Seminar on Kalash culture and history
(Daily Times report)ISLAMABAD: The Alliance Française will hold a seminar on Kalash culture and history by Georges Lefeuvre today. The Kalash valley has invoked the interest of historians, sociologists and anthropologists as it concerns the British interaction with this tribe in the northwest of the sub-continent.
The Kalash people’s history and origin is unknown, though a number of myths, such as their Macedonian origin, prevail even today. The isolated Kalash tribe has managed to preserve its unique life-style in the middle of a Muslim-dominated area. Though the men dress similar to other Pakistanis, the women embellish their black robes with coloured spangles and often have tattooed faces.
These people once controlled a large area and inhabited both sides of the Durand Line that now divides Pakistan and Afghanistan. European Union representative and former Alliance Francaise Director Georges Lefeuvre is a historian and a social anthropologist and has spent over a year with the Kalash people during the 1980s, studying and documenting their socio-cultural norms.
