Download Draft outline for lecture, SAS 4010 Med forbehold om endringer! Title

Draft outline for lecture, SAS 4010
Med forbehold om endringer!
Title: Theoretical models for Muslim tribal societies in South Asia
1. What is a tribe?
2. Ibn Khaldun’s model of the relationship between tribe and state
Tribes and states linked in en enduring and oft-repeated cycle in which desert tribes fused by
kinship and unity rise up to overthrow an existing dynasty. After three or four generations in
the decadent life of court and city, it loses its martial qualities, becomes lazy and loses touch
with the tribal qualities of unity, while other tribes consolidate themselves on the margin and
eventually overthrow the dynasty.
3. Model of the segmentary lineage system
The balanced opposition of lineage segments, with the typical features of the feud and
mediation by arbitrators. In this model the role of the saint effects a working compromise
between the potential anarchy of tribal violence and the encroaching tyranny of the state.
Islam as an oscillation between idolatry and fundamentalist monotheism.
Charles Lindholm’s analysis of Pakistani politics
(Lindholm, Charles: “The segmentary lineage system: its applicability to Pakistan’s political
structure”, in Lindholm, Frontier Perspectives: Essays in Comparative Anthropology.
Karachi: Oxford, 1996. Pp. 121-143.)
Note here the analysis of the bureaucracy with its slow decision making and
institutionalization of bribery, and Jinnah’s initial role as mediator.
Can this analysis be carried forward to the present?
4. Types of authority in tribal societies
4.1. Authority of tribal chiefs
Barth, Fredrik, Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans. London School of Economics
Monographs on Social Anthropology 19, London: the Athlone Press, 2000. Pp. 71-91
4.2. Authority of saints
Barth, Fredrik, Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans. London School of Economics
Monographs on Social Anthropology 19, London: the Athlone Press, 2000. Pp. 92-103
4.3. The moral foundation of kingship
The case of Amir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan
(Edwards, David B. Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier. University
of California Press, 1996. Pp. 78-125.)
5. The dialectic between tribalism and Islamism
Akbar Ahmad’s case study: the rise and fall of Mullah Noor Muhammad
(Ahmad, Akbar S., Resistance and Control in Pakistan. Rev. Ed. Routledge. 2004, selected
chapters)
Pensum
Theoretical overview: Caton, Steven: “Anthropological theories of tribe and state formation
in the Middle East: ideology and the semiotics of power”, in Philip S. Khoury and Joseph
Kostiner, eds., State Formation in the Middle East. University of California Press, 1990. Pp.
74-104.
Important concepts: Gellner, Ernest: “Tribalism and the state in the Middle East”, in Philip S.
Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, eds., State Formation in the Middle East. University of
California Press, 1990. pp. 109-126. (Ibn Khaldun’s model and the segmentary model are not
mutually exclusive.)
Case studies
1. Ahmad, Akbar S., Resistance and Control in Pakistan. Rev. Ed. Routledge. 2004, selected
chapters.
2. Barth, Fredrik, Political Leadership Among Swat Pathans. London School of Economics
Monographs on Social Anthropology 19, London: the Athlone Press, 2000. Pp. 71-103.
3. Edwards, David B. Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Frontier.
University of California Press, 1996. Pp. 78-125.
4. Lindholm, Charles: “The segmentary lineage system: its applicability to Pakistan’s
political structure”, in Lindholm, Frontier Perspectives: Essays in Comparative
Anthropology. Karachi: Oxford, 1996. Pp. 121-143.