Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Anthropology at Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
My work focuses on rural and urban Pakistan. I am interested in conflict management, kinship, farming, politics, social networks, Islam and cultural systems. Phone: +922133109850 Address: Faculty of Arts & Sciences Aga Khan University Stadium Road Karachi, Pakistan 74800
The role expectations of cross siblings varies across culture. Such expectations, while not rigid... more The role expectations of cross siblings varies across culture. Such expectations, while not rigidly prescribing actual behaviors nevertheless influences relations between brothers and sisters in observable ways. In South Asia, a cultural rhetoric of sororal sacrifice and support coupled with fraternal protection are commonplace. While such noble sibling roles are regularly transgressed they remain powerful idioms of the relationship and transgressions require appropriate cultural justification. In contrast, Japanese rhetorical roles lack such explicit sacrifice-protection expectations between cross sibling interactions and instead include more competitive and conflictual idealized models of cross sibling behaviors. Looking at narrative accounts of cross siblings in ancient texts in South Asia and Japan as well as contemporary rituals and observed sibling interactions, this paper argues that the cross sibling relationship must be understood as part of an assemblage of cultural idea systems which inform behaviors, beliefs and attitudes in individuals.
The significance of anthropological involvement in applied areas of economics, development, busin... more The significance of anthropological involvement in applied areas of economics, development, business, and similar fields is discussed. Contributions from a group of anthropologists, sociologists and computer scientists towards developing a more formal approach to understanding culture and its component processes are presented. Culture as a systemic concept has rapidly become pervasive outside anthropology in many cognate social sciences and humanities subjects. It is found that a model of culture can be instantiated in an agent population to adaptively solve real world optimization problems.
Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste t... more Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste that impose reciprocal obligations and rights. Marital maps enable allow for accurate prediction of allegiances and decision making and contribute to a transparent assessment of political processes in the country. While much of the focus on reciprocal relations has understandably been on descent relations (dynasties), the complex network of marital alliances that cut across lineage and sectarian divides helps explain notable levels of stability despite the fragility of the state and other public institutions. Using the example of one of the most successful political dynasties in post independence Pakistan, we show the extent of cross lineage, region and even party alliances that shape this political kinship network.
Comment on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pak... more Comment on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pakistan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
This special issue of Contemporary South Asia celebrates 20 years of the annual Pakistan Workshop... more This special issue of Contemporary South Asia celebrates 20 years of the annual Pakistan Workshop held in the Lake District of England. This event, the primary raison d'{\^{e}}tre for the Pakistan Studies Group, has consistently provided a forum for researchers of Pakistan, the Pakistani Diaspora, and Muslim groups of other South Asian countries to meet and exchange ideas. The main impetus for the Workshop has always come from anthropologists, but representatives from other disciplines have been an integral part of what makes it both successful and worthwhile. This issue brings together some important papers on Pakistan and the Pakistani Diaspora from recent participants in the Workshop. One of the dominant themes that emerge from this collection is that Pakistan is complex, and defies simple categorisation. The country is conservative and traditional while being modern and progressive. It is a wealthy nation in some ways, although it is impossible to deny its overwhelming poverty. There are horrendous acts of violence in a country that is by and large very peaceful. This is not to say that there are not clear patterns that emerge, nor that it is impossible to make any generalisations about Pakistan. However, this issue does suggest that a crude superficial characterisation of Pakistan, at best, is probably unhelpful. Hence the need for edited volumes, monographs, and articles that address Pakistan's diversity and vibrancy, and situate the country appropriately within its role in the wider world stage.
Humans societies have adapted mechanisms for dealing with large amounts of information, some of w... more Humans societies have adapted mechanisms for dealing with large amounts of information, some of which has hitherto not been encountered by members of the societies. Theories of communication, which posit that the medium upon which a message is transmitted is itself an integral part of the communication process, clarify the analytical utility of the culture concept in ways that account for empirical data. Using ethnographic cases of role relations learned in one sociocultural context that serve as a kind of cultural template for other sociocultural contexts, it is possible to identify the processes of information processing that lie at the level of culture, as well as individual, agency.
Dreams may serve to justify or motivate decisions. This paper examines two dream incidents in Pak... more Dreams may serve to justify or motivate decisions. This paper examines two dream incidents in Pakistan which have implications for the study of decision making processes. In the first incident, the centrality of the dream is questionable in the decision making process, while the second incident suggests that dreams may be more than justificatory props that enable people to do what they had already decided. If dreams play a motivational role in the decision making process then models of decision making may benefit from explicit recognition of the role unconscious, uncontrolled experiences though the narrative may be conscious and controlled. {\textcopyright} 2010 Taylor {\&} Francis.
