The Impact of State on The Transformation of Balochi Culture in the Turkmenistan and the Historical Balochistan

The aims of the study are to explore and compare the Balochs' way of life as an ethnic minority in Turkmenistan and north-eastern Iran and as an indigenous population in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan since the early 20th century and to study cultural change in the Balochs in the context of state intervention. The ethnogensis of the Balochs as a nomadic Indo-Iranian ethnic group without their own state was shaped by many external and internal influences. The most fundamental are changes in the political organization of states which the Balochs experienced throughout history. Due to poor living conditions, disruption of their original way of life and the need to ensure land and pasture for cattle, some Balochs living in historic Sistan along what is now the Turkmen-Iranian border migrated to Turkmenistan and to north-eastern Iran in the early 20th century. This thesis compares the Balochs' current way of life and with that after their arrival in new territory and examines the cultural transformation of these two groups in the context of state intervention. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org