·< ( ... -- ---- -- .. --------·--~----- --- - GENEROSITY ANDJEALOUSY The Swat Pukhtun of Northern Pakistan CHARLES LINDHOLM This book has been published with the assistance of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Columbia University Press New York 1982 To the children of Swat Lihr;ny of Congress Cataloging in Publication Datd Lindholm, Charles, 194(,- Generosity and jealousy. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Pushtuns~Social life and customs. 2. Swat Kohistan (Pakistan)~Social life and customs. I. Title. DSJBO.P8L56 954.9'12 82-1120 ISBN 0-231-053g8-1 (cloth) A1\CR2 0-2:l 1-05.399-1 (paper) Columbia University Press New York Guildford, Surrey Copyright © 1982 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Anwrica Clothbound editions of Columbia University Press books are Smyth­ sewn and printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Book design by Kenneth Venezia. Co11te11ts Acknowledgments IX Introduction XIII 1. The Valley and the Village 2. History 31 3. Socia I Structure 55 4. Exchange 113 µ. From Cbi.J.dto Adult 1h]~~4-- 6. The Code of Honor 209 7. The Friendship Ideal 239 Appendix A: Surwy'i:);1ta· 275 Appendix B: Attitude Test 289 Glossary 297 References 301 Index 311 ,' GENEROSITY AND JEALOUSY Acknowledgme11ts HE writing of these acknowledgments is a great pleasure for me, T since it calls to mind the many people whose kindness, interested attention, and hard work have helped to make this book possible. The first people I would like to thank are Muhammad Zaman Khan and his wife, Qajira Khana, who were hosts, friends, and surrogate family for myself, my wife, and our daughter during our 'stay in Swat. They accepted us into their household with warmth and affection that can, never be forgotten. They shared everything in their lives with us, and taught us a great deal. Zaman was also my researcher, and a marvelous and inquisitive investigator into his own culture. I often felt that he was the anthropologist, while I was a backward student. Zaman always joked that he wanted the "P" of my Ph.d. degree, and I am glad to publicly award it to him here. Other people in Swat who were of invaluable assistance included Muhammad Qamar Khan, Zaman's father, a true gentlernan, and my instructor both in Pukhto and in local history; Shad Muhammad Khan, Zaman's younger half-brother, a lawyer of note, and a wonderful singer and story-teller; Dr. Sher Muhammad Khan, Zaman's elder half-brother, who was able to bring his own considerable cross-cultural experience to bear on my research; Muhammad Qawi Khan, one of Zaman's patri­ lateral cousins, a teacher and man of intelligence, sought after by his fellow villagers as a peacemaker; and, finally, Abdul Sattar Khan, Zaman's sister's son, whose conscientious work gave the village survey a high degree of reliability. There were many others who helped. The villagers, and the people of Swat in general, were always honest and straightforward in answering my many tedious questions. They were invariably patient, hospitable, and kind to me and my family, despite our strangeness and our status as non-Muslims. They accepted us with a tolerance that reflects their own justified pride in themselves and their culture. Their world is a hard one, and they live in it with a rough integrity I came to admire greatly. Sometimes, I was honored by being given the greatest of compliments, that I was "like a Pukhtun." I can think of no greater compliment to pay in return to the people of Swat. They arc real Pukhtun. But hospitality in Pakistan is not the sole property of Pukhtuns. Our American friends in Islamabad, Ors. Sherry Plunkett and Ruth Schmidt Plunkett, and Dr. Charles Bocwe and his wife Mary, were always more than kind. The bureaucracy of Pakistan deserves credit as well for per­ mitting me to do my work without interference. In academia, I had the great advantage of experiencing the stimulating and opf'n-mindcd atmosphere at Columbia University. My major advisor and influence has been Professor Abraham Rosman, whose generous encouragement of new ideas is combined with a scholarly attention to detail. His help in developing this work is inestimable. I would also like to thank Paula Rubel and Robert Murphy who, from their different view­ points, added rigor to my argument. Harvey Pitkin gave me linguistic training and, as a result, a method of analysis. Richard Christie and Stephen Rittenbcrg helped me avoid egregious errors in either psychology or history, respectively. Thanks arc due to Howard Wriggins, who took time from his duties as ambassador in Sri Lanka to press me to write, to Conrad Arensberg for his valuable suggestions on the Durkheimian view­ point, and to Joan Vincent for her advice on social structure. Of course, only I arn