Hintze, Almut

English

SOAS Research Online

348 REVIEWShaute lice ‘two-beamed vertical loom’; montants, ‘loom uprights’; ensouples,‘loom beams’; ensouple dérouleuse, ‘warp beam’; ensouple enrouleuse, ‘clothbeam’; fil de chaîne ‘warp thread’; fil de trame ‘weft thread’ or ‘yarn’; liceor lisse, ‘heddle’; bâton de lice, ‘heddle rod’; roseau de tissage, ‘shed stick’;tendeurs latéraux or pinces de tension, ‘cloth stretchers’; peigne à tisser, ‘combbeater’.It is interesting that the art of weaving has influenced nomenclature evenwhere, as indicated (p. 8), the upright loom has never been known, or, ifknown, has vanished over the centuries. An example of this is on the fringes ofthe southern Sahara where it has been a feature of the cultural influences fromwithin Mali or Niger, not those that have come from the Berber north. Withinthe social structure of the Mauritanian B idar n, for example, more especially thepart Znarga Zwarya, imagery from ‘the loom’ has influenced the social systemto the extent that ‘white tributaries’ (lahma, Classical Arabic luhma), were onceportrayed as the weft of a woven fabric, whilst the warp were the, originallyBerber, Znarga, and the overwhelming Hassarni lordly ‘Arab’ mujarhidurn. Otherweaving terms still exist in Hassarniyya; such as sde ‘chaîne de métier’, andsdê, ‘montage de la chaîne sur le métier à tisser’ (Catherine Taine-Cheikh,Dictionnaire Hassniyya–Français, Vol. 5, zar ’–sin, p. 974). A picture of ‘primi-tive’ Saharan weaving techniques may be seen in Caro Baroja’s EstudiosSaharianos, p. 233, Fig. 132.—El telar sahariano donde se tejen los filyf a.In his conclusion Bynon, after carefully analysing the varied Berbervocabulary and terminology gleaned, offers a number of interesting historicaland cultural deductions. He has suggested that, corresponding to the loomused for weaving, one Berber form was to be found, geographically, betweenMorocco and Sokna in Libya. The purely Berber term that is used is not thespecific name of an instrument but an ancient noun of action, the specific senseof which very loosely conveys the meaning of the object and tool of the actionitself. He contrasts this with the Arabic term where nouns which describe theinstrument itself are the norm. This leads him to weigh up the possibility ofsome parallels with the Latin, terla, a possibility which is not unreasonable inview of the major cultural impact of the Romans on North Africa. But heremains unhappy about the evidence so far collected, though he is certain ofthe considerable antiquity of the Berber terms which are indigenous to theMaghrib itself.This debate is clearly still ongoing and is open to varied hypothetical theo-ries. In any event, this book is a benchmark amongst the studies of the loomand of weaving in North Africa and it should be on the reading list of all whoare specifically interested in weaving amongst its sedentary Berber peoples.H. T. NORRISGENERALJOHN R. HINNELLS:The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration.xviii, 865 pp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. £130.In our globalized world, religion has ceased to be a local phenomenon. Now-adays there is no major religion which has not spread around the globe. Butwhat characterizes many diasporas is, in Ninian Smart’s definition, ‘an element349REVIEWSof exile’. This applies particularly to a community as microscopic as that ofthe Zoroastrians, whose numbers are in the region of 120,000 world-wide. Theoldest diaspora community is that in India, and this dates back to the earlyIslamic period. There they became known as Parsis, because they came from‘Pars’ (Persia). As to the modern Zoroastrian diaspora, Hinnells aptly dis-tinguishes two main phases of migration, the first in the mid-nineteenth andthe second in the second half of the twentieth century (p. 699). From about1850 onwards, diaspora communities developed in China, Sindh (then part ofBritish India, present-day Pakistan), East Africa and Britain. The Zoroastriansof this diaspora came from India and their migrations were linked to tradewithin the British Empire. By contrast, the migrants of the second phase camenot only from India, but also from Iran. In addition, there were ‘twice-migrants’ from Pakistan and East Africa. Their destinations were, again,Britain, but also Canada, the USA, Australia and Germany. Their diasporicmovements were only rarely for trade, but more typically for education, careerdevelopment and for leaving hostile regimes. In particular, it was increasingislamization in Pakistan after independence and Iran after the 1979 revolution,together with Black African policies in East Africa, which made Zoroastriansleave those countries. As a result of such migrations Zoroastrians are nowfound in more countries than at any stage in their long history. To the presentday, the Parsis of India constitute the largest and most important of diasporagroups, but their numbers are decreasing while the size, influence andsignificance of those in the