Anthropology of the Middle East

This special issue represents the first collection of ethnographic articles specifically about post-2001 Afghanistan, opening a new chapter in the history of the country’s ethnography. Long and multifaceted, that history deserves a thorough compilation and bibliography beyond what can be undertaken in this brief editorial. The promising current of anthropological research in Afghanistan in the 1960s and 1970s was diverted by over 30 years of political turmoil, invasion, resistance and civil war, during which many anthropologists either continued or began their work in the refugee communities of Pakistan and Iran or in Afghan diasporic populations around the world.

Returning to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2005, the authors revisit the places in the north of the country where they undertook research in the 1970s and observe the ruptures and the continuities in the society after 30 years of crisis and conflict. They comment also on their own changes of perspective brought about by the elapsed time and their return. Finally, they tackle the question of the return and reintegration of the refugees, as well as the concept of the village and the advent of new national and international actors on the Afghan scene.

This article seeks to characterise the nature of the post-Taliban 'reconstruction' project in Afghanistan through an analysis of observations and interviews collected in the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) in 2007. Based on a case study of a 'gender empowerment' training programme administered by the MoWA and funded by an international aid agency, I underline some intricacies in the relationships that are built in development encounters. I argue that the current efforts to include gender issues in politics are part of a broader cultural project aimed at setting up the conditions of possibility for the creation of a modern Afghan state. I show how reconstruction does not simply consist in the formation of a bureaucratic apparatus based on Western models of liberal democracies but primarily involves cultural and symbolic production.

Anthropological research in war-torn countries like Afghanistan is dangerous and therefore often impossible. There are various constraints, both general and specific, that often hinder an anthropologist from going out into the field. This is not a new problem for social anthropology, but it is increasingly preoccupying the discipline. Thus, a 'distance approach' needs to be developed for studying the ethnography of the Afghan war. This article proposes one methodological possibility for approaching the Afghan war from other perspectives. This method involves extensive reading in and analysis of various written works and the critical examination of web sites and other media, in combination with fieldwork in Europe and Central Asia. In order to demonstrate this approach, the discourse on women's rights will be discussed.

Based on an analysis of films shot by Youssouf Janessar, the cameraman of the Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, this article presents a study of the Afghan wars between 1982 and 1992. It considers the act of filming in its anthropological meaning and the ethnographic dimension as translated by these images. The article first deals with the link between Massoud and recorded images and, more widely, his relationship with modern technology in combat. It then proposes an anthropological analysis of fighters based on a reading of these images, which record traces of behaviour, comportment and appearance - a repository of non-verbal communication between fighters - and which represent very rich material for the anthropological study of war.

This article reflects on the challenges of being an 'outsider' in one's own culture and on the journey from being a complete outsider to an 'insider/outsider'. Reflecting on fieldwork among women in north-east Afghanistan, the article explores assumptions and perceptions about Badakhshan and its people and the role of fieldwork in shattering them. It is also a reflection about values and compromises and the researcher's struggle to negotiate the appropriate balance. The article sheds light on the researcher's search for and discovery of different versions of herself when faced with a different version of 'home'.

PUBLICATIONS

Coburn, Noah (2011), Bazaar Politics: Power and Pottery in an Afghan Market Town (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press). 254 pp. ISBN 978-0-8047- 7672-1.

Heath, Jennifer and Zahedi, Ashraf (eds.) (2009), Land of the Unconquerable: The Lives of Contemporary Afghan Women (Berkeley: University of California Press). 393 pp. ISBN 978-0-520-26186-0.

Barfield, Thomas (2010), Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). 389 pp. ISBN 978-0-691-14568-6.

Oeppen, Cery and Schlenkhoff, Angela (eds.) (2010), Beyond the ‘Wild Tribes’: Understanding Modern Afghanistan and Its Diaspora (London: Hurst). 233 pp. ISBN 978-1-84904-055-6.

Hyndman-Rizk, Nelia (2011), My Mother’s Table: At Home in the Maronite Diaspora, a Study of Emigration from Hadchit, North Lebanon to Australia and America (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing). 290 pp. ISBN (13) 978-0-691-14568-6.

Loeffler, Agnes (2007), Allopathy Goes Native: Traditional Versus Modern Medicine in Iran (New York: Taurus Academic Studies). 224 pp. ISBN 978-1- 85043-942-4.

FILMS

Oskoui, Mehrdad (2007), Last Days of Winter, Iran, 52 minutes.

Sheykholeslami, Mahvash (2012), Dark Room, Iran, 40 minutes.

CONFERENCES

45th Annual Meeting and Conference of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), 1–4 December 2011, Washington, DC

‘Globalized Fatherhood’, 13–15 April 2012, Yale University, New Haven, CT