Peripatetic groups of Afghanistan
There are several ethnic groups in
Name
The term Jāt is derogatory and none of the peripatetic groups uses it for itself, although they do employ it in reference to other peripatetic communities.[1] It is unclear how these distinct groups acquired the name Jat.
In neighbouring
Social characteristics
Generally, what defines groups is a nomadic lifestyle, with their main occupation being the provision of services such as the manufacture and sale of agricultural implements, bangles, drums and winnowing trays as well as providing entertainment such as performing bears and monkeys, fortune-telling, singing. Most Jats have a network of clients and customers scattered over a broad region, and they migrate between these known clients clusters, occasionally adding new ones. Secondly, each Jat group specializes in a particular activity, for example the Ghorbat of western Afghanistan are sieve makers, shoe repairers and animal traders, while the Shadibaz peddle cloth, bangles and haberdashery.[2]
These communities are
Ethnic groups
Below is a brief overview of the main known groups of peripatetics. The information in this table, as well as in the rest of this article, is relevant to the situation in the 1970s. This is likely to have changed significantly in the turmoil since then.[3]
Ethnic Group | Region (in the 1970s) | Economy (in the 1970s) | Language[4] | Religion |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ghorbat | found throughout Afghanistan | makers of sieves and rums, shoe repairers, animal traders, haberdashery, cloth peddling and bangle selling | Ghorbati | mostly Shia, some Sunni |
Shadibaz | eastern and northern Afghanistan | peddling cloth, haberdashery or bangles; leading performing bears and monkeys | Inku |
Sunni |
Vangawala | eastern and central Afghanistan including Uruzgan, Bamiyan and Dai Kundi | peddling bangles, cloth or haberdashery; jugglery and snake charming | Inku |
Sunni |
Baloch | northern, western and southern Afghanistan | prostitution, occasionally music and dance | Balochi | Sunni |
Jalali | western and northern Afghanistan, mainly in Heart, Farah, Baghlan, Kunduz, Talogan and Badakhshan provinces | musicians, leading performing monkeys, occasionally begging | Inku |
Sunni |
Pikraj | northern and western Afghanistan | animal trade; peddling bangles | Inku |
Sunni |
Jogi | northern Afghanistan | begging, preparing and selling herbal medicines, agricultural labour | Mogatibey, Dari |
Sunni |
Mussali[5] | eastern Afghanistan | agricultural labour | ||
Kutana | Pashto | |||
Shaikh Mohammadi[6] | throughout Afghanistan | peddlers | Dari , secret language: Adurgari |
Sunni |
Baluch
The Baluch (Baluč) should not be confused with either the much larger ethnic group of the
Ghorbat
The Ghorbat (Ġorbat) are the most widely dispersed peripatetic community, consisting of about 600 nuclear families as of the 1970s. Their origin is ultimately west-Iranian,[13] and they speak local varieties of Persian in addition to Ghorbati (also known as Magadi or Qāzulāgi), a secret language with a heavy Persian base.[14]
Jalali, Pikraj, Shadibaz and Vangawala
These four communities claim descent from ancestors who migrated in the 19th century from the Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan areas of eastern Balochistan (nowadays Pakistan). The Jalali and the Pikraj give successive droughts and famines as the reason for their migration, while the Shadibaz and the Vangawala state that their ancestors were fleeing from blood feuds ultimately triggered by the abduction of kinswomen.[15] All four groups speak closely related varieties of the Indo-Aryan Inku language, which is likely related to the Saraiki of their areas of origin.[16]
The Jalali (Jalāli) were found in northeastern Afghanistan and numbered around 500 people divided into four lineages. Some were beggars, the better-off were peddlers of haberdashery. The women commonly sold fruit door to door, while some men were musicians or had monkeys which they trained "to dance and perform tricks".[16]
The Pikraj (Pikrāj) numbered approximately 2,000 people in 1976. They wandered around the whole of Afghanistan north of the
The Shadibaz (Šādibāz), also known as Shadiwan (Šādiwān), had a population of about 1,500 individuals divided into three descent groups. Their name, literally meaning "monkey-players" in the local Persian variety, reflects their main occupation, which consisted in training monkeys and then using them for performances. As this had started becoming less profitable, the men had increasingly been taking up other occupations like selling cloth, or working as agricultural labourers. The women on the other hand peddled glass and plastic bangles.[18]
The Vangawala (Vaŋgāwālā) are known in Pashto as Bangṛiwāl or Banguḍifruš and in Dari as Čurifrūš. Comprising 3,000 people spread across five descent groups (Baluč, Čenār, Malek, Pešāwri, and Rati), they lived south of Hindukush and east of
Jogi
The Jōgī, or Jugī, are found in northern Afghanistan and are organised into four subgroups. Likely of Central Asian origin, they relate that their ancestors once travelled freely between
Mussali
The Mussali were concentrated in parts of Laghman Province, where they provided their labour during the busy late spring harvest season.[5]
Sheikh Mohammadi
There are several unrelated groups of Sheikh Mohammadi (Šayx Mohammadi), and there is disagreement among them about which one can rightfully identify as such. The one thing they do have in common is their secret language
See also
References
- ^ Rao 1986, pp. 255–6.
- ^ a b Rao 1986.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 254; Hanifi 2012
- ^ Rao 1995.
- ^ a b Hanifi 2012.
- ^ Olesen 1987.
- ^ Rao 1995, pp. 71–2.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 270.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 260.
- ^ Rao 1986, pp. 260–1.
- ^ Rao 1986, pp. 262–3.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 264.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 265.
- ^ Rao 1995, pp. 74, 85–6.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 266.
- ^ a b Rao 1986, p. 267.
- ^ Rao 1986, pp. 267–8.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 268–9.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 269–71.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 272–73.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 273.
- ^ Rao 1995, pp. 73, 85–6.
- ^ Olesen 1987, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Rao 1986, p. 274.
Bibliography
- Hanifi, M. Jamil (2012). "Jāt". Encyclopædia Iranica.
- Olesen, A. (1987). "Peddling in East Afghanistan: Adaptive Strategies of the Peripatetic Sheikh Mohammadi". In Rao, Aparna (ed.). The Other Nomads: Peripatetic Minorities in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Cologne: Böhlau. pp. 35–63. ISBN 3-412-08085-3.
- ISBN 3-88226-360-1.
- Rao, Aparna (1995). "Marginality and language use: the example of peripatetics in Afghanistan". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 5. 5 (2): 69–95.