This paper suggests that multiagent model design can be a useful device for researchers in the so... more This paper suggests that multiagent model design can be a useful device for researchers in the social sciences. Focusing on the pluralistic competing venues and strategies for conflict resolution in Punjab, Pakistan, I argue that the social context must be rendered more dynamic and interactive in our analytical models. By representing social context as agents in the formal description of particular cases of conflict resolution, certain recursive properties of different social contexts become apparent. In modification to my argument in an earlier paper (Cybernetics and Systems Research, vol. 1, pp. 383–388, 2002), I argue that the complexity of agents representing social context may usefully be reduced by creating libraries of core social contexts from which instantiations, such as those discussed here, inherit all the common attributes. {\textcopyright} 2004 Taylor and Francis.
Pakistani Punjabi landlords use marriage both strategically as well as affectively. That is to sa... more Pakistani Punjabi landlords use marriage both strategically as well as affectively. That is to say, they seek maximal political advantage and minimal household disruption with marriage arrangements. Using a set of formal networks analyses tools, this article examines two hundred years of marriage decisions for one Punjabi landlord family. The radical shift in marriage decisions beginning from the 1920s is the result of an earlier shift in inheritance rules. The resulting change in marriage decisions has impacted not only on household dynamics, but has disrupted longstanding factional associations within the village. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2013.
The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models o... more The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models of kinship that are mutually undermining and contradictory. Jones' attempts to reconcile disparate approaches to kinship using OT is useful, however; seeing kinship as a specialized system for representing genealogy may be unwarranted in the light of recent advances in mathematical approaches to kinship terminologies. {\textcopyright} 2010 Cambridge University Press.
The most widespread model of the natural world by Northern Punjabi farmers appears to leverage a ... more 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.
The contributions in this issue of Social Science Computer Review represent a range of computatio... more The contributions in this issue of Social Science Computer Review represent a range of computational approaches to theoretical and disciplinary specializations in anthropology that reflect on and expand the future orientation and practice of the formal and comparative agenda in the context of an increasing emphasis on complexity in anthropology as a discipline. Themes covered in this issue include kinship, funerary burials, urban legends, eye tracking, and looking at mode influences on online data collection. A common theme throughout the articles is examining the relationship between global emergent processes and structures and the local individual contributions to this emergence, and how the local and global contexts influence each other. We argue that unless complexity is addressed more overtly by leveraging computational approaches to data collection, analysis and theory building, anthropology and social science more generally face an existential challenge if they are to continue to pursue extended field research exercise, intersubjective productions, deep personal involvement, interaction with materiality, and engagement with people while generating research outcomes of relevance to the world beyond the narrow confines of specialist journals and conferences. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2013.
Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading discon... more Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading disconcertingly into wider societal contexts. In this article, we note our skepticism with one particularly popular-in our view, problematic-supposed causal correlation between neocortex size and social group size. The resulting Dunbar's Number, as it has come to be called, has been statistically tested against observed group size in different primate species. Although there may be reason to doubt the Dunbar's Number hypothesis among nonhuman primate species, we restrict ourselves here to the application of such an explanatory hypothesis to human, culture-manipulating populations. Human information process management, we argue, cannot be understood as a simple product of brain physiology. Cross-cultural comparison of not only group size but also relationship-reckoning systems like kinship terminologies suggests that although neocortices are undoubtedly crucial to human behavior, they cannot be given such primacy in explaining complex group composition, formation, or management. {\textcopyright} 2011 by the American Anthropological Association.
\textcopyright} 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Managing the electricity network... more \textcopyright} 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Managing the electricity network through ‘smart grid' systems is a key strategy to address challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions and the replacement of ageing infrastructure networks in the UK. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in shaping patterns of energy consumption. Understanding how their activities interrelate with changes in electricity systems is critical for active network management. A significant challenge for the transformation of electricity systems involves comprehending the complexity that stems from the variety of commercial activities and diversity of social and organizational practises among SMEs that interact with material infrastructures. We engage with SMEs to consider how smart grid interventions ‘fit' into everyday operational activities. Drawing on analysis of empirical data on electricity use, smart metre data, surveys, interviews and ‘energy tours' with SMEs to understand lighting, space heating and cooling, refrigeration and IT use, this paper argues for experimenting with the use of practise theory as a framework for bringing together technical and social aspects of energy use in SMEs. This approach reveals that material circumstances and temporal factors shape current energy demand among SMEs, with ‘connectedness' an emergent factor.
