Of Pious Missions and Challenging the Elders

A Genealogy of Radical Egalitarianism in the Pashtun Borderscape

Bibliographic Data

ID3183649
AuthorsJan-Peter Hartung (Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany), Jan–peter Hartung (University of Göttingen, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume24
Issue2
Pages308-343
Publication date2019-03-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2018.1465040
OpenAlexW2894710093
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

At the core of this article lies the attempt to consider “radical egalitarianism” a defining feature of “borderscapes”, that is the space in which distinct socio-spatial identities between territorial claims and counter-claims at the margins of larger political entities are negotiated. These more general considerations are exemplified by a genealogical excursion into the dominantly Pashtun-inhabited regions around the Hindukush and its foothills. In a first step, the emergence of distinct ethnicities and religiosities as result of such asymmetrical negotiation processes, which are also strongly informed by the urban-rural divide, is highlighted by a historical recourse into the later seventeenth century. In the two successive steps, then, the further modifications of those ethnicities and religiosities since the late nineteenth century are indicated, painting an image of the “Pashtun borderscape” in which even militant movements like those of the present time can be understood as just a manifestation of such kind of negotiation processes that limit the scope of “us” and “them” ever further. It will be illustrated how an ever changing semantics of “egality”, which nonetheless is construed as entirely static, is established as a core benchmark of belonging

Egalitarianism · Genealogy · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · History · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora

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