Notes on the Ethnography of Bishegram

Lincoln Keiser

Before 1956 little ethnographic information existed dealing with the Kohistani populations of the Dir, Swat and Indus valleys. Literature published in the late 19th and early 20th century contained some relevant material, but in general was ethnographically thin, based on reports, memoranda, and correspondence of political agents, sportsmen, and free-lance travelers. This changed with the publication of Fredrik Barth's Indus and Swat Kohistan: An Ethnographic Survey. But because Barth's research was only three weeks in length the book was limited in geographical scope and ethnographic detail. As Barth himself emphasized, it should be regarded as a preliminary study, to be superseded when more intensive research in the area was completed (1956:6).

Surprisingly, some thirty years later the situation remains basically unchanged, at least with respect to Dir and Swat. The German ethnologists Peter Snoy (1975) and Karl Jettmar (1960, 1961, 1975, 1980) significantly added to the literature dealing with the peoples of the Indus Valley. German scholars, however, did not concentrate research on Dir and Swat because their primary interest focused on pre-Islamic culture, and few pre-Islamic traits survived among the non-pathan population of those valleys. Although results of my own research in one of the several Kohistani communities in Dir were recently published (Keiser, 1986a, 1986b, 1987, 1990), Barth's book remains the only significant source of ethnographic information for Swat Kohistan.[end page 1]

It is unfortunate that the material on Kohistani society and culture in Dir and Swat is so meager because the Kohistani areas of both districts are ethnographically rich, offering anthropologists and linguists numerous opportunities to pursue interesting issues through field research in the numerous communities scattered in the high mountains and side valleys of the region. My purpose here is modest - to note some basic ethnography of Bishegram, one of the many side valleys in Swat Kohistan, so that students of the area can identify problems for future research. The paper does not supersede Barth's work; On the contrary, it adds to it by providing material on an area of Swat Kohistan ignored in his survey. The paper is based on material gathered in 1984, during a short stay in Shanku, one of the three communities in Bishegram valley.

Bishegram opens to the main Swat valley at the town of Madyan. In the late 19th century Madyan marked the boundary between territory controlled by the Pakhtun Yusufzai tribe, and the Torwali speaking Kohistanis. Today it is a modern town, boasting a handsome tourist hotel built in the architectural style of the British Raj, shops and restaurants catering to the tourist trade, and buildings housing government offices.

Madyan's present day population has a sizable number of Pakhtuns. They immigrated from the lower Swat Valley during the last century and settled as traders and shopkeepers. The town lies along the main asphalt road that runs the length of the Swat valley, and is located about 26 miles north of Mingora.

Bishegram begins at the eastern boundary of Madyan, and from there leads east some 14 miles before ending in an alpine lake high in a spur of the eastern Hindu-Kush. No roads exist in Bishegram. Instead two narrow foot paths lead along each side of the valley. The path along the southern side is reached by climbing the switch-backs of a thirty foot cliff located at the outskirts of Madyan. Thus, at first glance Madyan suggests modernity and economic development, while Bishegram harkens back to an isolated tribal past. The appearance is misleading, however.

Bishegram is typical of the high valleys of the eastern Hindu-Kush. Although a side valley of Swat, it also boasts side valleys itself, some extensive in length. The mountains surrounding the valley are breath-taking in beauty. Tangled crags brood over a land littered with smashed boulders, severed by swift running streams and periodically shattered by the growing pains of mountains whose convulsions occasionally destroy the top of the Richter scale. The towering peaks are clothed in dense forests at their higher elevations, and broken here and there by hidden plateaus, terraced fields and grassy pastures. The soil is of a thin, weak variety that needs fertilizer to grow adequate crops. As compensation, the valley is blessed with adequate precipitation, most falling as snow in the winter. But some irrigation of crops is necessary in the dry summer months.

The architecture in the valley is also typical of the northeastern Hindu-Kush. The exterior walls of houses are constructed of alternate laminates of wood and stone, and topped with flat roofs composed of thick layers of mud. Most houses cluster together in compact settlements. But some scatter amidst fields and pastures, and a few are located on high narrow ridges.

The Bishegram valley is of particular ethnographic interest because of its history as an area of refuge for people fleeing the feuds, wars and famines which have dislocated people in the Hindu-Kush for millennia. As a result of its complex history the valley's population contains seven ethnic groups, speaking five or possibly six languages, and inhabiting three distinct political communities - Chail, Shanku, and Bishegram. The latter is sometimes called Bishegram Proper to distinguish it from the valley as a whole.

