Categories and Cultural Models of Nature in Northern Punjab, Pakistan

Lyon, Stephen M.; Mughal, M.A.Z.

Abstract

The most widespread model of the natural world by Northern Punjabi farmers appears to leverage a powerful supernatural domain, which includes Allah, as a sole God, plus, various non-human spirits or jinn, who can be both benign and malicious, and a bewildering array of spiritually powerful saints, or pir-fakir, to whom individuals can pray and seek some form of intervention. These pir-fakir do not themselves perform miracles, typically, but they are beloved by Allah and are somehow in a position to sway His actions in some people’s favor. For Barlevi Sunni Muslims, this influence continues even after death, which means that the gravesite of powerful pir-fakir themselves become sites of religious worship and devotion. The remainder of the 'natural' world, including non-human animals, plants, weather and so forth, appear to be part of the benevolent offering from God. There is no evidence to suggest widespread animist models of such things having independent relations to one another, as opposed to being the product of a single deity.

Citation

Lyon, S. M., & Mughal, M. (2017). Categories and Cultural Models of Nature in Northern Punjab, Pakistan. World cultures eJournal, 22(2),

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 1, 2017
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 14, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 15, 2018
• Journal: World cultures eJournal
• Publisher: University of California
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 2
• Publisher URL: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/77w806mp