichte und Kommentare cases even their professions (prostitution, singing/ dith denominations, criticize the practices at Sufi dancing of transvestites, mendicants, etc.) were sim- shrines and refute claims that shrine can give chil- ply incompatible with the formal religion. Saints dren to the childless, heal diseases, or resolve oth- and their shrines, such as that of Bari Imam, have er problems. Such convictions of pilgrims are de- offered them a space to survive in the fold of Islam. nounced as superstitions and as moral corruption. Instead of engaging in controversial local debates Different efforts had been made to eliminate such on whether a Sufi at the shrine can give children to conventional practices from the shrines. Compared the childless or heal ill persons, this article will al- to Turkey, where Ataturk banned them to advance together leave out the issue of superstition and fo- the cause of secularism, and Saudi Arabia, where cus on the identity of the visitors to the shrine (their shrines were destroyed to return to a more funda- backgrounds, status, and position in the society) and mentalist interpretation of Islam (Ewing 1990: 175), on their motives. Why did they prefer the saint to Pakistan adopted a different strategy. President M. a doctor or a lawyer? The central issue, however, Ayub Khan (1958–1969) introduced the West Paki- will be the identity of the saints and their philoso- stan Waqf Properties Ordinance in 1959 and created phy. In what follows I argue that shrines like that of the Ministry of Awqaf. The original idea came from Bari Imam should be evaluated in the light of their none other than Javid Iqbal, the son of Allama M. philanthropic contributions rather than being only Iqbal, the founder of the idea of Pakistan. The son examined in the terms of the theological discipline. tried to translate the ideas of his father into concrete policy measures (Ewing 1990: 176). He wrote that: The Background of Shrine Reforms Awqaf should take into its possession … all the Monaster- ies (Khanqhs, etc.) or tombs of the Saints in Pakistan … There is no denying the fact that the mystical orders pro- Shrines are places in Pakistan where generally poor, duced Saints of a very high quality in the world of Islam. weak, helpless, and ill people seek comfort, just as … But now … They have been transformed into centers women in general find a legitimate space for the of moral and religious corruption (Iqbal 1959: 57). resolution of their multifarious problems in the vi- cinity of saints. Many of these problems relate to As a consequence, big shrines, especially those health and may range from very simple headache, not managed by direct descendents of the saint, infertility, the so-called women’s diseases, and spirit were taken into the state control. The aim was to (jin) possession to chronic cancer. Visitors may also turn them into centers of social welfare by building need support in court cases against powerful oppo- hospitals and schools for poor and rural people. Re- nents, success in marriage negotiations, or school search centers, libraries, and mosques were set up and college examinations, or yearn for better crops, or planned for several major shrines. The goal was, the release from jail, etc.1 Some shrines even be- to encourage a “scholarly” rather than what was re- come places specialized in the resolution of one par- garded as a “superstitious” approach to shrines and ticular problem, such as spirit possession, infertil- Sufism (Ewing 1990: 179 f.). Ewing evaluated the ity, or success in examinations. Similarly, saints2 are impact of state control of shrines during the regimes very often identified as saints of a particular ethnic of Ayub Khan (1958–1969), Zulfikar Ali Bhutto group, especially in the rural areas.3 Likewise many (1971–1977), and Zia-ul-Haq (1977–1988) and ar- saints, such as Bari Imam, are mainly venerated by gued that the traditional cosmology which was con- minority and marginal groups like malang (religious gruent with the traditional social, political, and eco- mendicants), prostitutes, hijre (transvestites), and nomic structure was replaced by a new worldview fortunetellers (Buddenberg 1993; Chaudhary 2011). that was congruent with the social and political The Pakistani intelligentsia including the ulema goals of the different governments. She was further with special reference to the Deoband and Ahle-Ha- of the opinion that despite differences in the poli- cies and goals of Ayub, Bhutto, and Zia, the three re- gimes administered the shrines in similar ways (Ew- 1 Ewing (1984: 106); Moore (1993: 522); Eaton (1984); Pfef- ing 1990: 176, 186). fer (2010). 2 The words saint and shrine are used interchangeable in this article as was also done and explained by Eaton (1982: 46) in the case of Bābā Farīd’s shrine: “Indeed, many murīds re- Urs Celebration at Bari Imam: Some Observations ferred to the saint and his shrine in the same terms, some- times defining themselves as murīds of Bābā Farīd, and sometimes referring to themselves as murīds of the gaddī, or The data for this article were mainly collected dur- shrine … The shrine was Bābā Farīd.” ing the urs celebrations of the years 2003–2006.