The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination

The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination PDF Author: Jolanta Sierakowska-Dyndo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443865729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
In this book, The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination, the author seeks an answer to the question of how tradition, specifically its normative-axiological aspects, shapes the political attitudes and actions of the Afghans. The author points to two different concepts of social order which are moulded by the Pashtunwali: on the one hand, a tribal code which is part of Pashto language tradition; and on the other hand, by Sufism, the religious and philosophical current in Islam expressed mainly in the Dari (Persian) language. The two systems offer a different hierarchy of values, and organize social reality by referring to two different models of order: the circle and the pyramid. While making an in-depth analysis of the topic, the author asserts that the social organization of the Pashtuns is based on the principle of representation and consensus. Tribalism is shaped in the structure of a circle, in which a group is the fundamental category. Where tribal structure no longer performs its regulatory and organizational functions, the pattern of social order is offered by the Sufi Brotherhoods, which had long been very popular and powerful in this part of Asia. The hierarchical organization of Sufism, based on a disciple-master relationship and the principle of authoritarianism, gradually established the structure of the pyramid as a model of social order, and also of political order. Religious Sufi Brotherhoods became the most accessible leadership pattern, besides the tribal one, to be fixed in the Afghans’ social imagination. This analysis from the perspective of sociocultural and political anthropology will be indispensable for those interested in Afghan and Islamic societies.

The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination

The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination PDF Author: Jolanta Sierakowska-Dyndo
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443865729
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this book, The Boundaries of Afghans’ Political Imagination, the author seeks an answer to the question of how tradition, specifically its normative-axiological aspects, shapes the political attitudes and actions of the Afghans. The author points to two different concepts of social order which are moulded by the Pashtunwali: on the one hand, a tribal code which is part of Pashto language tradition; and on the other hand, by Sufism, the religious and philosophical current in Islam expressed mainly in the Dari (Persian) language. The two systems offer a different hierarchy of values, and organize social reality by referring to two different models of order: the circle and the pyramid. While making an in-depth analysis of the topic, the author asserts that the social organization of the Pashtuns is based on the principle of representation and consensus. Tribalism is shaped in the structure of a circle, in which a group is the fundamental category. Where tribal structure no longer performs its regulatory and organizational functions, the pattern of social order is offered by the Sufi Brotherhoods, which had long been very popular and powerful in this part of Asia. The hierarchical organization of Sufism, based on a disciple-master relationship and the principle of authoritarianism, gradually established the structure of the pyramid as a model of social order, and also of political order. Religious Sufi Brotherhoods became the most accessible leadership pattern, besides the tribal one, to be fixed in the Afghans’ social imagination. This analysis from the perspective of sociocultural and political anthropology will be indispensable for those interested in Afghan and Islamic societies.

The Boundaries of Afghans Political Imagination

The Boundaries of Afghans Political Imagination PDF Author: Jolanta Sierakowska-Dyndo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Imagining Afghanistan

Imagining Afghanistan PDF Author: Nivi Manchanda
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108491235
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
An innovative exploration of how colonial interventions in Afghanistan have been made possible through representations of the country as 'backward'.

Land Law in Asian Countries

Land Law in Asian Countries PDF Author: Oleg Igorevich Krassov
Publisher: XSPO
ISBN: 5001562562
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The monograph covers the issues related to the evolution of land tenure systems, land reforms, the main features of formal land law that is in force in the various legal systems of the countries of South, East, and Southeast Asia, and customary land rights. The current state of land law in Asian countries: land rights, the provision and suspension of these rights, the relationship between formal law and customary land tenure systems, the problems of recognizing customary communal land rights are analyzed. For students, graduate students and teachers of law schools, employees of legislative, executive and judicial authorities, as well as for all those interested in issues of land, civil law and comparative jurisprudence.

