Race, Sex and Slavery: ‘Forced Labour’ in Central Asia and Afghanistan in the Early 19th Century

The word 'slavery' conjures images of cruelty, racial bigotry and economic exploitation associated with the plantation complex crucial to the Atlantic trading economy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Yet this was only one manifestation of practices of human bondage. This a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Modern Asian studies Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 629 - 671
Main Author: HOPKINS, B. D.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.07.2008
Subjects:
19th century
20th century
Afghanistan
Asian history
Central Asia
Central Asian culture
Concubinage
Cruelty
Domestic service
Economic activity
Exploitation
Females
Forced labor
Forced prostitution
Irrigated farming
Islamic law
Muslims
Nineteenth Century
Polygamy
Prejudice
Race
Religions
Religious influences
Serfdom
Sex
Sikhism
Slave women
Slavery
Slaves
Social function
Social history
Social Institutions
Social roles
Victims
Central Asia
Afghanistan
ISSN:0026-749X, 1469-8099
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The word 'slavery' conjures images of cruelty, racial bigotry and economic exploitation associated with the plantation complex crucial to the Atlantic trading economy from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Yet this was only one manifestation of practices of human bondage. This article examines the practice of 'slavery' in a very different context, looking at Central Asia, Afghanistan and the Punjab in the early nineteenth century. Here, bondage was largely a social institution with economic ramifications, in contrast to its Atlantic counterpart. Slavery served a social, and often sexual function in many of these societies, with the majority of slaves being female domestic servants and concubines. Its victims were often religiously, rather than racially defined, although bondage was a cross-confessional phenomenon. The practice continued to be widespread throughout the region into the early twentieth century.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/6GQ-T8PWH9X9-7
ArticleID:00271
istex:356E99EF5A66E52970BA6DD39A489F53CA4BEAB6
PII:S0026749X0600271X
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0026-749X
1469-8099
DOI:10.1017/S0026749X0600271X