rC'sponsiblf' for any mistakf's. All figures and maps in this book were drawn by Cherry Lindholm. She took all of the photographs as well. Stephen Senigo redrew the village map and reduced it photographically. I am very grateful for their work. None of the research could have been done without funding. My original stay in Swat was sponsored by the Henry Evans Traveling Fel­ lowship awarded by Columbia University. My later visit was funded by a Fulbright-Hayes Predoctoral Research Fellowship and a National Sci­ ence Foundation award. I would like to express my appreciation to these institutions. I would also I ike to express my appreciation to the staff at Columbia University Press, who worked hard to publish this book. I would espe­ cially like to thank Jennifer Crewe for her sympathetic editing, Kenneth Venezia for his help in design, and Charles Webel, whose suggestions greatly strengthened the book's conclusion. Having acknowledged my debts to informants, to the scholarly world, to funding agencies and publishers, I am happy to acknowledge my deepest gratitude to my wife Cherry, and our daughter Michelle, for their x ACKNOWLEDCMENTS help, their courage, and their forbearance. They followed me into a remote and potentially dangerous region, never complained, and entered into my work with spirit. Without them, I could never have had an'y insight into the private worlds of women, nor could my relations with men have been so intimate. They gave me a base and an identity. Besides the photos, which breathe life into the book, and besides drawing all the figures and maps, Cherry also contributed a great deal to many of the theoretical discussions, especially those concerned with child-raising, sex roles, and personality. If Zaman gets the "P" of my Ph.d., Cherry should get the "h." " ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi In.troduction A scientific law is a statement (an assertion, a judgement, or a proposition) which possesses certain characteristics: (1) it is true only under specific conditions; (2) under these conditions it is true at all times and in all cases without any exceptions whatsoever (the exception which proves the rule is a dialectical nonsense); (3) the conditions under which such a statement is true are never fully realized in reality but only partly or approximately. So it cannot be asserted literally that scientific laws are detectable in the reality under study (discovered); they are thought up (invented) on the basis of the study of experimental data calculated in such a way that they can afterwards be used to derive new judgements from the given judgements about reality (including use for prediction) by. the route of pure logic. The laws of science themselves can neither be refuted nor confirmed empirically. They can be justified or not depending on how well or how badly they fulfil the role indicated above. (Zinoviev 1979:38) Man's behaviour is very variable, it is true, but not infinitely so; and, though cultural differences are great, certain commonalities can be dis­ cerned. (Bowlby 1969:39) HIS book is based on my experiences as a guest, as a friend, and T as a professional anthropologist in the village of "Shin Bagh" (the name is fictitious), among the Yusufzai Pukhtun of Swat in Pakistan's mountainous North-West Frontier Province. The Yusufzai are considered famous by anthropologists because of Fredrik Barth's magnificent work with them three decades ago, work which culminated in the publication of his classic monograph Political Leadership among Swat Pathans ( 1965). But when I first went to Swat in 1969 I had never heard of Barth or of the Pukhtun (Pathan is the British term). I had recently received my B.A. degree from Columbia after the riots of 1968. My major subjects were English and Oriental studies, but my real interests were drawing pictures and writing fiction, and I had been lucky enough to win an award from Columbia University for achievement in the arts. This award, the Henry Evans Traveling Fellow­ ship, was a grant of $4,000 to be used specifically, as its name suggests, for travel. So I traveled. I had failed my draft test, I was disgusted by America's involvement in Vietnam, and I was anxious to test myself and to see the world. Thinking I would end up in Japan and study Japanese brush technique, I slowly meandered through Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan. By the time I reached Swat, which was then an independent state within Pakistan, having its own king (the Wali) and its own laws, I was ready for a rest. Swat is a beautiful place, a green valley nestled in the mountains. The < limatC' was invigorating, and the peopl<' were friendly, but not intrusive. I settled into a hotel in the capital of Saidu Sherif to do some drawings.