article
Learning from the Swat Pathans: political leadership in Afghanistan, 1978-1997
American ethnologist • 25 (4) • Published In 1998 • Pages: 712-728
By: Edwards, David B..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The conflict in Afghanistan, both internal (between factional elements of the society), and external (with the Soviet Union), '…has generated considerable attention from journalists, policy analysts, and political scientists, but the literature on the conflict includes few references to the work of Fredrik Barth on political leadership among the Swat Pakhtuns of neighboring Pakistan' (p. 712). In this work Edwards examines Barth's concept of 'methodological individualism' and compares his approach with alternative approaches advanced by three of his principal critics: Talal Asad, Akbar S. Ahmed, and Michael Meeker. In addition to the above discussion this study also describes the political relations in Afghanistan from 1978, when the Marxist Khala party took power, through 1979 when the Soviet Union took control of the government in Kabul, to the assumption of power by the Taliban in 1995.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Reviews and critiques
- Status, role, and prestige
- External relations
- Political parties
- Political movements
- Revolution
- Warfare
- Religious denominations
- Students
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Pashtun
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Asia
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Asia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2001
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1982-1984
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1978-1997
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Afghanistan
- NotesAdditional notes
- David B. Edwards
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 727-728)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Pushtuns