Below, an awesome anthropological overview of
Afghanistan. The take-away for me: Afghanistan is
a premodern society, Islamic the way the West was
religious before the Enlightment. Tribal in that the main groups
also identify ethnically with surrounding countries.
And - not mentionned in the talk but implicit - without
families: there are no proper names but people use the clan
or place name to identify themselves. Finally, there is no
proper census...
Interesting from a political point of view: the Taliban and ISIS are
both about establishing an Islamic State, but that implies a notion
of statehood Afghan people do not hold. it is foreign to them as much
as communism or market democracies. Geography is destiny!?
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