This book is the first major ethnography of Baloch midwives in Pakistan. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in Balochistan province, it shows how dhīnabogs/dheenabogs (Baloch midwives ranging in age from about 30 to 80) and their dhīnabogirī (midwifery) aid women and their kin through labor and postpartum recovery. Its chapters show how Baloch midwives’ forms and ethics of care have persisted, despite nearly two centuries of British colonial policies and the subsequent disparaging official views regarding South Asian Indigenous midwives, commonly known as dāīs, in both postcolonial India and Pakistan. Through their continued presence and effective uses of their traditional medicine, Baloch midwives contain, mediate, and offer a powerful critique of women’s iatrogenic suffering caused by unnecessary biomedical interventions. Through a nuanced analysis of Baloch midwives' ethical approach to caring for women, and their responses to the exigencies of women’s health, this book demonstrates why over a century of state efforts to modernize and biomedicalize childbirth practices have failed to convince the majority of Baloch women in Balochistan to give birth in hospitals. They instead prefer home births and the midwifery care from the dhīnabogs whom they trust. This book will not only be of interest to scholars and students in anthropology, medical humanities, public health, sociology, gender and women’s studies, gender and medical history, South Asia studies, and global health studies, but also to those in the midwifery and the nursing profession. It will also be of interest to non-academic readers wishing to learn about midwives in South Asia and anyone interested in reading about traditional medicine and midwives who practice outside of European and North American cultural contexts.

Has appendices.

During the early 19th century the British came in direct contact with the Baloch, first with those living in the Punjab and Sind, and later with those in Balochistan proper. Soon after their arrival in the region, they began studying the Baloch as an ethno-national group, their language, literature, folklore, tribal structure, physical features, and so on, forming theories and suggesting hypotheses regarding their origins and relations with other nations and peoples. While some maintained that the Baloch originated from north-western Iran, others believed they came from Central Asia, from Arabia, or from else- where.1 Among the early British writers, some also opined that while some tribes might have a foreign origin, bulk of the Baloch were the autochthonous population of the country. With the passage of time, however, other theories were abandoned and a northwest Iranian origin came to be the widely accepted one. This thesis was established on three basic grounds: first, from the Balochi oral tradition which claims that the Baloch came from a place called Alab/Alap, identified as Aleppo in Syria by Western writers and later followed by some lo- cal writers too; secondly, their mention in the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi where they are sometimes shown along with the people of Gilan and Dilam, regions situated on the Caspian Sea regions; and thirdly, on the basis of their language, which is classified as belonging to the northwestern group of Iranian languages having close affinities with Kurdish and other languages of that branch.

While the typology, syntax, and morphology of Iranian languages have been widely explored, the sociolinguistic aspects remain largely understudied. The present companion addresses this essential yet overlooked area of research in two ways: (i) The book explores multilingualism within Iran and its neighbouring countries. (ii) It also investigates Iranian heritage languages within the diasporic context of the West. The scope of languages covered is vast: In addition to discussing Iranian minority languages such as Tati and Balochi, the book explores non-Iranian minority languages such as Azeri, Tukmen, Armenian and Mandaic. Furthermore, the companion investigates Iranian heritage languages such as Wakhi, Pashto, and Persian within their diasporic and global contexts. In the current era of migration and globalization, minority and heritage speakers are increasingly valuable resources. By focusing on the speakers, the companion provides new insights into a multitude of sociolinguistic issues including language attitude and identity, language use and literacy practices, language policy, language shift and loss. The companion is an essential reference for those interested in Iranian languages, minority languages, heritage languages, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, language policy and planning, diaspora and migration studies, as well as those researching in related fields.