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PASHAI 601
temporary Pashai mountain people, are thus seen as relics of a once higher
civilization.
Although historical records indicate that the population of the Pashai area
converted to Islam fairly recently, Morgenstierne feels that this is no way means
that the Pashai religion of the immediate pre-Islamic period was similar to that
found among the pagans of what is now Nuristan. This latter religious system
was comprised of symbols, rituals and beliefs strikingly similar to those found
in ancient Indo-Iranian religions. According to Morgenstierne, the paganism of
the Pashai was rather a debased form of Hindu-Buddhism.
In contrast, there are those who argue that the Pashai are probably not the
descendants of lowland refugees but are more likely a population that has inhabited
their high mountain valleys from a time before the rise of Gandharan
civilization. This argument is based mainly on evidence gathered in the course
of field research among the Pashai speakers of the Darra-i-Nur Valley. The
author, who worked in Oygal, and Jan Ovesen, who worked in the main Darrai-Nur
Valley, both found that in terms of social structure and culture the valley's
inhabitants closely resemble the neighboring Nuristani and Dardic-speaking tribes
of the Hindu Kush and Karakorum. Because of the strongly similar themes that
thread through the social structure and culture of all the mountain people of the
area, it seems probable that they share in general common historical roots. The
ethnographic evidence does not support an argument that the Pashai, as opposed
to their Dardic and Nuristani neighbors, have fallen from a previously more
"civilized" state.
Ethnic terms for the Pashai-speaking people are confusing. The term "Pashai"
is used here to refer to those who speak the Pashai language. In a few villages
in the Alingar Valley there are Pashai speakers who are actually called Pashai.
However, in the majority of cases the speakers of Pashai neither call themselves
Pashai nor are called this by their neighbors. In many instances the Pashai are
known as Tajik (generally meaning "Persian-speaking agriculturalists") or Safi
(the name of a Pashto-speaking tribe in the Kunar Valley). However, they are
also called Kohistanis (meaning non-Pushtun mountain dweller) and in some
instances even classified as Nuristanis.
The Pashai are Sunni Muslims who in terms of formal religion are no different
from their Nuristani and Pushtun neighbors. There are shrines of famous saints
in the area, and it is not unknown for Pashai men to leave their home communities
and become followers of well-known Pakistani or Afghan holy men. However,
in the remote villages, saints do not play a particularly important role in local
politics. In other ways as well, the Pashai living in the more remote areas differ
from their neighbors. In many of these villages, women are not secluded, are
able to interact freely with men and have a degree of sexual freedom unheard
of in most rural areas of Afghanistan.
Although the Pashai are in general mixed herders and cultivators, in the
relatively low elevations agriculture is of greater economic importance than
herding. Staple crops are rice in the lower elevations and wheat and maize in