ETHNICITY &
NICHE IN SWAT, PAKISTAN
Table 1. Ethnographic information.
Group |
Entry Date |
Areas Utilized |
Socio-political Organization |
Kohistani |
Ancient |
High valleys, lower slopes of mts (agric) High meadows (summer pasture) |
Egalitarian, autonomous villages; village councils & kin groups |
Pathan |
AD 1000 -1600 |
Alluvial plains (low elevations) |
Complex, hierarchical (caste system, stratified, specialized military & occupations) |
Gujars |
AD 1600 - 1800 |
Marginal land in Pathan area; High pastures (summer) in W. Kohistan |
Fluid; patron/client relations with Pathan; subordinate to both Pathan and Kohistani |
Table 2. Niche analysis.
Group |
Exclusion* |
Niche Shifts |
Realized Niche |
Kohistani |
Gujar |
Niche contraction |
Agriculture & transhumance |
Pathan |
Kohistani |
--- |
Intensive agriculture |
Gujar |
--- |
Niche contraction and divergence |
Transhumance or nomadic pastoralism |
*(Partial exclusion only)
__________________________
Source: Barth, Fredrik (1956) Ecological relationships of ethnic groups in Swat, North Pakistan. American Anthropologist 58: 1079-89.