ABSTRACT
The performance of sacrifices or ritual offerings away from home effects for Pakistanis, as labour migrants, a crucial transition. Urban ritual overcomes, in other words, the spatial dispersion and segmentation of social relationships in town, by gathering together a varied congregation which is, nevertheless, united in moral support for an individual or family. The taken-forgranted features of rites become an object of conscious reflection, as migrants grapple to resolve emergent dilemmas around hitherto normal, expected or 'natural' aspects of the rituals they perform. Ritual observance among Pakistanis centres around focal places: the mosque and the home. The mosque is the domain of men and serves as a backdrop for the performance of communal rituals and festivals, for theological punditry and for political-cum-ethnic organisation. The analysis of labour migrants' perceptions of the ritual, and of related rituals, brings into sharp focus what they consider are the fundamental features of the rites.
