An ethnographic investigation of swara among the Pashtun people of Jalalabad, Afghanistan: exploring swara as a conflict settlement mechanism from the perspective of men
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Date
2016
Authors
Khan, Masood
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Abstract
This thesis presents an ethnographic analysis of the practice of swara marriage among the Pashtun people of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, based on nine weeks of fieldwork in 2015. Swara is a form of compensation marriage practiced by Pashtun people in Pakistan and Afghanistan through which disputes between men are resolved through the giving away in marriage of girls, often minors, by guilty parties to victim parties. By employing practice theory and the theory of sacrifice, swara marriages are analyzed through the conceptualizations of honor, revenge, and ghairat (“bravery”). Focusing on six swara cases, the first half of the thesis explores the concepts of honor, revenge, and ghairat during the time of feuds. The second half of the thesis directly focuses on swara marriages and analyzes them through the concepts of symbolic capital and sacrifice.
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Keywords
Feuds, Pashtun people, Afghanistan, Swara marriages