... pioneered, and still largely steered, by the industrialized Western countries, it is time to ... more ... pioneered, and still largely steered, by the industrialized Western countries, it is time to reflect on ... Social theory is the concern of anthropologists, sociologists and historians, working with other kinds of ... Students are taught that, around the turn of the last century, there were two ...
'Kuchi', an Afghan Persian word meaning 'those who go on migrations', is the comm... more 'Kuchi', an Afghan Persian word meaning 'those who go on migrations', is the common generic term, used by both Afghans and foreigners, for the nomads of Afghanistan, as it has been for many decades. Most if not all the nomads, and indeed many long-settled former nomads, now acknowledge this name, yet in the 1960s and 1970s few of those so labelled used the term for themselves. This article examines the usage of both 'Kuchi' and 'nomad', and locates them in the wider contexts of ethnic labelling practices in Afghanistan, anthropological debates about pastoral nomadism, and government-nomad relations in both Afghanistan and neighbouring Iran.
... pioneered, and still largely steered, by the industrialized Western countries, it is time to ... more ... pioneered, and still largely steered, by the industrialized Western countries, it is time to reflect on ... Social theory is the concern of anthropologists, sociologists and historians, working with other kinds of ... Students are taught that, around the turn of the last century, there were two ...
'Kuchi', an Afghan Persian word meaning 'those who go on migrations', is the comm... more 'Kuchi', an Afghan Persian word meaning 'those who go on migrations', is the common generic term, used by both Afghans and foreigners, for the nomads of Afghanistan, as it has been for many decades. Most if not all the nomads, and indeed many long-settled former nomads, now acknowledge this name, yet in the 1960s and 1970s few of those so labelled used the term for themselves. This article examines the usage of both 'Kuchi' and 'nomad', and locates them in the wider contexts of ethnic labelling practices in Afghanistan, anthropological debates about pastoral nomadism, and government-nomad relations in both Afghanistan and neighbouring Iran.
In the early 1970s we made more than 100 hours of tape recordings, as part of our ethnographic fi... more In the early 1970s we made more than 100 hours of tape recordings, as part of our ethnographic fieldwork among the Piruzai, Pashtun farmers and semi-nomadic pastoralists in northern Afghanistan. These village voices create a remarkable community self-portrait of a social world now lost and irretrievable. Maryam's story is the perfect exemplar of an unconventional form of auto-ethnography. Maryam was married some thirty years before, as part of a series of marriage exchanges intended to settle a feud between the two main Piruzai families. Her husband, Tuman, became village headman, a Haji, and in 1971 our host. Later, Pakiza, Tuman's second wife and Maryam's co-wife, became the bane of her life. Her account captures something of the depth and colour of people's lives. It gives voice to the ensuing silence over the past nearly fifty years and offers a radical challenge to the gendered stereotypes which have dominated the global and Afghan media during the past forty years of war and occupation.
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