Dardic culture and Pashtun culture?

[Karachi]

Dardic people are the original people of south central asia region, in fact I think many Pashtuns were actually dardic and they got Pashtunized with time. My question though is, why are the dardic and pashtun culture so different? does this indicate that pashtuns are recent arrivals to the region (lets say in the last 1000) years or so? Pashtun culture seems like very (Middle Eastern) and seems very foreign to the south central asian region, maybe indeed pashtun identity was formed through the Jews/bani Israel?

This is a huge mystery that no one has researched properly, to bad Pashtuns never recorded their history, it would have really given us a insight on their origin

[Kakar-Wardak]

Pashtuns did not inhabit kpk 1000 years ago only after Mahmud ghaznavi time did some pashtuns move into KPK, most tribes came centuries later (Lodhi-mughal times) to their current homes.

[Iblis_Efreetzai]

My hypothesis is that Pashtuns were originally Central Asians who adopted a sect of Manicheanism/Mandeanism. This would explain why we adopted this lore of a Bani Israel origin theory and why we took to Monotheistic beliefs so strongly.

Manicheanism/Mandeanism are both religions that fused Abrahamic Theology with Zoroastrian with strong Gnostic/Mystic tendencies.

[imazharyes]

I am a Chitrali. I don't know about other dards but we are very different from Pashtoons. Pushtoon culture is neither South Asian neither Central Asian nor Iranian. Rather it's tribal culture which is very different from the sorrounding people. Chitral has throughout most of his history been an independent state sharing most of its culture with Gilgitis and Badakhshanis and eastern Turkistan. Our culture is essentially Central Asian. Pashtoon for me culturally not Central Asian rather they are tribal. They Pushtoon have a huge population of more than 50 million and I think they make a group of their own which is different from their neighbors.

[Nekrofrost]

I am a Chitrali. I don't know about other dards but we are very different from Pushtoons. Pushtoon culture is neither South Asian neither Central Asian nor Iranian. Rather it's tribal culture which is very different from the sorrounding people. Chitral has throughout most of his history been an independent state sharing most of its culture with Gilgitis and Badakhshanis and eastern China. Our culture is essentially Central Asian. Pushtoon for me culturally not Central Asian rather they are tribal. They Pushtoon have a huge population of more than 50 million and I think they make a group of their own which is different from their neighbors.

Sent from my S2 Pro using Tapatalk

I agree. I wouldnt call us south asian,central asian or iranian. I think we have our own thing and we have just adopted some elements from each of those.

[salman47]

I am a Chitrali. I don't know about other dards but we are very different from Pashtoons. Pushtoon culture is neither South Asian neither Central Asian nor Iranian. Rather it's tribal culture which is very different from the sorrounding people. Chitral has throughout most of his history been an independent state sharing most of its culture with Gilgitis and Badakhshanis and eastern Turkistan. Our culture is essentially Central Asian. Pashtoon for me culturally not Central Asian rather they are tribal. They Pushtoon have a huge population of more than 50 million and I think they make a group of their own which is different from their neighbors.

Burosho people are quite isolated cant say anything there, but what do you mean by Central Asian culture? Which one?
There are different cultures in Central Asia!
e.g. The closest to Pashtun Culture can be the Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetian Culture, as far as I know they also have tribes!
Then there comes the Turkic Culture(USSR destroyed their tribes with nationalism), Tajik Culture(feels similar to Pashtun Culture) and I think thats it...
Which one do you guys fit in? Food wise I dont think so Dardic and the Gilgit people fit any of the aforementioned culture!
Also historically we were Nomads(Central Asian Culture still is Nomadic Culture), what were you?

[salman47]

Anyways Pashtun culture(and People) are classified as Central Asians..

[Qami]

Burosho people are quite isolated cant say anything there, but what do you mean by Central Asian culture? Which one?
There are different cultures in Central Asia!
e.g. The closest to Pashtun Culture can be the Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetian Culture, as far as I know they also have tribes!
Then there comes the Turkic Culture(USSR destroyed their tribes with nationalism), Tajik Culture(feels similar to Pashtun Culture) and I think thats it...
Which one do you guys fit in? Food wise I dont think so Dardic and the Gilgit people fit any of the aforementioned culture!
Also historically we were Nomads(Central Asian Culture still is Nomadic Culture), what were you?

Dardic people are typical high mountain people, and the mountainers of Pamir and Hindukush were often hostile with the hill and valley people as far as I know. Having even different religions in the non so distant past they had solidarity with each other.
But marking people as South or central Asians is funny, because a Panjabi and a Tamil and a Kyrghyz and Tajik have nothing in common, except maybe that they may share the same country.
With nothing in common i mean the culture and mentality.
Pashtuns are a special group, just like any other group in the region is special in a way.
Maybe I'll be disliked for saying that, but I think the Baluch have culturally at least in certain regions some things culturally in common with Pashtuns.
Concerning other east Iranic people (as the linguists call them for their language), Pamirians and Yaghnobis are too few to have a proper tribal structure, while Ossetians have very much adopted to the region thy live and to the role they had in the region (they were praised as army soilders).
Comparing e.g. the Ossetians with the Chechens, the latter have more in common with Pashtuns tribal structure and also have a system comparable with the Jirgas, while ossetians, although being linguistically close to Pashtuns, had a structure that was relating them a lot to their nobility.
That evolved because they were once the elite warriors in regional armies (e.g. Georgia) or conflicts. So if You take nowadays Ossetians they aren't properly a tribal society, as Chechens still are.
If I read e.g. Armenian christian sources (that are biased with their ideology, but that give an idea on how the region looked at the time of early and late Sasanid period in Persia, i can figure ou the the description of the Kushans or Hons (to names Armenian historians refer to concerning the region eastwards of modern Iran), correspond with the people that live there till now (in the sense of mentality).

