Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza: The Anthropology of a Hydraulic Kingdom

by Homayun Sidky

Irrigation and State Formation in Hunza explores the evolution of political complexity and centralization in Hunza, a remote high-mountain kingdom in the western Karakoram mountains. The author follows the argument that the rise of the Hunza state is directly linked to the construction of Hunza's large-scale irrigation works during the late 18th and early-19th centuries. Sidky's theories are influenced by anthropological writings on irrigation and its impact on society. He pays special attention to Karl Wittfogel's 'hydraulic hypothesis' and goes on to examine linkages between specific ecological conditions, hydraulic agriculture, and the pattern of socioeconomic and political organization that emerged in Hunza due to a local ruler's construction of a large-scale hydraulic system. This unique study will appeal to historians, anthropologists, cultural geographers and South Asian specialists.

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 10, 1995