Pukhtun Economy And Society

Traditional Structure and Economic Development in a Tribal Society.

First published in 1980, this groundbreaking Routledge Revival is a reissue of an original and authentic anthropological account of Pukhtun society by Professor Akbar Ahmed. Combining extensive fieldwork data collected among the Mohmand tribe in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan with historical and literary sources, Professor Ahmed’s study seeks to construct an ideal-type model of Pukhtun society based on the ideal Code of the Pukhtuns and to analyse the conditions of its maintenance and transformation.

The author’s thesis is that this ideal model exists within Pukhtun society when interaction with larger state systems is minimal and in poor economic zones. In this way he posits an opposition between the Tribal Agencies along the border with Afghanistan, where ecological conditions are poor and state influence minimal, and the Settled Areas under state administration where Pukhtun society is forced away from its ideals.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Introduction  1. Introduction   2. The Mohmand Ecological and Administrative Framework 3. Tribal Society and the Historical Process  Part 2: Tribal Models  4. Segmentary Tribes and Models of Pukhtun Social Organization  5. Lineage and Leadership Organization: Alliance and Conflict  6. Non-Pukhtun Groups: Patron and Client Relationships  7. Pukhto Paradigm  8. Settlement and Domestic Structure  9. Economic Structure and Lineage Ideology  Part 3: Encapsulating Systems, Economic Development and Tribal Strategy  10. Encapsulating Systems and Tribal Strategy  11. Economic Development and Encapsulation  12. Conclusion