MART-AZR Project Research Report 11: Community profiles: a set of cultural sketches of five regions in Baluchistan

Abstract

The profiles presented here delineate the basic cultural features of the communities under study and are intended to be a tool guiding the Agricultural Extension team of MART/AZRI in the elaboration of appropriate methodologies. The approach used here assumes that each cultural group has its own Bet of operating rules, even if these groups are living within a single country’s boundaries, and that understanding these rules is essential if one is to achieve effective communication with various peoples. One requirement for achieving an understanding of a social system is divesting oneself of one's own cultural set of premises and rules of behavior and observing, as objectively as possible, the interaction of human beings in their daily round of activities. In addition, there are several operating assumptions which have shaped this work. The first assumption is that every society consists of groups and that these groups are formed according to their own set of rules. The second assumption is that societies interact with, and are shaped by, the environment from which they derive their livelihood, in other words, that the society's economic base affects not only the size of the community, but also the way in which the community members relate to one another, and how it interacts with other communities. A third assumption is that because of the particular social structure, and the environment (Physical, Social, economic and political) in which any community operates, particular rules of communication and behavior will be generated which result in continuity of this social organism, through time yet allow it to adapt to changing conditions.