This dissertation is an ethnographic account of a small village in Southern Pakistan.
It situates women’s lives, experiences, their perception of the changes occurring
around them in order to understand the processes involved in their attainment of
education and reproductive healthcare. It explores the ways in which South Asian
rural women understand the notion of modernity. Furthermore, if there are emic
descriptions of theoretical paradigms such as modernity or modernization, what
descriptive avenues are women taking to describe that change? I argue that a
demographic shift triggered by enhanced means for girls education and reproductive
healthcare have created the right environment for exegesis of unwritten cultural
codes even among the ultra conservative Pathan community in this village and it is
that reevaluation that is enforcing a gradual ‘bargaining with patriarchy’ in women’s
lives (Kandiyoti, 1988). The key questions at the heart of this research are:
What processes are involved as women reach out for education and reproductive
health resources? What logic and values guide their efforts? If religion combined
with culture and patriarchy has substantially undermined women’s autonomy, then is
the relationship quantifiably evident in the number of women seeking and attaining
locally available means of education and contraceptive health?
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These questions are specifically interesting when juxtaposed against the
unique nature of social makeup and kin-structures among the Pathan people in
Sheherpind. Each Pathan group such as the Niazi’s, the Orakzai, the Mohmand, the
Achakzai, and others recognize themselves as a separate tribe within the larger
Pathan race and each trace back their heritage to ancient Afghan kings. Some
families trace their lineage all the way back to biblical times and relate to the Prophet
Yusuf (known in the bible as Joseph), a claim most Pathans all over South Asia
adhere to and respect (Barth, 1974). Described anthropologically, what Pathans
understand as a ‘tribe’ is actually a unique descent group ‘with a common ancestor
that goes beyond two generations’ (Nanda and Warms, 1991:171). Each descent
group, such as the Niazi further divide themselves into clans ‘that share related
patrilineal descent to a known ancestor’ (Nanda and Warms, 1991). The participants
in this study identify themselves primarily as ‘Niazi’ and then more intimately as
members of one of many clans residing in each village such as Abba-Khel, ShermanKhel,
Watta-Khel and others. For women in the community, their patrilineal identity
plays a role in their social status only prior to marriage. Once married, women refer
to their roles, status and worldviews only as related to their affinal relationships and
often make choices, particularly, to fit into the political and social worldview
preferred by their affinal clan.