Afghan Nomads

Beskrivelse

Afghan Nomads offers a detailed ethnographic and historical study of Afghan pastoral nomads from 1800 to 1980. It explores their social transformations, trade practices, and interactions with neighboring groups and states.

An in-depth exploration of the development and cultural shifts among Afghan nomadic communities over nearly two centuries.

This book begins by placing Afghan nomads within the broader context of nomadic research, focusing first on the Pashtun pastoral lifestyle in eastern Afghanistan. It compares these traditional ways of life with the changes experienced by nomads in British India and Afghanistan during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Part II delves into the Hazara people's traditional society, highlighting their 19th-century isolation and subsequent interactions with Pashtun nomads after Amir Abdur Rahman Khan’s conquest. This encounter led to economic dominance by the Pashtun nomads and a process described as the 'internal colonisation' of Hazara lands, a situation that remained largely unchanged until the 1978 uprising.

The third section focuses on the expansion of Pashtun nomads' caravaneering activities, starting around 1800 between the Indus region and eastern Afghanistan. It details the rise and fall of temporary nomadic bazaars in Hazara and among the Aimaq and western Pashtun nomads, emphasizing government influence on these markets and the trade of surplus livestock alongside Pakistani and Afghan goods.

Part IV highlights major nomad bazaars such as the Kerman bazaar in western Hazarajat, which attracted visitors nationwide, and new marketplaces in the Aimaq region like Abul, Gomao, Charas, and others. It also describes smaller bazaars including Shurwa and Chashma-I Sakina.

Part V examines the Pashtun nomads in British India up to the 1947 partition, showcasing their adaptability through activities like cloth-hawking and money-lending in marginalized areas, demonstrating their ability to seize opportunities within changing social landscapes.

Finally, Part VI summarizes the complex relationship between nomads and the state in both British India/Pakistan and Afghanistan. It reviews the development processes driven by the nomads themselves and concludes with an epilogue covering their situation from 1980 until the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

The book also includes several appendices covering Pashtun groups, roads and caravanserais, and Danish anthropology in Afghanistan, along with a bibliography, glossary, and indexes of names and authorities. It features 512 pages packed with 276 illustrations-92 in color-and 16 maps illustrating ethnic distribution, caravan routes, and migration patterns.

Afghan Nomads is closely linked to earlier works by Gorm Pedersen and Birthe Frederiksen, as well as Asta Olesen’s studies, all part of The Carlsberg Foundation’s Nomad Research Project. Klaus Ferdinand (1926-2005), the author, was an associate professor of anthropology and head of the Ethnographic Department at the Moesgaard Museum, with extensive fieldwork experience in East and Central Afghanistan focusing on Aimaq and Pashtun pastoralism, caravan trade, and Hazara culture.

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