Fredrik Barth: Middle East Flashcards
How does Barth formulate the main purpose of his study ‘Political Leadership among the Swat Pathans’ in the monograph’s opening phrase?
- ‘…to give a descriptive analysis of the political system of Swat…
- …with special reference to the sources of political authority…
- …and the form of organization within which this authority is excercised.’
Name the eleven chapters in Barth’s monography ‘Political leadership among the Swat Pathans’ (1959).
- Introduction
- General ecology and ethnology of Swat
- Underlying frameworks of organization
- Neighbourhood, marriage and affinity
- Relations of inequality and authority
- Land tenure and political relations within local communities
- Authority and following of chiefs
- Authority and following of saints
- Alliances and political blocs
- History and organization of Swat state
- Conclusion
Perspective on political organization
Barth’s perspective on political organization when he started writing up the Swat materials (as rendered in Barth 2007:3).
As an outcome of the choices and alignments made by its participants (in Swat, that was the local adult males).
NOT:
As an institution,based on rules and norms and defined by its function for society
What three basic organizational frameworks which serve to order the population of Swat into discrete groups does Barth outline in the third chapter of his Swat monography?
- a territorial framework
- a framework of hereditary castes
- a patrilineal descent charter (primarily for Pakhtuns)
What set of relations does Barth present in the fourth chapter of his 1959 Swat monography?
In his chapter on Neigbourhood, Marriage and Affinity, Barth presents relations…
- ‘…which are given at the outset of an individual’s career, but may e changed by his own actions.*
- These are the relations of neighbourhood and association, kinship, and marriage.’* (1959:31)
What is the object of Barth’s analysis in chapters 7 and 8 of his Swat monography?
‘…the formation around leaders of politically corporate followings.’ (1959:104)
Barth (1959:104) defines his presentation of the Swat political system (in chapters 3-6?) as ‘a progressive synthesis of component parts.’
In chapters 7-8, this leads to ‘an analysis of the formation around leaders of politically corporate followings’.
A second main step then remain. What is the remaining second main step of his synthesis?
The remaining second step is to show how the combination or opposition of these smaller groups creates the actual political organizatin of the valley.
During which years did a native state emmerge in the Swat valley?
1917-1926
What is the definition of political systems that Barth referes to in the opening paragraph of his Swat ethnography (Barth 1959)?
- The definition of political systems that Barth referes to in his opening paragraph is Radcliffe-Brown’s, as quoted in Fortes and Evans-Pritchard 1940.
- Radcliffe brown defines political systems as systems for:
- ‘maintenance or establishment of social order…
- …within a territorial framwework,…
- …by the organized excercise of coercive authority…
- …through the use, or the possibility of use, of physical force.’
Principles of Social Organization in Southern Kurdistan
Barth (1953)
What to alternative plans for analysis of his field materials from Swat did Barth present his teachers at Cambridge?
Which plan was chosen?
- Focus on the various relations and transactions by which political leaders built the followings and alliances that shaped this basically state-less political system.
- Use Gregory Bateson’s concept of schismogenesis (the mutually reinforcing effects that the actions of two different persons or roles can have on each other) to analyze the formation of the two types of leaders in the area, namely, “chiefs” and “saints.
Meyer Fortes favored the former, safer plan, which became Barth’s thesis design.
Where did Barth look for theoretical inspiration for handling his Swat materials?
- To Edmund Leach, who had just completed his Political Systems of Highland Burma (Leach 1954).
- To Max Weber and his analysis of sources of authority.
In 2007, how does Barth describe the central issue he confronted in his Swat material?
The central issue was how best to understand how the patterns that make up social organization come about:
- Do they derive from cultural rules and norms that enjoin the particular forms of behavior that are practiced…
- Or are they the outcome of a more complex play of considerations taken into account by political actors?
Barth came across a book in the library which presented a model that favored the formation of just the kind of pervasive two-party coalition that Barth had observed in Swat.(See Barth 2007:4)
- Which book was this?
- What kind of model did it offer?
- What analytic possibility did this model offer Barth?
- Which publication was the outcome?
- Who encouraged Barth to write that text?
- To whom was Barth told the text was not sufficiently respectful?
- Theory of Games (von Neumann & Morgenstern 1944)
- A model of a multiperson game of alliance
- Comparison of empirical findings in Swat with the outcomes of a rigorous formal model.
- Segmentary opposition and the theory of games (1959)
- Edmund Leach
- E.E. Evans-Pritchard
Barth wrote an authorized biography. Give book title and year of publication.
The Last Wali of Swat (1985)
- Hvor gammel var Fredrik Barth da han gjorde feltarbeid i Swat-dalen?
- Hvor gammel var han da monografien basert på dette feltarbeidet kom ut?
- Han var 25 år under feltarbeidet
- Monografien kom det året han fylte 31 år
When was Pakistan created?
1947