New World are growing.With this substantial book (both in volume and price), John R. Hinnellshas delivered an awesome piece of research, the fruit of thirty years of study.He not only undertook an unprecedented survey of Zoroastrian diasporacommunities by means of a questionnaire, which yielded 1,840 responses, ondemographic issues, religious belief and practice and secular culture, but healso visited the eleven diaspora centres he writes about, studying their archivalsources and living with local Zoroastrian families. His unrivalled first-handfamiliarity with communities world-wide enables him both to present fiercelydebated topics in a sensitive and impartial manner, and to convey personalperceptions of individual Zoroastrians. The present work is based on hisRatanbai Katrak Lectures delivered in Oxford in 1985. Following Zoroast-rians in Britain, published in 1996, it is, in one sense, volume 2 of thoselectures. Volume 3 is planned to be The History and Religion of the Parsis inBombay Presidency (1662–1947), which Hinnells and the Zoroastrian highpriest Dastur Dr K. M. JamaspAsa are jointly preparing for publication.In eleven chapters, Hinnells discusses Zoroastrian diasporas in post-independence Bombay (pp. 33–137), Hong Kong and the China Seas (pp. 145–88), Karachi (pp. 189–244), East Africa (pp. 245–313), Europe, especiallyBritain (pp. 314–424), the United States and Canada (pp. 425–542) and,finally, Australia (pp. 543–602). The structure of each chapter follows a similarpattern: a historical survey providing the background against which Zoroast-rian migration into the region is presented, followed by a discussion of thecommunity and the role of religion within it. An introduction outlining keyissues of the book (pp. 1–32) provides the theoretical underpinning of thestudy, a chapter on ‘The global Zoroastrian diaspora’ (pp. 138–44) gives abroad picture of Zoroastrians world-wide drawn from Hinnells’ survey ques-tionnaire, ‘Globalizing trends’ are discussed in chapter 10 (pp. 603–98) andthe results of the study are summarized in the ‘Conclusion’ (pp. 699–736).There are, moreover, three appendices. Appendix 1 gives the text of a speechdelivered by the President of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet, Sir Shapoorji350 REVIEWSBomanji Billimoria, on the occasion of Indian Independence at a function heldon 15 August 1947 (pp. 737–40). The data resulting from the survey are givenin Appendix 2 (pp. 741–99) and the full text of the questionnaire in Appendix 3(pp. 800–17). The book is concluded by a selected bibliography on Zoroast-rianism (pp. 819–22), a glossary (pp. 823–27) and excellent indexes (pp. 829–65) compiled by Nora Firby.Contrary to the claims of some scholars, expecially W. Safran and R.Cohen, Hinnells argues convincingly that Parsis have a strong concept of, andpowerful emotional attachment to, Iran, the homeland of their religion, andtherefore do constitute a diaspora. Although it is not uncommon for Parsis toconsider themselves to be Indians first and Parsis second, they are profoundlyaware of their Persian ancestry. Moreover, many second- and third-generationParsis in America regard Persia, rather than India, as their homeland, a senseof belonging illustrated by the film In the Footsteps of Our Forefathers, whichrecords the pilgrimage of American Zoroastrian professionals back to thehomeland of their religion. This tie with Iran is kept alive by the practiceof praying in the ancient Iranian language of the Avesta, by motifs ofAchaemenid art which decorate the walls of many homes and prayer roomsand by stories from the Persian epic of the Shahname, which forms part ofZoroastrian culture. To these arguments may be added that places depictedin Zoroastrian religious imagery are located in Iranian lands. For instance,the Zoroastrians live in expectation of a world saviour who will complete thebattle against evil victoriously at the end of time: he is expected to emerge fromLake Harmrun in Sistarn. There the Kruh-i Khwar ja, the ‘Mountain of the Lord’,attracts Zoroastrian (and also Muslim) pilgrims to the present day.Hinnells identifies several features that characterize all Zoroastriandiaspora communities. One of them is that diaspora Zoroastrians have madeconsiderable contributions to the society and economy of both their sending(India and Iran) and new countries. In particular, much of the wealth ofdiaspora Zoroastrians flows back to charitable foundations in India, especiallyBombay. For instance, Hong Kong Parsis funded not only two housing colo-nies in Navsari, but also made huge donations to the Parsi General Hospitalin Bombay and funded the new fire temple in Godrej Baug on Malabar Hill,the Shapurji Fakirji Jokhi Agiary, which was inaugurated in 1999. Back inHong Kong, Parsis had an important role both in the growth of bankingand the stock exchange and in the founding of Hong Kong University (H. N.Mody). Another example is Sindh, where members of the small communitymade immense