The role expectations of cross siblings varies across culture. Such expectations, while not rigid... more The role expectations of cross siblings varies across culture. Such expectations, while not rigidly prescribing actual behaviors nevertheless influences relations between brothers and sisters in observable ways. In South Asia, a cultural rhetoric of sororal sacrifice and support coupled with fraternal protection are commonplace. While such noble sibling roles are regularly transgressed they remain powerful idioms of the relationship and transgressions require appropriate cultural justification. In contrast, Japanese rhetorical roles lack such explicit sacrifice-protection expectations between cross sibling interactions and instead include more competitive and conflictual idealized models of cross sibling behaviors. Looking at narrative accounts of cross siblings in ancient texts in South Asia and Japan as well as contemporary rituals and observed sibling interactions, this paper argues that the cross sibling relationship must be understood as part of an assemblage of cultural idea systems which inform behaviors, beliefs and attitudes in individuals.
The significance of anthropological involvement in applied areas of economics, development, busin... more The significance of anthropological involvement in applied areas of economics, development, business, and similar fields is discussed. Contributions from a group of anthropologists, sociologists and computer scientists towards developing a more formal approach to understanding culture and its component processes are presented. Culture as a systemic concept has rapidly become pervasive outside anthropology in many cognate social sciences and humanities subjects. It is found that a model of culture can be instantiated in an agent population to adaptively solve real world optimization problems.
Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste t... more Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste that impose reciprocal obligations and rights. Marital maps enable allow for accurate prediction of allegiances and decision making and contribute to a transparent assessment of political processes in the country. While much of the focus on reciprocal relations has understandably been on descent relations (dynasties), the complex network of marital alliances that cut across lineage and sectarian divides helps explain notable levels of stability despite the fragility of the state and other public institutions. Using the example of one of the most successful political dynasties in post independence Pakistan, we show the extent of cross lineage, region and even party alliances that shape this political kinship network.
Comment on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pak... more Comment on Hull, Matthew. 2012. Government of paper: The materiality of bureaucracy in urban Pakistan. Berkeley: University of California Press.
This special issue of Contemporary South Asia celebrates 20 years of the annual Pakistan Workshop... more This special issue of Contemporary South Asia celebrates 20 years of the annual Pakistan Workshop held in the Lake District of England. This event, the primary raison d'{\^{e}}tre for the Pakistan Studies Group, has consistently provided a forum for researchers of Pakistan, the Pakistani Diaspora, and Muslim groups of other South Asian countries to meet and exchange ideas. The main impetus for the Workshop has always come from anthropologists, but representatives from other disciplines have been an integral part of what makes it both successful and worthwhile. This issue brings together some important papers on Pakistan and the Pakistani Diaspora from recent participants in the Workshop. One of the dominant themes that emerge from this collection is that Pakistan is complex, and defies simple categorisation. The country is conservative and traditional while being modern and progressive. It is a wealthy nation in some ways, although it is impossible to deny its overwhelming poverty. There are horrendous acts of violence in a country that is by and large very peaceful. This is not to say that there are not clear patterns that emerge, nor that it is impossible to make any generalisations about Pakistan. However, this issue does suggest that a crude superficial characterisation of Pakistan, at best, is probably unhelpful. Hence the need for edited volumes, monographs, and articles that address Pakistan's diversity and vibrancy, and situate the country appropriately within its role in the wider world stage.
Humans societies have adapted mechanisms for dealing with large amounts of information, some of w... more Humans societies have adapted mechanisms for dealing with large amounts of information, some of which has hitherto not been encountered by members of the societies. Theories of communication, which posit that the medium upon which a message is transmitted is itself an integral part of the communication process, clarify the analytical utility of the culture concept in ways that account for empirical data. Using ethnographic cases of role relations learned in one sociocultural context that serve as a kind of cultural template for other sociocultural contexts, it is possible to identify the processes of information processing that lie at the level of culture, as well as individual, agency.
