Publications [#359652] of Katherine P. Ewing

Articles & Book Chapters

1. Ewing, KP. "Anthropology and the Pakistani National Imaginary." Beyond Crisis: Re-Evaluating Pakistan  (January, 2012.): 531-540. [doi]

   Abstract:
   The anthropology of Pakistan has, in many respects, been at the margins of the discipline, just as Pakistan itself lies at the ambiguous border between regions carved out by Western powers in the past century - the Middle East on the west and South Asia (i.e. India) to the east. With an earlier anthropology’s focus on a bound notion of culture and homeostatic social systems, research sites were mostly chosen to exemplify the key issues of the region. Thus, in India, these included Hinduism, caste, kingship, village studies and the relationship between the ‘great’ traditions at the centre and its rural ‘little traditions’. In the Middle East, core issues included Islam, acephalous political structures and the honour-shame complex. Pakistan itself was bisected, with most anthropologists who conducted ethnographic research during Pakistan’s early decades working in the tribal areas of western Pakistan, focussing on questions developed in the Middle East. The more easterly Punjab and Sind, in contrast, were transitional areas. They exemplified neither the caste-based village structure characteristic of India nor the clan-based organisation of Middle Eastern tribal areas. Therefore, there was little ethnographic work done in the villages and cities of the Punjab or Sind.