Chail, the settlement closest to the valley's mouth, is only a short walk from the bus-stop at Madyan's outskirts. Not surprisingly, it is tightly integrated into the political and economic system of the main Swat valley. Electric power lines reach Chail, and some houses boast electric lights. Farming and herding are secondary economic activities in Chail, since many men commute by bus to jobs as janitors, watchmen, servants, and construction workers in the nearby towns and cities of Swat. Consequently, Chail is almost a suburb in the Western sense yet, with some interesting differences. Citizenship in the community is based on inherited rights, social organization is based on principles of descent and marriage; and agriculture is important for subsistence. Corn and winter wheat are grown as staples in the diet (much of the labor is done by women and children), and the mountain pastures owned by the community are rented to migratory shepherds to supplement income. The inhabitants of Chail speak Torwali. Although the most accessible, Chail is also the most ethnically homogenous community in Bishegram.

Shanku, about a two hour walk up the valley from Chail, is more ethnically diverse. Although the majority of people are Torwali Kohistanis, some of the community's inhabitants trace descent from Malizai Pakhtuns who fled the main Swat valley to escape blood vengeance. And some are Gujars, a gypsy-like ethnic group that has spread throughout the Hindu-Kush Mountains in the last three centuries.

There are two kinds of Gujars in Shanku. In the summer months nomadic Gujar shepherds, who winter in the low-lands, pasture their herds on rented land in the high mountains. Some Gujars settled in the community as tenant farmers in the past, and over a number of years saved enough money to purchase land. They now live and farm in a marginal area at the highest altitude of the agricultural zone" an area known as Gujar Bund. In the summer they take their animals to Dardun Banda, a pasture area in the high mountains owned by members of the Arshort lineage. For they own no pasture rights, and so, like the fully nomadic Gujars, must pay rent.

The status of these Gujars in Shanku is second class in other ways as well. No rule forbids intermarriage between them and other members of the community, but because they are considered of lower status the number of such marriages is small. They have the right to attend village council meetings, but will be severely criticized if they choose to speak before the council on the issues under consideration.

Finally, Gujars do not share timber royalties paid to Shanku by the Pakistani government. Unlike some areas of the Hindu-Kush, however, the Bishegram valley is not the site of large scale government exploitation projects, and the amount of timber royalties is small. Consequently, disputes over such royalties are not as politically explosive as they are in other mountain communities in Pakistan.

Farming and herding are more important economic activities in Shanku than in Chail. The community is located at an altitude too high to grow winter wheat. Instead, millet and corn are the staple crops. Various vegetables and fruit, apples and pairs, for example, are also grown to supplement the diet.

Some men transport fruit to the markets in the main Swat valley for sale. They can only transport what they can carry on their back to the valley's mouth, however. Thus the sale of fruit does not provide an important source of income. Similarly, the lack of roads prevents growing potatoes as a cash crop, as is done in other areas of Swat and Dir Kohistan linked to lowland areas by roads. Farmers can neither transport potatoes for sale, nor import the amount of artificial fertilizer necessary to grow potatoes on a large scale. Nevertheless, Shanku is part of a district organized in terms of a cash economy;' and people need money to survive. Consequently, many men in the community earn cash by working as lumberjacks in the forests of the Indus valley, staying away from the community for long periods of time.

Corn and millet fields, as well as vegetable plots and fruit trees are owned individually. Families harvest their own corn, but communal work groups harvest millet. People who own millet fields mobilize friends and relatives to help in the millet harvest. Such communal work groups often exceed 25 men in number.

The millet harvest is a time of celebration. The owners of fields provide bread and tea for the workers during the day, and a feast at the owner's house when the day's work is completed. A general party air pervades the harvest. The work is made enjoyable by communal singing; each song ending with loud sustained cheering. Drumming accompanies the work as well. During the millet harvest the entire valley resounds with the sounds of singing and drumming.

Individuals own rights to summer pastures, as they own rights to fields. But what they own are shares (hisa) in a complex system of turns (which I do not fully understand), not the pastures themselves. Individuals who own shares in a particular pasture area can build huts or bandas in that area, and these are individually owned. Those who have no huts rent them from their owners. Rights to most pastures are held jointly by members of several lineages. Dardun Banda, however, is owned by members of the Arshort lineage only.

The lineage system in Shanku is similar in structure to that found among the Kohistanis of Dir, and the Pashai and Nuristani speakers of Afghanistan. Unlike neighboring Pakhtun tribes it has only two levels of segmentation. Specifically, Shanku is divided into six major descent groups, called in Torwali Kohistani gan dums (gan meaning 'big'). Each in turn is divided into various numbers of minor lineages called lau dums (lau meaning 'small'). The Arshort major lineage, for example is divided into 4 minor lineages, the Aziz Khel, Multan Khel, Musa Khel, and Said Mir Khel.

