Ethnography at the Frontier

This book is the result of a field research carried out by the author among a community of agriculturists in what was till recently the uttermost part of Southern Pakistani Balochistan. It deals with themes such as ways of living and representing spaces, constructing memory, the heritage of a form of social stratification which shaped community relationships in the last three centuries, and, last but not least, the insurgence of nationalism. Furthermore, the book puts forward some theoretical proposals about the translation of cultural «models», throughout a constant comparison between the author's and his interlocutors', alternating ethnographic «descriptions» with reflexive arguments. Notwithstanding its remoteness, Balochistan is today at the confluence of forces which reflect both local and «global» logics, pushing this land, once only visited by few adventurous travelers, in the focus of international interests which could impinge on political evolution of this sensitive area straddling South Asia and Middle East.

Autorentext
Ugo E. M. Fabietti ***is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Milan Bicocca and Director of the PhD Programme in Anthropology. He carried out research in Arabia (1979-1980) and Pakistani Balochistan (1986-1994), and is the author, among other articles and books, of Antropologia culturale. L'esperienza e l'interpretazione* (Rome, 1999) which focuses on the main epistemological topics of anthropology.

Zusammenfassung
«[...] Fabietti's book constitutes an enormous enrichment to the poor amount of anthropological works on Baloch groups. lt contributes a great deal of hew - almost contemporary - material from a fast changing field.»
(Just Boedeker, Orientalische Literaturzeitung Heft 4-5 2015)

Review on South Asia @ LSE

Inhalt
Contents: The organization of inhabited and worked spaces - The role of time in agricultural activities - Social stratification and its transformation - The representations of violence and blood relationships - Nationalism and the construction of memory.