[Karachi]

Dardic people are typical high mountain people, and the mountainers of Pamir and Hindukush were often hostile with the hill and valley people as far as I know. Having even different religions in the non so distant past they had solidarity with each other.
But marking people as South or central Asians is funny, because a Panjabi and a Tamil and a Kyrghyz and Tajik have nothing in common, except maybe that they may share the same country.
With nothing in common i mean the culture and mentality.
Pashtuns are a special group, just like any other group in the region is special in a way.
Maybe I'll be disliked for saying that, but I think the Baluch have culturally at least in certain regions some things culturally in common with Pashtuns.
Concerning other east Iranic people (as the linguists call them for their language), Pamirians and Yaghnobis are too few to have a proper tribal structure, while Ossetians have very much adopted to the region thy live and to the role they had in the region (they were praised as army soilders).
Comparing e.g. the Ossetians with the Chechens, the latter have more in common with Pashtuns tribal structure and also have a system comparable with the Jirgas, while ossetians, although being linguistically close to Pashtuns, had a structure that was relating them a lot to their nobility.
That evolved because they were once the elite warriors in regional armies (e.g. Georgia) or conflicts. So if You take nowadays Ossetians they aren't properly a tribal society, as Chechens still are.
If I read e.g. Armenian christian sources (that are biased with their ideology, but that give an idea on how the region looked at the time of early and late Sasanid period in Persia, i can figure ou the the description of the Kushans or Hons (to names Armenian historians refer to concerning the region eastwards of modern Iran), correspond with the people that live there till now (in the sense of mentality).

Punjabi and a Tamil have a lot more common then lets say Punjabi and a Central Asian.

[Qami]

Punjabi and a Tamil have a lot more common then lets say Punjabi and a Central Asian.

I don't see that so much. Even Bengali and Panjabi have very different mentality, not to tell Tamil. but Central Asian is also a very artificial term, most of them have nothing in common between themselves except maybe some Uzbek and Tajik in regions of overlapping.

[imazharyes]

Anyways Pashtun culture(and People) are classified as Central Asians..

Pashtoon culture is based on Pashtoonwali and revolves around it. How is Pashtoon culture and its people Central asian I don't know. I would be very thankful if you clarify that.

[imazharyes]

Burosho people are quite isolated cant say anything there, but what do you mean by Central Asian culture? Which one?
There are different cultures in Central Asia!
e.g. The closest to Pashtun Culture can be the Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetian Culture, as far as I know they also have tribes!
Then there comes the Turkic Culture(USSR destroyed their tribes with nationalism), Tajik Culture(feels similar to Pashtun Culture) and I think thats it...
Which one do you guys fit in? Food wise I dont think so Dardic and the Gilgit people fit any of the aforementioned culture!
Also historically we were Nomads(Central Asian Culture still is Nomadic Culture), what were you?

We also have tribes. Probably 400 tribes for a small of population of 5 lakh. When are no nomads but we houses in more than one places for different seasons and we keep shifting with seasons. I don't know how Wakhi culture and Yaghnobis culture is similar to Pashtoon considering where Wakhik people live and their proximity to Chitral geographically and religiously. Also they don't follow Pashtoonwali. Our culture is a mixture of all the above cultures which you mentioned+Native culture. But don't ask me how. Our houses, our musical instruments, our weddings, our games, our dresses, our foods, everything were central asian when Chitral was country. Now we are slowly and gradually assimilating in the greater south asian culture. Our foods, ceremonies, games, musical instruments have changed so have our dresses and our houses.

[salman47]

Pashtoon culture is based on Pashtoonwali and revolves around it. How is Pashtoon culture and its people Central asian I don't know. I would be very thankful if you clarify that.

Ok first you have to clarify it to me that 'Central Asian' refers to which culture/people? Then we can decide if Pashtun Culture(Iranian) is Central Asian or not.

P.S. I would like to say that Pashtun Culture -> Greater Iranian Culture.
To hell with South/Central/West/East/North Asia classification by Western Liars.

[Kakar-Wardak]

Ok first you have to clarify it to me that 'Central Asian' refers to which culture/people? Then we can decide if Pashtun Culture(Iranian) is Central Asian or not.

P.S. I would like to say that Pashtun Culture -> Greater Iranian Culture.
To hell with South/Central/West/East/North Asia classification by Western Liars.

Pashtuns are the largest of all iranic groups, farsi has more speakers but by ethnicity pashtuns are more numerous than ethnic persians.