Sometimes the word qoum is used in place dum. Qoum (or a cognate of it) is found in most languages in the area (including Pushto and Persian), and generally means a group of people related by blood kinship. Among the Pukhtu speakers of the main Swat valley it refers to occupational groups rather than lineages (Barth, 1960) - with the implication that members of occupational groups are united by blood kinship. Both qoum and dum refer to lineage as a kind of social grouping. They contrast with dala, a word used for political factions based on ego centered networks. They are never used as part of a lineage name itself.

Particular lineages are referred to in two ways, depending on the level of segmentation. Major lineages are usually called by the name of their apical ancestor with the pluralizing suffix -ort appended to the name. The Jatort, Bijort, Arshort, and Kadort lineages provide examples. Sometimes, however, people use the Pukhtu word khel (which roughly means' the people of') as the pluralizer. Thus the Arshort lineage is sometimes called the Malak Khel, because in the past a number of important leaders or malaks came from that lineage, and the Mullort is usually called the Mullah Khel because most religious officials in the community are members of it. Unlike major lineages, khel is always used to name minor lineages. Thus, for example, the Aziz Khel, Multan Khel, Musa Khel and Said Mir Khel comprise the Arshort major
lineage.

I could not conduct a detailed census in the limited time of my field research, so I do not know if lineages tend toward endogamy or exogamy. Informants stated no preference for marrying either within or without descent groups. This contrasts with Thull a community in Dir Kohistan where people claim that everyone marries a father's brother's daughter or son - a claim not born out in fact, however (Keiser, 1990: p. 86).

Shanku, like other communities in Dir and Swat Kohistan, has a core settlement area surrounded by satellite hamlets, of which Bela, and Bart Bund are the most prominent. Lineages are dispersed among settlement divisions. Specifically, Shanku Proper, Bela, and Bart Bunt are peopled by members of different lineages, although not every major lineage is represented in each hamlet.

Lineages are important in the political organization of the community, but not as important as they were in the past. Previously, members of each lineage chose leaders (malaks) to represent its interests to the government. The Pakistani government abolished this system of lineage representatives when it instituted elected district councils, in the process weakening the political importance of lineages.

Nevertheless, Malaks continue to function in community politics. Malak is best understood as influential elder, although it is often translated as 'chief' or 'headman'. No permanent malak position exists to which people can be elected or which they can inherit. Leadership is less fixed than this. Men become malaks slowly, over a period of many years. If they demonstrate wisdom and skill in arbitrating disputes and if they use their skills to help other members of their lineage they will gradually become malaks, respected and followed by others. Wealth, piety, and a large number of close male relatives provide added advantages.

Intra-community politics in Shanku is conducted in councils by members drawn from those recognized to be important lineage elders. Such men are called qouro sigan (roughly 'lineage big men'). Which elders attend any given council meeting depend on the nature of the issue and who it involves. If an issue involves only one particular lineage, then only the elders of that lineage will attend. If it involves the entire community, however, then the council will be composed of elders from all the Shanku lineages. Malaks are important in such council meetings in that they lead in working out decisions acceptable to everyone.

Although fundamentalist Sunni Islam dominates Shanku, religion has a different feel than in other fundamentalist communities in the Hindu-Kush. As I mentioned previously, singing and drumming are widespread activities during the millet harvest. As long as music is an adjunct to labor religious teachers do not preach against it, as they do in the communities of Dir Kohistan. Moreover, the seclusion of women is different in deed, if not in ideology in Shanku. While no one questions the institution of purdah, women are not always careful about covering their faces in public, and men do not seem as obsessed with the relation between female sexuality and male honor as in the fundamentalist communities of Dir Kohistan.

It is interesting to note in this context that the contrast between dushman (meaning 'blood enemy') and moxilaf (meaning 'political opponent') that is important in the language of Dir Kohistan is absent in Shanku. In Shanku these words are used, but as synonyms, both meaning blood enemy. In any case, according to informants, the words are not often heard because blood feuding is rare in Bishegram.

Bishegram Proper is the most remote community in the valley. It is located across the valley, and about an hour's walk to the east from Shanku. Although the ecology of Bishegram Proper is similar, if not identical to Shanku, it is significantly different in terms of linguistics and social organization. The community's population is divided in complex ways according to different principles reflecting its complex history. The most straight forward division is based on patrilineal descent. Bishegram Proper, like Shanku, is divided into major lineages called dums which in turn subdivide into minor lineages called khels. Unlike Shanku, however, the people of Bishegram Proper also belong to groupings called qoums which divide the population differently and are based on a different organizational principle. Dums and khels are lineages, and as such membership depends on tracing patrilineal descent from a common ancestor. Qoums, in contrast, are best thought of as ethnic groups, or perhaps 'stocks', and membership is based on patrifiliation. The members of each stock speak a distinct "mother” language, and each has its own historical traditions.

