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ID:
159756
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Summary/Abstract |
In recent decades, the nature of exchange relations in rural Pakistan appears to have undergone significant transformations due to the gradual shift from seasonal agriculture to a market-based economy, rapid urbanisation and industrialisation. Change and continuity in exchange relations are particularly manifested in rituals and ceremonies associated with childbirth, marriage and death, with socioeconomic transformations in the rural economy triggering shifts in ways of conducting such rituals and ceremonies. This article seeks to highlight such change but argues that the continuing centrality of religion, kinship and economic inter-dependencies, marked by rural social organisation, remains evident in how these rituals and ceremonies are conducted. After discussing the social meanings of such rituals and ceremonies in rural Pakistan, the article demonstrates through detailed ethnographic study certain modifications in exchange relations as a consequence of recent socioeconomic change.
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2 |
ID:
190676
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Summary/Abstract |
This article challenges the traditional understanding of the role of landownership in rural Punjab in the context of recent socio-economic restructuring of Pakistani society. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork of contemporary practices of gift exchange (vartan bhanji) in a village, we argue that the Kammi biraderis, once considered lower class, now assert their elevated socio-economic status through vartan bhanji on important social occasions like marriages. Zamindars now see themselves in competition both with Kammi biraderis and each other for social prestige and superior status, as new claims made by different biraderis challenge traditional hierarchies created through historically structured socio-economic inequalities.
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