Animal Enthusiasm: Life Beyond Cage and leash in Pakistan
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Animal Enthusiasms explores how human–animal relationships are conceived, developed, and carried out in rural Pakistani Muslim society through an examination of practices such as pigeon flying, cockfighting, and dogfighting.
Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork carried between 2008 and 2018 in rural South Punjab, the book examines the crucial cultural concept of shauq (enthusiasm) and provides critical insight into changing ways of life in contemporary Pakistan. It tracks the relationships between men mediated by non-human animals and discusses how such relationships in rural areas are coded in complex ways. The chapters draw on debates around transformations of animal activities over time, the changing forms of human–animal intimacy and their impact on familial relationships, and rural Punjabi values attached to the performance of masculine honour.
Contents
Introduction
Decolonising Passions
Living with Pigeons: Rooftop Intimacies
The Seduction of Cockfighting: Forbidden Dangers
The Spectacle of Dogfighting: Amplified Masculinity
A Life with Shauqeen: Familial Relations in a Multi-Species Household
Threats to Genuine Shauq
Epilogue: Life Beyond Cage and Leash
Comparison Between Drafts
“During fieldwork, whenever I asked pigeon flyers, cockfighters, and dogfighters about their passionate interest to keep, fly, and fight animals, they had a standard reply, “ae sab shauq dī gāl he,” or it’s all about shauq. Shauq, they said, shapes their choices, values, and aspirations. They described it as the process of discovering their inner self in a world of social turmoil, domestic expectations, and economic responsibilities.”
“Whenever I asked the animal keepers that why they mould their lives around their animals, the common answer was “this is my shauq”. The word shauq can be translated as ‘passion’ but it also conveys the meanings of ‘hobby’, ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘blind interest’.”