Studies in Sindi society the anthropology of selected Sindi communities

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to accept the fact that there is a territory called Sind which has possessed and still possesses a regional identity and then to examine the nature of society within it. The emphasis throughout is on social and cultural characteristics related as far as possible to the various forces affecting them and operating within them, a field of study lying between Social Geography and Social Anthropology. Within Sind there exist diversities of religion, of occupation and economy but overriding these there has been until recently an undisputed social and cultural unity manifesting itself in language folk customs, mysticism and a class / caste division of society. This unity has been associated with subsistenceorientated agricultural economy in which family and kinship have aided survival in a harsh a rid environment. Sind has been a region peripheral to the mainstream of Asian change and regional and social unity remained undisturbed for centuries. Two phenomena have recently disturbed this traditional continuity, first the effects of partition of All - India and secondly urbanization in the developing state of Pakistan. The question remains whether traditional rural - based unity will remain dominant or whether a new hybrid culture will appear