Talk by Hadia Akhtar Khan (Global Labor & Work, ILR School, Cornell University)

Anthropologists of Pukhtuns have written extensively about the Pukhtuns as an acephalous segmentary lineage group, whose honor “code” or Pukhtunwali differentiates them from neighboring ethnicities. In particular, they glorify Pukhtuns for their egalitarian ethic, which abhors hierarchies within and between tribes and between men. Colonial authorities held a similar view of Pukhtuns as a proud people reluctant to subordinate themselves to the state. This view has continued to inform how imperialist forces and their local allies, like the Pakistani army, understood and navigated the complex map of power relations in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the War on Terror. In contrast to these views, this talk historicizes the code of Pukhtunwali as a product of an alliance between colonial settlement officers and male elites from dominant lineages in the late 19th century. I argue that anthropologists have exaggerated the egalitarian ethic by downplaying the centrality of caste hierarchies, which makes the “egalitarian” ethic between upper-caste Pukhtun men possible.

Hadia Akhtar Khan is a socio-cultural anthropologist. Khan's research is on how migration is changing family, class, caste, and gender relations in rural Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Her research interests include political economy, gender and sexuality, and the anthropology of kinship, with a focus on South Asia. Her research has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Jackman Humanities Institute, and the Centre for Ethnography (UTSC). She is also an editor for Jamhoor.org.