contributions to the economic development of Karachi andserved society in leading positions. In Britain, the first three Asian Members ofParliament were Parsis.Another characteristic of diaspora Zoroastrians is a strong sense of loyaltyto whichever country they inhabit. When they feel unable to give such loyaltythey move on and emigrate. Loyalty even has priority over communal ties. Forexample, in the dispute about the ceding of the East Coast Strip to Zanzibar,Dara Patel of Mombasa, who was against the transfer, negotiated with twoZanzibari Parsis on the opposite side, namely Rustom Sidhwa for the Afro-Shirazi Party and Ratti Bulsara for the Nationalists (p. 293). Furthermore,Parsis in virtually all diaspora groups are proud of the part women play intheir societies, and in this, as in other respects, they see themselves as beingdistinct from other Asian groups. The ‘coming out’ of Parsi woman took placemuch earlier than it did in other Indian communities. For instance, the firstIndian girl to go to school was a Parsi (Dosebai Cowasji Jessawalla), as wasthe first Indian woman (Cornelia Sorabji) to study at Oxford, where she readlaw from 1889–92 (p. 327). Among Zoroastrians it is typically the mothers whoteach the religion to their children.351REVIEWSA common feature of diaspora communities is that they tend to preservea traditional religious orientation more strongly than in the sending country.While the level of secularization is relatively high amongst Bombay Parsis(pp. 114 f.), East African Zoroastrians, for instance, remained religiouslyorthodox and, when migrating to Britain in the 1960s, became an importantfactor in the reassertion of traditional boundaries in the London community(pp. 385, 422). Key causes of communal, highly divisive, disputes are intermar-riage and conversion. In earlier Indian society Parsis were a ‘caste’-like groupand traditionally married within the fold. ‘In-marriage’ is still common in ruralareas and among Parsis living in housing colonies, but is becoming increas-ingly difficult in small and dwindling diaspora communities. Intermarriageoccurs most frequently among the highly-educated cosmopolitans.While most studies of South Asian communities in Britain are of a socio-logical or political nature, Hinnells identifies religion as a crucial markerof identity in diaspora groups (pp. 321 f.). With The Zoroastrian Diaspora hehas made an important, indeed ground-breaking, contribution not only to thestudy of Zoroastrianism but also to the debate on migration and diasporacommunities. This is a book which nobody working in Zoroastrian orDiaspora studies can afford to ignore.ALMUT HINTZEMU-CHOU POO:Enemies of Civilization: Attitudes toward Foreigners in AncientMesopotamia, Egypt, and China.(SUNY Series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture.) xviii, 211 pp.Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. $29.95.Defining and ‘knowing’ the Other have long constituted a yardstick for self-positioning and self-empowerment. Among the various ‘others’, the Foreigneris one that may attract attention and cause acceptance, refusal or indifference.But who or what is Foreign? The as yet unknown? The different, the outsider?And if so, different or outside in what respect: ‘nature’ or culture, so to speak?This cultural/political notion being closely dependent on the eye of thebeholder, it challenges attempts to define and substantiate it, all the more whenwe refer to a distant past, when the risk increases of pigeon-holing antiquityaccording to modern constructs.In spite and in (optimistic) defiance of these issues, which he is apparentlywell aware of, Mu-chou Poo has produced a comparative study of the attitudestowards foreigners in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China as seen in textual,graphic and archaeological evidence. Proposing to better understand some ofthe characteristics of these ancient civilizations, particularly in terms ofcultural consciousness and self-perception, by observing and comparing theway(s) in which they related to (or ignored) foreign people or things, this studyinvestigates the oft-dichotomic theory and practice of dealing with the Other.After illustrating the relativity of both cultural identity and the notion ofForeign itself, Poo shows how outsiders, whatever their nature, often were—or were constructed to be—conducive to identity-building. A few interestingpoints are raised concerning the necessity for the existence of foreigners,though more could have been said on the politics and requirements—oftenunrelated to effective differentiation—of branding somebody as foreign.Representations, descriptions of and attitudes towards foreigners are then

Review: John R. Hinnells, The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: OUP, 2005.

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Review: John R. Hinnells, The Zoroastrian Diaspora: Religion and Migration. Oxford: OUP, 2005.

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