Beyond Language: Cultural Core Values, Dress, Ancestry and the Symbolic Construction of Baloch Ethnicity
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Keywords: Baloch; Ethnic Identity; Core Value##article.abstract##
The paper investigates which cultural elements function as core values in the construction and maintenance of Baloch ethnic identity. The analysis is guided by Smolicz’s Cultural Core Value framework and Tajfel’s (1978) Social Identity Theory, which helps explain how groups select symbols that distinguish an in-group from relevant out-groups. The study data reveal that language alone cannot be treated as the universal core value because the group includes speakers of four different languages. Instead, traditional dress, common ancestry, shared history, tribal affiliation and cultural practices repeatedly appear as cross-linguistic resources of identity. Questionnaire findings are especially revealing: language was selected as central by 40% of Balochi-speaking and 62% of Brahvi-speaking respondents, but only 13.3% of Saraiki-speaking and 20% of Sindhi-speaking respondents. Common ancestry was selected by 73.3% of Saraiki-speaking and 40% of Sindhi-speaking respondents. Ethnographic observations further suggest that traditional dress gained heightened symbolic visibility during periods when ethnic identity became more salient. The paper concludes that Baloch ethnicity is sustained through a repertoire of cultural resources rather than through a single indispensable marker.
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