Full Description
Afghanistan in the 20th century was virtually unknown in Europe and America. At peace until the 1970s, the country was seen as a remote and exotic land, visited only by adventurous tourists or researchers. Afghan Village Voices is a testament to this little-known period of peace and captures a society and culture now lost. Prepared by two of the most accomplished and well-known anthropologists of the Middle East and Central Asia, Richard Tapper and Nancy Tapper-Lindisfarne, this is a book of stories told by the Piruzai, a rural Afghan community of some 200 families who farmed in northern Afghanistan and in summer took their flocks to the central Hazârajât mountains.
The book comprises a collection of remarkable stories, folktales and conversations and provides unprecedented insight into the depth and colour of these people's lives. Recorded in the early 1970s, the stories range from memories of the Piruzai migration to the north a half century before, to the feuds, ethnic strife and the doings of powerful khans. There are also stories of falling in love, elopements, marriages, childbirth and the world of spirits. The book includes vignettes of the narrators, photographs, maps and a full glossary. It is a remarkable document of Afghanistan at peace, told by a people whose voices have rarely been heard.
Contents
Preface
List of Maps, Tables and Figures
List of illustrations
Chapter 1 - Prologue: Introducing the Piruzai
Chapter 2 - The Es'haqzai Come North
Chapter 3 - Ethnic Politics in Sar-e-Pol
Chapter 4 - Tribal Politics
Chapter 5 - A Shepherd's Life
Chapter 6 - For the Animals
Chapter 7 - Land: A Golden Tent-Peg
Chapter 8 - On the Farm
Chapter 9 - Other Business
Chapter 10 - The Marriage Market
Chapter 11 - Family Matters
Chapter 12 - Religion, Life, Death, Disease
Chapter 13 - The World of Jinns
Chapter 14 - Shrines, Sufis, Exorcism
Chapter 15 - Epilogue: The Piruzai since 1972
Appendices
1 - Ancestors
2 - Afghanistan and Sar-e-pol, 1972-2016
3 - Recording and Editing the Stories
Glossary
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
