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"FRIEND BY DAY, ENEMY BY NIGHT" (LINCOLN KEISER).   Term Paper ID:22755 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Critical review of work on institutionalized vengeance and blood feuds in Pakistani tribal community.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 1 sources, 15 Citations, TURABIAN Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Critical review of work on institutionalized vengeance and blood feuds in Pakistani tribal community. Paper Introduction: Lincoln Keiser, in Friend by Day, Enemy by Night: Organized Vengeance in a Kohistani Community, "explores blood feuding (mar dushmani, literally 'death enmity') and its ramifications in Thull, a Kohistani tribal community in the Hindu-Kush Mountains of Pakistan" (vii). The community depicted by Reiser is thoroughly affected in almost every category by the imperatives of the system of vengeance: The study shows how mar dushmani has come to interpenetrate life in this isolated community of mountaineers. Beliefs in the nature of God, concepts of self, patterns of ecological adaptation, the structure of houses, the number and kinds of dogs men own, the kinship and political system--death enmity penetrates and twists all these and more (vii-viii). Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. With respect to politics and kinship, the author writes that dushmanhas come to dominate the community of Thull so thoroughly today that it is the focal event of political affairs in the community. Histext proper takes a conventional anthrpological perspective, based onscientific detachment, while his journal writing gives us a more emotionalpicture of the author's responses to the harsh culture of the community ofThull. At its core lie four obligations: to commit vengeance, to provide hospitality, to give refuge to anyone asking for it (even a mortal enemy), and to treat with generosity a fallen adversary who sues for peace (4 ). It mobilizes and opposes men drawn from networks rather than descent griups. Yet many men from Thull argue that taking vengeance ina religious act" (27). As we read, the title of the book is"no idle phrase. The people's reading of Islamic law and tradition leads to theview that a violent act must be answered by a similar violent act. The perspective taken by Keiser is that which focuses on "the forceseffecting change in the tense interplay between communal harmony andintracommunity violence" (15). For example, "as a general principle men shouldretaliate whenever another wrongs them, though the act of revenge itselfshould not exceed the original wrong. In addition, chimneys are built ratherthan smokeholes, for the latter provide easy access for assassins. . Once a violent act has occurred, however, theexpectations and rules are engaged, and a death must and does answer adeath. The author's text stands in stark contrast to his diary entries. The rules of vengeance are not as chaotic as they may first seem tothe external observer. . Death enmity shifted weight in political situations to the network side of the kinship equation, and consequently clans and lineages no longer dominate political affairs in Thull (87). As previously noted, vengeance has existed as a social facet forhundreds of years, but has intensified and spread in only the past fewdecades, primarily as a result of profound religious and economic changeswhich have loosened work patterns and social connections which previouslydiscouraged such open and drastic violence. This system of vengeance calls for assassination not merely formajor offenses, but even for trivial and imagined ones, such as staring atthe wife or daughter of another man. Fort Worth: Holt,Rinehart and Winston, 1991.----------------------- 6 Lincoln Keiser, in Friend by Day, Enemy by Night: Organized Vengeancein a Kohistani Community, "explores blood feuding (mar dushmani, literally'death enmity') and its ramifications in Thull, a Kohistani tribalcommunity in the Hindu-Kush Mountains of Pakistan" (vii). Revenge has been a part of the society under study forhundreds of years, but was limited to "descent groups" and "had notinvolved deadly weapons" (2). In other words, the community, to remain acommunity with some measure of harmony and not deteriorate into utterbedlam and chaos, must find a way to fit such violent behavior into asystem of relations which balance that violence with cooperation: First we learn how institutionalized vengeance came to dominate social relationships, which involves examining how historical changes in religious ideology and political economy transformed violence in the community. The author finds that this venegeance obsession has developed in thelast few decades. For example, his conventional anthropological perspective yieldspassages like the following: "All functional perspectives are essentiallyteleogical, that is, they explain parts of a sociocultural system byshowing their consequences for some end or goal" (13): On the other hand,his journal gives us such entries as this: "Thull delights in torturing me.When the situation seems good, bam!, a load of shit drops on my head"(117). . The author writes of a religious scholar who"knew that Islam does not advocate violence and that most Muslims do notcountenance murder. The Islamic beliefs of these people arebased primarily on another group which adhered to a tribal code of conduct. Friend by Day, Enemy by Night. Rather than confusing the reader or giving a contradictory sense ofthe author's attitude, the contrast between text proper and journal entriesis delightful and keeps the reader fascinated with the mix of scienctificand personal narratives. This means that tonot answer a violent act with a corresponding violent act indicates a man'slack of religious devotion. BibliographyKeiser, Lincoln. The society thus interpentrated by the possibility and necessity ofdeath at any turn is a thoughly frightening one, indeed, with the men amplyarmed with all sorts of weapons for carrying out revenge, including axes,clubs, automatic pistols, bolt-action rifles, and Kalashnikov AK-47 assaultrifles. . Compared to more personal anthropological narratives, the author'swork does not allow us to know in depth more than a few individuals in thecommunity of Thull in terms of the impact of the system of vengeance ontheir personal lives, but we certainly do receive a terrifying portrait ofthe cultural, social, and religious contexts in which that vengeance takesplace. The communitydepicted by Reiser is thoroughly affected in almost every category by theimperatives of the system of vengeance: The study shows how mar dushmani has come to interpenetrate life in this isolated community of mountaineers. Men may joke with each other during the day, andcommunicate with bullets at night" (viii). However, the original wrong can spring from anact which hardly seems to call for the kind of drastic violence whichensues, as in the case of a murder of a man for staring at another man'swife or daughter. As mentioned, the definition ofreligious identity of the people under study has recently added theingredient of venegeance as a sign of religious piety. A blow should answer a blow and adeath always a death" (2 ). In addition, "atransition from a subsistence system based on herding and cultivation to aneconomic system built on timbering and cash crop agriculture" has broughtabout a weakening of social and political ties which prevented such blatantand common vengeance (54-55). The system of vengeance is so pervasive in the culture that itaffects even the construction of houses. Finally,"men build houses without windows so that dushman cannot shoot through themat those inside the house (73). Beliefs in the nature of God, concepts of self, patterns of ecological adaptation, the structure of houses, the number and kinds of dogs men own, the kinship and political system--death enmity penetrates and twists all these and more (vii-viii). Once transformed, blood feud violence in turn influenced social arrangements; consequently, we also study how death enmity affected economic, kinship, and political organization (15-16). The author notes the role of religious belief in the system ofvengeance. In thissense, then, "dushmani constitues religious piety" (27). For example, "men build latrinesattached to their houses to protect themselves against their enemies. The contradictions in the society under study are many and profound,but those contradictions are absolutely necessary in order to hold such aviolence-oriented culture together. Those individuals we do come to know from the author's relationshipswith them seem to take the system of vengeance in stride, particularlybecause they have no real choice with respect to taking part in thatsystem. If they do not, they are seen as an aberration in the communityand, in any case, as unbelievers in Islam, which is interpreted as callingfor revenge from the truly pious. .." In other communities where blood feuds are not dominant, "cornfields areeveryone's toilet." In the community under study, such behavior wouldexpose the men to assassination. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.