448 
R. Lincoln Reiser 
Anthropos 69. 1974 
ethnographic research will support either this general picture, or at least one 
similar to it. 
Jettmar’s research supports this hypothesis for the Dards of Chitral and 
Gilgit (1961, 1967) and there seems little difficulty in applying it to Nuristan as 
well, but does it work for the Pashai ? It seems to me that Pashai ethno-history 
is more complex than is generally accepted. I feel that the evidence now avail 
able supports the argument that the social and cultural systems of the pr e ' 
Islamic, mountain Pashai tribes resulted from the kind of synthesis outlined 
above. Thus the religion of the Pashai hill tribes may well have been more 
similar to the paganism of the Kalash than to a form of degenerate Hindu- 
Buddhism. 
What evidence supports this hypothesis? First, there is the linguistic 
position of Pashai. Morgenstierne’s argument that the existence of such 
words as waigand- ‘wind' and poinis- ‘leopard’ indicate a pre-existing state of 
civilization (1967: 11-12) does not appear to me to be particularly compelling- 
The relationship between Pashai and other Dardic hill languages suggests at 
least the possibility that it, as well as other Dardic languages, were brought 
into the Hindu-Kush and Karakoram by Indo-Aryan migrations before the 
Kapisa and Nangrahar civilizations were destroyed by the Afghans. 
The distribution of physcial traits among the Pashai population support 5 
the argument that their social and cultural systems represent a synthesis of 
pre-Indo-Iranian and Indo-Iranian socio-cultural elements. If the argument 
advanced in this paper is correct, the population of the Hindu-Kush and Kara 
koram should show evidences of a diverse biological background. Nothing 
definitive can be said until physical anthropological studies based on modern 
genetic analysis are completed, but even the most superficial observation^ 
show a high degree of biological heterogenity among the Pashai speaking pop 11 ' 
lation. This diversity is found not only between and within isolated valley 5 ' 
but within families as well. It has been known for some time that such hetero 
genity usually indicates a population with a diverse biological background - a 
situation that agrees with the argument advanced in this paper. 
Carving motifs provide further support for my hypothesis. There are two 
kinds of motifs in the Hindu-Kush and Karakoram. One is composed of cal 
vings of scrolls, leaves, and flowers and has been identified as an offshoot o 
Gandharan art. The other pattern is comprised of simple straight lines, lozeng e 
designs, and spirals. Jettmar links this latter pattern to the carvings of Km' 1 ' 
stan and feels that it represents the actual local tradition (1961: 83). Carving 5 
of window shutters in the Pashai villages of Darra-i-Nur, Aret, and Korunga 
are of this latter pattern. If the Pashai were expelled from the central region 0 
“classic” Gandharan culture then their wood carving should show evidence 5 
of the Gandharan style. That it is more similar to the indigenous style indicate 5 
a common cultural heritage with other Dardic speaking peoples of the eastern 
Hindu-Kush and Karakoram. 
Finally, there is the problem of distributional data. That the Pasha 1 
speakers generally inhabit side valleys, and in many cases only the upper p al 
of these, is one of the main reasons for Morgenstierne’s conclusion that they