Dreams may serve to justify or motivate decisions. This paper examines two dream incidents in Pak... more Dreams may serve to justify or motivate decisions. This paper examines two dream incidents in Pakistan which have implications for the study of decision making processes. In the first incident, the centrality of the dream is questionable in the decision making process, while the second incident suggests that dreams may be more than justificatory props that enable people to do what they had already decided. If dreams play a motivational role in the decision making process then models of decision making may benefit from explicit recognition of the role unconscious, uncontrolled experiences though the narrative may be conscious and controlled. {\textcopyright} 2010 Taylor {\&} Francis.
This paper suggests that multiagent model design can be a useful device for researchers in the so... more This paper suggests that multiagent model design can be a useful device for researchers in the social sciences. Focusing on the pluralistic competing venues and strategies for conflict resolution in Punjab, Pakistan, I argue that the social context must be rendered more dynamic and interactive in our analytical models. By representing social context as agents in the formal description of particular cases of conflict resolution, certain recursive properties of different social contexts become apparent. In modification to my argument in an earlier paper (Cybernetics and Systems Research, vol. 1, pp. 383–388, 2002), I argue that the complexity of agents representing social context may usefully be reduced by creating libraries of core social contexts from which instantiations, such as those discussed here, inherit all the common attributes. {\textcopyright} 2004 Taylor and Francis.
Pakistani Punjabi landlords use marriage both strategically as well as affectively. That is to sa... more Pakistani Punjabi landlords use marriage both strategically as well as affectively. That is to say, they seek maximal political advantage and minimal household disruption with marriage arrangements. Using a set of formal networks analyses tools, this article examines two hundred years of marriage decisions for one Punjabi landlord family. The radical shift in marriage decisions beginning from the 1920s is the result of an earlier shift in inheritance rules. The resulting change in marriage decisions has impacted not only on household dynamics, but has disrupted longstanding factional associations within the village. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2013.
The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models o... more The choice of emphasis in kinship studies has often resulted in incompatible theoretical models of kinship that are mutually undermining and contradictory. Jones' attempts to reconcile disparate approaches to kinship using OT is useful, however; seeing kinship as a specialized system for representing genealogy may be unwarranted in the light of recent advances in mathematical approaches to kinship terminologies. {\textcopyright} 2010 Cambridge University Press.
The most widespread model of the natural world by Northern Punjabi farmers appears to leverage a ... more 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.
The contributions in this issue of Social Science Computer Review represent a range of computatio... more The contributions in this issue of Social Science Computer Review represent a range of computational approaches to theoretical and disciplinary specializations in anthropology that reflect on and expand the future orientation and practice of the formal and comparative agenda in the context of an increasing emphasis on complexity in anthropology as a discipline. Themes covered in this issue include kinship, funerary burials, urban legends, eye tracking, and looking at mode influences on online data collection. A common theme throughout the articles is examining the relationship between global emergent processes and structures and the local individual contributions to this emergence, and how the local and global contexts influence each other. We argue that unless complexity is addressed more overtly by leveraging computational approaches to data collection, analysis and theory building, anthropology and social science more generally face an existential challenge if they are to continue to pursue extended field research exercise, intersubjective productions, deep personal involvement, interaction with materiality, and engagement with people while generating research outcomes of relevance to the world beyond the narrow confines of specialist journals and conferences. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2013.
Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading discon... more Popular academic ideas linking physiological adaptations to social behaviors are spreading disconcertingly into wider societal contexts. In this article, we note our skepticism with one particularly popular-in our view, problematic-supposed causal correlation between neocortex size and social group size. The resulting Dunbar's Number, as it has come to be called, has been statistically tested against observed group size in different primate species. Although there may be reason to doubt the Dunbar's Number hypothesis among nonhuman primate species, we restrict ourselves here to the application of such an explanatory hypothesis to human, culture-manipulating populations. Human information process management, we argue, cannot be understood as a simple product of brain physiology. Cross-cultural comparison of not only group size but also relationship-reckoning systems like kinship terminologies suggests that although neocortices are undoubtedly crucial to human behavior, they cannot be given such primacy in explaining complex group composition, formation, or management. {\textcopyright} 2011 by the American Anthropological Association.
\textcopyright} 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Managing the electricity network... more \textcopyright} 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Managing the electricity network through ‘smart grid' systems is a key strategy to address challenges of energy security, low carbon transitions and the replacement of ageing infrastructure networks in the UK. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have a significant role in shaping patterns of energy consumption. Understanding how their activities interrelate with changes in electricity systems is critical for active network management. A significant challenge for the transformation of electricity systems involves comprehending the complexity that stems from the variety of commercial activities and diversity of social and organizational practises among SMEs that interact with material infrastructures. We engage with SMEs to consider how smart grid interventions ‘fit' into everyday operational activities. Drawing on analysis of empirical data on electricity use, smart metre data, surveys, interviews and ‘energy tours' with SMEs to understand lighting, space heating and cooling, refrigeration and IT use, this paper argues for experimenting with the use of practise theory as a framework for bringing together technical and social aspects of energy use in SMEs. This approach reveals that material circumstances and temporal factors shape current energy demand among SMEs, with ‘connectedness' an emergent factor.
