The blessings and struggles of pastoralist commons: Muzhayo, culturalscape and more-than-humans amidst nationalisation in Chitral, Pakistan

Thesis

Based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork involving mashqulgi conversations, participant observation, and analysis of Khowar poetry, this thesis examines how Chitral's Indigenous pastoralists perceive, manage, and resist threats to their muzhayo (commons) amid state nationalisation and neoliberal change. The analysis is presented through four interconnected articles that collectively support a pluriversal political ecology, combining rural political ecology, more-than-human geography, and decolonial Indigenous scholarship. Article 1 explores apoliticisation as the discursive and structural suppression of rural agency through territorialisation and elite capture linked to the 1975 notification. Article 2 describes muzhayo as a culturalscape, a multidimensional ontology encompassing material utility, socio-communal rituals, spiritual guardianship, and emotional belonging. Article 3 advances more-than-human rights through pastoralist poetry, recognising mal (livestock) and nangini (fairies) as agents of the commons, challenging anthropocentric views. Article 4 examines boomki (Aboriginal) clan-based tenure as a form of legal pluralism that contests state property regimes. Three main arguments arise: first, that apoliticisation illustrates how state discourses of civility, depicting Chitralis as peaceful and educated, alongside structural bureaucratic exclusion, marginalise pastoralists from political participation, making their agency and resistance less visible; second, that culturalscape redefines the commons beyond resource management by emphasising the importance of enclosure; third, that pluriversal frameworks incorporating Indigenous ontologies, multispecies agency, and customary tenure offer viable alternatives to postcolonial land seizures, with significant implications for global pastoralist commons research and mountain governance.

Authors: Khan, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-ey0a4xpgg
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: Khowar, English
• Keywords: political ecology; land rights; pakistan; pastoralism; nationalisation; khow; more than humans; livestock; commons; chitral; commoning
• Subjects: Environment; Political ecology; Human Geography