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Merit feasting among the Kalash Kafirs of North Western Pakistan

University of British Columbia

This thesis explores merit feasting among the Kalasli Kafirs of Chitral District, north western Pakistan. Feasting is a multifunctional exchange phenomenon found universally in societies having primitive (pre-market) economies. The Kalash example will illustrate that this institution links economic, social, political, and religious dimensions in such non-monetary cultures. I argue that while habitat may have the potential of supporting such an exchange system, individual industry in agriculture and animal husbandry is the critical economic factor. Accumulated wealth is then; transformed into social and religious power and prestige through its redistribution at feasts. The Kalash have an informal political hierarchy where men achieve high positions by exhibiting the same qualities which make feast-givers successful aspirants for rank. Kalasli social organization, particularly their bilateral kinship structure)is also reflected in the institution of merit feasting. Feasting is more than a secular event for the Kalash, and sections of this thesis illustrate their assertion that wealth is god-given and must be redistributed at feasts if the gods are to continue to bestow their blessings. Moreover, feasts are both cultural performances (where the artistic forms of a culture are expressed), as well as public forums at which information and ideas may be widely shared and re-inforced. Presently among a portion of the Kalashi population, a cultural renaissance is occurring which permitted the opportunity to document the following materials and hopefully, future possibilities of recording the customs and beliefs of an archaic culture that otherwise is fast slipping into obscurity.

Text

2010-03-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21590

Anthropology

University of British Columbia

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