Martyrdom and Ecstasy

Martyrdom and Ecstasy PDF Author: Sylwia Surdykowska
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443839531
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
The book is concerned with one of the most important issues in Persian culture, that is to say a broadly conceived idea of sacrifice and martyrdom. At present, it is contained in the concept of shahadat, which arouses much controversy in the Western world today. In successive chapters, the author discusses the origin and evolution of this concept in Persian culture, the process of shaping attitudes conducive to the attainment of readiness for shahadat and the role of this concept in propaganda, as well as presenting its modern-day interpretation. The basic research material was provided by political and religious publications of contemporary Iranian authors, including Ali Shari‘ati, Morteza Motahhari, Ruhollah Khomeini and Abdolkarim Soroush, who have exerted a significant influence on the formation of the Iranian consciousness. The book is an interdisciplinary publication. The author refers to philology, literary studies, cultural anthropology, social psychology, and, interestingly, to the psychology of emotions in order to explicate the traditional Persian system of upbringing and shaping the readiness for martyrdom and sacrifice. The book shows the idea of shahadat as part of the Persian cultural paradigm, which, due to religious and literary tradition, has influenced the shaping of Iranian identity over the centuries and, as a result, it has affected social and political attitudes of the Iranian people. The book is mainly directed to Iranologists. Nevertheless, it will also be of interest to anthropologists, psychologists of culture, sociologists and philosophers due to its interdisciplinary character.

The Hazaras and the Afghan State

The Hazaras and the Afghan State PDF Author: Niamatullah Ibrahimi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849047073
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
The Hazaras, numbering some 2.5 million, have for centuries faced persecution from Afghanistan's majority Sunni population -- politically, socially and economically. This book examines how and why.

Afghan Modern

Afghan Modern PDF Author: Robert D. Crews
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674495764
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
Rugged, remote, riven by tribal rivalries and religious violence, Afghanistan seems to many a country frozen in time and forsaken by the world. Afghan Modern presents a bold challenge to these misperceptions, revealing how Afghans, over the course of their history, have engaged and connected with a wider world and come to share in our modern globalized age. Always a mobile people, Afghan travelers, traders, pilgrims, scholars, and artists have ventured abroad for centuries, their cosmopolitan sensibilities providing a compass for navigating a constantly changing world. Robert Crews traces the roots of Afghan globalism to the early modern period, when, as the subjects of sprawling empires, the residents of Kabul, Kandahar, and other urban centers forged linkages with far-flung imperial centers throughout the Middle East and Asia. Focusing on the emergence of an Afghan state out of this imperial milieu, he shows how Afghan nation-making was part of a series of global processes, refuting the usual portrayal of Afghans as pawns in the “Great Game” of European powers and of Afghanistan as a “hermit kingdom.” In the twentieth century, the pace of Afghan interaction with the rest of the world dramatically increased, and many Afghan men and women came to see themselves at the center of ideological struggles that spanned the globe. Through revolution, war, and foreign occupations, Afghanistan became even more enmeshed in the global circulation of modern politics, occupying a pivotal position in the Cold War and the tumultuous decades that followed.

Blood Washing Blood

Blood Washing Blood PDF Author: Phil Halton
Publisher: Dundurn
ISBN: 145974666X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 399

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Book Description
A clear-eyed view of the conflict in Afghanistan and its century-deep roots. The war in Afghanistan has consumed vast amounts of blood and treasure, causing the Western powers to seek an exit without achieving victory. Seemingly never-ending, the conflict has become synonymous with a number of issues — global jihad, rampant tribalism, and the narcotics trade — but even though they are cited as the causes of the conflict, they are in fact symptoms. Rather than beginning after 9/11 or with the Soviet “invasion” in 1979, the current conflict in Afghanistan began with the social reforms imposed by Amanullah Amir in 1919. Western powers have failed to recognize that legitimate grievances are driving the local population to turn to insurgency in Afghanistan. The issues they are willing to fight for have deep roots, forming a hundred-year-long social conflict over questions of secularism, modernity, and centralized power. The first step toward achieving a “solution” to the Afghanistan “problem” is to have a clear-eyed view of what is really driving it.

The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk

The Postmodern Imagination of Russell Kirk PDF Author: Gerald J. Russello
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826265944
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
"Russello examines Russell Kirk's development of the imagination as a tool of conservative discourse, offering an alternative genealogy for conservative thought that melds its antimodernism with postmodern themes"--Provided by publisher.

Humanitarian Invasion

Humanitarian Invasion PDF Author: Timothy Nunan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107112079
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Humanitarian Invasion provides a history of international development and humanitarianism in Cold War Afghanistan.