INVESTIGATING PORTERING RELATIONS AS A LOCUS FOR TRANSCULTURAL INTERACTION IN THE KARAKORAM REGION OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN

Since European contact about 1835 a specific set of coercive labor rel ations-porters carrying loads for foreign travelers-has significantly shaped local/Western interaction in the Karakorum region of Northern P akistan. This paper offers a preliminary attempt to outline some theor etical and methodological issues relevant to understanding portering r elations as a historical and contemporary site for structuring cross-c ultural interaction in the region. It draws on the concepts of contact zone, transculturation, discursive formations, and public and hidden transcripts, it then sketches the rough dimensions of an unfolding emp irical project to trace metropolitan and indigenous transcultural disc ourses of self and other into, through, and out of the specific materi al relations of portering. Two brief examples discuss (a) the European -initiated formalized regulation of porter employment in the late 19th century, and (b) indigenous practices of publicly resisting unequal l abor relations through strategically-situated work stoppages.