Dancing Cultural Sustainability at the Top of the World

A Hunza Wedding

Abstract

This brief article is part of a larger body of my research since 2016 on flows of migration--physical, discursive, and digital—of indigenous (and its hybridized “modern”) performance in Pakistan, a most timely part of which is cultural sustainability in the face of climate change and irresponsible development. Here, I look at a specific ethnographic moment during my fieldwork in the spring of 2024, in Gilgit-Baltistan. This moment documents a Hunza wedding joining two prominent families residing in the provincial capital of Gilgit. As in most South Asian cultures, a wedding is often an encapsulation of the cultural ethos of a community. It is clearly apparent among members of the Burushaski community of Hunza, for whom communal celebration, comprising plenty of good food, live upbeat traditional music, and lively dance, is an integral part of their lifestyle and identity, of which there are multiple layers.