Features of Person and Society in Swat

First published in 1981, Features of Person and Society in Swat brings together Professor Barth’s writings on the Swat Pathans. Professor Barth’s investigations of Swat Pathan society revealed aspects which were often at variance with the prevailing anthropological paradigm of the 1950s, and in which were seen elements of a more realistic paradigm of the relation between the individual and society.The book also addresses more specific, theoretical challenges which arose from the material. These include an early venture into ecologic analysis, the application of the theory of games to the main lineaments of a political system, an analysis of social stratification and caste, and the processes at work in ethnic differentiation and identity in a situation of social inequality.The last chapter in this volume readdresses several of these issues and deals further with issues that have been raised by others in their critiques and commentaries on Professor Barth’s work in this area.

Fredrik Barth was a Norwegian social anthropologist. He was a professor in the Department of Anthropology at Boston University and had previously held professorships at the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen, Emory University and Harvard University. He was well-known among anthropologists for his transactional analysis of politic processes in the Swat Valley of northern Pakistan and his study of microeconomic processes and entrepreneurship in Darfur in Sudan.