Table Of ContentAnimal Enthusiasms
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 out between 2008
and 2018 in rural South Punjab, the book examines the crucial cultural con-
cept of shauq (enthusiasm) and provides critical insight into the 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.
The book will be of interest to scholars of anthropology, multi-s pecies eth-
nography, gender and masculinity studies, and South Asian studies.
Muhammad A. Kavesh is affiliated with the School of Culture, History, and
Language at the Australian National University in Canberra, where he
received his PhD. He is a recipient of the Australian Anthropological Society’s
Post- Doctoral Fellowship (2020).
Multispecies Anthropology: New Ethnographies
Series Editors: Rebecca Cassidy and Garry Marvin
Human– Animal Studies has come of age. Intrinsically inter- or transdiscip-
linary, it has encouraged scholars from diverse disciplines to use a range of
approaches and resources to explore the relationships that humans have with
other animals and forms of life and how these are experienced and expressed.
Animals have traditionally appeared in anthropology as aspects of cosmo-
logical systems, essential to livelihoods including hunting, fishing, pastor-
alism, herding, and agriculture; significant in economic systems as wealth and
for exchange; celebrated in sports and other forms of entertainment and so
on. More recently, animals and other forms of life have been brought to the
foreground, where they are framed as important in and of themselves, rather
than as reflections of other, more important relationships between people.
This series is interested in this approach and the wider questions it poses
about subjectivity, representation, and anthropological theory.
Uniquely, this series focuses exclusively on monographs which are based on
first- hand, sustained, ethnographic fieldwork: an approach which allows for
the exploration of the intricacies and immediacies of lives with other animals.
It brings together detailed accounts of how humans experience, engage
with, live with, other animals, but also with plants and other living matter,
generated within particular social and cultural worlds as they are captured
by fieldwork. This format will enable authors to pursue some of the most
important questions about our lives with others – and the role that anthro-
pology might play in our futures together.
Animal Enthusiasms
Life Beyond Cage and Leash in Rural Pakistan
Muhammad A. Kavesh
www.routledge.com/ Multispecies- Anthropology/ book- series/ MANE
Animal Enthusiasms
Life Beyond Cage and Leash in
Rural Pakistan
Muhammad A. Kavesh
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Muhammad A. Kavesh
The right of Muhammad A. Kavesh to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
Names: Kavesh, Muhammad A., author.
Title: Animal enthusiasms : life beyond cage and leash in rural
Pakistan / Muhammad A. Kavesh.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. |
Series: Multispecies anthropology: new ethnographies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020037735 (print) | LCCN 2020037736 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367859534 (hardback) | ISBN 9781003015963 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Human-animal relationships–Pakistan.
Classification: LCC QL85 .K39 2020 (print) |
LCC QL85 (ebook) | DDC 591.95491–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037735
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037736
ISBN: 978- 0- 367- 85953- 4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978- 1- 003- 01596- 3 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
To my late Abu Ji
I wish I had known you
Contents
List of figures viii
Acknowledgements x
Notes on translation and transliteration xiv
Introduction 1
1 Decolonising passions 19
2 Living with pigeons: rooftop intimacies 34
3 The seduction of cockfighting: forbidden dangers 61
4 The spectacle of dogfighting: amplified masculinity 89
5 A life with shauqeen: familial relations in a multi- species
household 115
6 Threats to genuine shauq 130
Epilogue: Life beyond cage and leash 148
References 155
Index 167
Figures
0.1 Study area in Pakistan. 12
0.2 Pigeon flying, cockfighting, and dogfighting in
South Punjab. 14
2.1 Qamo with his pigeons, October 2008. 39
2.2 Qamo with his pigeons, July 2017. 39
2.3 Preferred pigeon-breeding choices for Khudla. 43
2.4 A pair of newly hatched chicks. 44
2.5 Yār pigeon flyers. 47
2.6 Khokhā competition, 2008. 48
2.7 Rehan Baig showing his collection of pigeons. 50
3.1 Malik Khizar showing a pair of precious breed chickens.
His helper— who was not a cockfighting enthusiast—
accompanied him. 62
3.2 Aṣīl pelā and aṣīl lākhā. 67
3.3 A cockfighter showing khurāk laḍo, one is given to a rooster
each day. 71
3.4 Through massaging and training, the men develop a strong
bond with their gamecocks. 72
3.5 Two enthusiasts dry massaging their rooster. 73
3.6 Layout of a South Punjabi cockfight. 75
3.7 The process of fitting external spurs. 76
3.8 A bare- heel cockfight in progress. 77
3.9 Cockfighters fixing the broken beak of a gamecock during
the break. 78
3.10 Men covering the natural spurs for a covered- heel cockfight. 80
3.11 The fighting cocks are facilitated by their specified handler
during the combat. 81
3.12 A runaway cock is mocked and humiliated along with his keeper. 87
4.1 Dogfight celebrations. 92
4.2 Dogfight celebrations. 92
4.3 Hierarchy of dogs in South Punjab, as described by dogfighters. 96
4.4 Ajmal showing that fighting dogs can say Salam (shake hands). 98
4.5 Manna with his dog, Tanger. 100
List of figures ix
4.6 A dog keeper feeding his dog. 101
4.7 Cutting the ears and colouring the body with henna are
common decorative practices of South Punjabi dogfighters. 102
4.8 Makhan’s dog returning from his daily run. 104
4.9 A sweet shop at the mela bazaar. 105
4.10 Map showing festivals and dogfighting in different areas of
South Punjab, Pakistan. 106
4.11 A dogfight in progress. 107
4.12 A dogfight in progress. 108
4.13 Dogs are constantly pushed to fight despite sustaining severe
injuries. 109
4.14 True friends are recognised by their eager participation in
winning celebrations. 112
4.15 Dog, the animal that ensures a man’s izzat. 113
5.1 A pigeon flyer’s three- year- old son aspires to follow in his
father’s footsteps. 122
6.1 Pigeon flyers captivated by the sight of their airborne pigeons. 134
6.2 Four generations— Manna, accompanied by his father, son,
and grandson. Both Manna and his son were dogfighting
enthusiasts, while his father usually criticised their shauq. 137
