Social Organization and Structure of Pashtun Society: A Postcolonial Study of Prospects and Narratives

Abstract

The emergence of the Postcolonial studies in the beginning of the second part of 20^th century has figured out interesting discourses on reclaiming the images, histories, dignities, structures, cultures and memories. Edward Said’s assertion of correcting the course of history with regards to the culture and identity of Middle Eastern part of the world, gave the courage to the other parts of the world to scratch the colonial logic of representation and definition of the exotic, demonic, erotic and barbaric “others of the Orient”. The discourse on the Pashtun and Afghan identity penned during the British colonial period is still resonated in the contemporary academic, research, literary and journalistic works.  Pashtuns as warlike, masculine, martial, patriarchal and primitive are still on the line of fire of the discourse once seen and reported through the barrel of guns, likewise the social organization of the diverse sub-cultural zones is cut to the size of the straight jackets of colonial discourse, once constructed by the ethnographic assertions of colonial writers, still echoes in the mainstream contemporary discourse. This paper tends to deconstruct the hegemonic narratives and reset the discourse regarding the social construction and social organizations of the Pashtun’s society which is often tagged as a society driven by cousin rivalry, Nang(honor), egalitarianism and anti-governance tendencies.