The 2008 Pakistani film Khuda ke Liye (KKL) has the contemporary topical Pakistani transnational ... more The 2008 Pakistani film Khuda ke Liye (KKL) has the contemporary topical Pakistani transnational story. Mansoor, a wealthy young man, leaves Lahore for America where he studies music. He meets an American woman, marries her, and after 9/11 is arrested, tortured, and finally deported by the intelligence agencies that have come to realize he is not guilty of any terrorism-related charges (the plot of the film anticipated of a real-life situation as described by Siddiqui 2009). His brother Sarmad, who used to play in the same band in Lahore, stops doing music when he meets a mullah from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. He also agrees to marry a distant cousin from UK to help her “revert to tradition,” and leaves with her for the tribal areas. The British cousin tries to escape, and once safe from her husband, she contacts a “modernist” imam who helps fight her case in court. She then decides not to return to the UK, but to go back to the tribal areas to help with the education of the local girls. The plot of the second highest grossing film in the history of Pakistani cinema is both a geographical triangle (Pakistan, United States, and UK), and an “identity triangle”: Islam, family traditions, gender relations (see Malik 2008: 169)
Contributors offer an in-depth look at the dynamics of cultural and political change in Pakistan ... more Contributors offer an in-depth look at the dynamics of cultural and political change in Pakistan and the Pakistani Diaspora. Moving past static viewpoints, this volume demonstrates the multidirectional nature of the flow of ideas and people that create the social landscape experienced by Pakistanis globally.
Asymmetrical power relationships are found throughout Pakistan‚{\"{A}}{\^{o}}s Punjabi and Pukhtu... more Asymmetrical power relationships are found throughout Pakistan‚{\"{A}}{\^{o}}s Punjabi and Pukhtun communities. These relationships must be examined as manifestations of cultural continuity rather than as separate structures. The various cultures of Pakistan display certain common cultural features which suggest a re--examination of past analytical divisions of tribe and peasant societies. This book looks at the ways power is expressed, accumulated and maintained in three social contexts: kinship, caste, and political relationships. These are embedded within a collection of ‚{\"{A}}{\`{o}}hybridising‚{\"{A}}{\^{o}} cultures. Socialisation within kin groups provides the building blocks for Pakistani asymmetrical relationships, which may be understood as a form of patronage. As these social building blocks are transferred to non--kin contexts, the patron/client aspects are more easily identified and studied. State politics and religion are examined for the ways in which these patron/client roles are enacted on much larger scales but remain embedded within the cultural values underpinning those roles.
Structure and Dynamics: eJournal of Anthropological and Related Sciences , 2016
Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste t... more Pakistani politics are characterised by strong corporate social links through kinship and caste that impose reciprocal obligations and rights. Marital maps enable allow for accurate prediction of allegiances and decision making and contribute to a transparent assessment of political processes in the country. While much of the focus on reciprocal relations has understandably been on descent relations (dynasties), the complex network of marital alliances that cut across lineage and sectarian divides helps explain notable levels of stability despite the fragility of the state and other public institutions. Using the example of one of the most successful political dynasties in post independence Pakistan, we show the extent of cross lineage, region and even party alliances that shape this political kinship network.
Since independence in 1947, highly politicised kinship practices have shaped the country from rur... more Since independence in 1947, highly politicised kinship practices have shaped the country from rural agricultural villages to the highest legislative and executive branches of government and the military. Ideal models of patrilineal affiliation have defined and guided patterns of factional loyalties. Although my earlier work has principally focused on village networks and politics, the same patterns of factional alliances can be seen at national levels to shed light on the activities of party politics. The mechanisms adopted by the traditional landed elite, far from being challenged, are integral to the strategic success of non-landed elites in securing the top, public, elected positions of power. So, rather than suggesting landed elites have become irrelevant, I argue the source of wealth is ultimately less relevant than the broader socio-economic shard class and familial interests of a minority elite bound together through marriage.
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articles by Stephen Lyon