There are 5, or perhaps 6 qoums in the community: the Swatis, the Gujars, the Gekis, the Kasharis, the Torwalis, and the Badeshis. The Swatis speak Pukhtu as their "mother" language and claim to have come to Bishegram following the invasion of Swat by the Yusufzai Pathans in the 16th century. Pukhtu is not only the "mother" language of the Swatis, but the common language of the community as well. The Gujars speak Gujari, and like the Gujars of Shanku are the descendants of nomads who bought land and settled as permanent residents. The Gekis claim to have come to Bishegram from Koli in Indus Kohistan via Ushu, a community in Northern Swat Kohistan. They speak Ushuji as their 'mother' langauge. Ushuji is not commonly known by linguists. According to Richard Strand's preliminary analysis, it appears to be a dialect of Shina (personal communication), The Kasharis come from Kasher, better known as Kashkar, or Chitral. They speak a dialect of Kowar as their “mother" language. The Torwalis claim to have come from the main Swat valley near the village of Barikot after the predations of the Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century. They speak Kohistani, generally called by linguists Torwali to distinguish it from the Kohistani spoken in northern Swat and Dir Kohistan.

Finally, the Badeshis speak a language of the same name, and are allegedly the original inhabitants of the valley. They are mentioned by Barth in his ethnogarphic survey (1956; p. 51). Barth actually met a few individuals claiming to be Badeshis, but they spoke only Pukhtu. He never found a distinct Badeshi community, and never met anyone who claimed to speak the language.

Unfortunately, I am not sure there really are Badeshi in Bishegram. Several informants in Bishegram's core settlement told me they had never heard of the Badeshis. One informant, however, claimed a few families who actually spoke the language lived in a hamlet of Bishegram called Moghalmar or Bishegram Kus. But, I was never able to visit that hamlet, and cannot verify if Badeshi is actually spoken in the community.

Political organization in Bishegram Proper appears generally similar in formal structure to the system operating in Shanku. Political decisions are made in councils by elders among whom certain men are recognized as leaders, or malaks. And, like Shanku, lineages in Bishegram are important political divisions. There is, however, a significant difference between the popular religion of Bishegram and Shanku. Many of the people in Bishegram are mushriks. Mushriks believe in saints, men with supernatural powers who can mediate between humans and God. The people of Shanku, in contrast, are Deobundis, a sect that is more fundamentalist in its belief, rejecting the special status of saints as a distortion of pure Islam. Thus, while the Tabliqi Jummat, a fundamentalist organization important in many rural areas of Pakistan, has many members in Shanku, it is weak in Bishegram.

The ethnography outlined above, sketchy and incomplete as it is, suggests interesting problems for future research. Questions about the relationship between popular Islam and local level politics, violence and social organization, inter-ethnic relations and the culture of language diversity, and economic development and social change are just a few obvious examples. Bishegram and the similar side valleys to the north offer rare research opportunities. Hopefully scholars interested in the Northeaster Hindu-Kush will take advantage of them in the future.

Reference Cited

Barth, Fredrik

1956 Indus and Swat Kohistan: An Ethnographic Survey. Oslo: Forenede trykkerier.

1960 “The System of Social Stratification in Swat, North Pakistan”, Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon and North-West Pakistan edited by E.R. Leach, Cambridge: The university of Cambridge Press.

Jettmar, Karl

1960 “Soziale und wirtschaftliche Dynamik bei asiatischen Gebirgsbauevn”, Sociologus, (n.s., vol. 10, 2: 120-138.

1961 “Ethnological Research in Dardistan” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 105, no. 1, Feb. 28.

1975 Die Religionen des Hindukusch. Stuttgart (Die Religionen der Menschheit, vol. 4, no. 1).

1980 “Felsbilder und Inschriten am Karakorum Highway”, Central Asiatic Journal, vol. 24, nos. 3-4: 185-221.

Keiser, Lincoln.

1986a “Death Enmity in Thull”, American Ethnologist, vol. 13, no. 3: 489-505.

1986b “Rim Shots and Rifle Fire”, Natural History, vol. 95, no. 9: 26-32.

1987 “Friend by Day, Enemy by Night”, Natural History, vol. 96, no. 11: 8-14.

1990 Friend by Day, Enemy by Night, Fort Worth: Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Snoy, Peter

1975 Bagrot: Eine Dardische Talschaft im Karakorum. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druk-u Verlagsanstalt.

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