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572 NURISTANIS
symbolized in institutionalized feast-giving, through which the giver gained both
purity and formal social rank.
In contemporary Nuristan the basic sociopolitical unit is the village. Each
village is surrounded by agricultural land owned by the male heads of households,
and associated with each village are seasonally used alpine and lowland grazing
areas to which male residents have hereditary rights.
There are no formally constituted offices of political leadership in Nuristani
society. Within the village, leadership is dominated by men who have informally
distinguished themselves in fostering the cohesiveness of the community. Leaders
promote their views at open community conferences, which are convened whenever
decisions affecting the entire community must be made. At such conferences
an adept leader may be delegated whatever authority he needs to resolve a
community crisis, as long as he has the consensus of the other political leaders.
When the crisis is resolved or his consensus wanes, he resumes his normal role
in the community.
Political leaders emerge primarily through their demonstrated ability to mediate
interpersonal conflicts that arise within the community. Nuristani society lacks
formal structures, such as courts, to resolve such conflicts, and the role of
mediator is crucial to the maintenance of social cohesion. In Nuristan conflicts
are always resolvable by appropriate compensation as determined through mediation.
Blood money is required in disputes involving bloodshed. Such disputes
are considered particularly dangerous for the community, because until blood
payment is met, the aggrieved or his agnatic kinsmen may extract blood vengeance.
The potential for unresolved disputes to escalate into bloodshed is the
major motivation for civic-minded men to step forward as mediators.
To enforce village laws enacted by the village leaders in community conferences,
the men of the village annually choose a group of village policemen.
Such policemen are representatives of agnatic lineages or village divisions and
are primarily involved with regulating irrigation, harvesting and the transhumant
schedule. They are empowered to fine transgressors according to traditional rates.
Fines are usually split between the policemen and the village treasury, which is
maintained to subsidize expenses incurred in conducting external political affairs.
Kinship, especially agnatic kinship, is the basis for cooperation among Nuristanis.
Agnates are obliged to support each other in time of crisis or need. One
also draws economic support from his mother's agnates. Nuristanis model agnation
by a tree metaphor in which agnatic lineages are the "branches." Before
Islam, marriage to the daughter of an agnate was considered incestuous and a
cause for the "branch to be split." Nowadays marriage between agnates is losing
its stigma because there is no such prohibition under Islamic law.
Because kinship is the fundamental interpersonal tie, Nuristanis who have
frequent dealings in other Nuristani villages will adopt men from such villages
as brothers. Along with intermarriages, such adoptive ties form the primary links
between the different Nuristani peoples.
Property and rights to grazing areas are inherited patrifilially, usually while