MECHANIZATION AND CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN IN RURAL PAKISTAN (A case study of Tapiali Village District Rawalpindi))

Abstract

Human culture is anthropologically understood to be a term which connotes special meaning. It is a set of adaptive mechanisms which people generally adopt to adjust themselves to the overall changes which take place in their changing environments. Hence culture is not something which is stagnant but itself experiences change over a period of time. The stimulus for change may come from within or may be introduced from outside the system. However, whereas the changes coming from within are often thought to be slow (as being restrained by social norms, traditions and ancestral legacies etc.), the invading thrust of these changes in a society often occurs with adoption of such tools and techniques which people tend to accept from outside in view of their own conveniences i.e. in terms of saving time and their energies for carrying out their day to day tasks. It is also true that external stimulus like mechanization at times may often be completely alien to the cultural context in which it may initially permeate and as such, for the time being, may seem to threaten some of the already established core values of a society. Initial reaction or the level of morale expected of the stimulus may not be witnessed until it takes its own time to prove its functional worth as against some of its culturally not-so- welcome outcomes. A simple example can be that of a mobile phone; whereas on the one hand it connected people living in far off and sometimes quite isolated rural communities to the outer world and the tyranny of distances was instantly overcome, on the other it seemed to threaten the long cherished family norm of a traditional religious society i.e. in relation to the expected role of women (particularly of young unmarried girls) not to be in communication or contact with males outside their families/households.