The other Afghanistan - an ethnic mosaic
Submitted on October 23, 2001 - 12:00am.
Federico Arellano - Fall 2001
Afghanistan is a complex country, populated by nine ethnic groups who speak a dozen different languages and who live in a varied geographical frontier.
The most recent war with Russia left the countryside peppered with landmines and many monuments and minarets reduced to rubble. The poverty left in the war's wake has taken an impossible human toll. But before the war, Afghanistan was very different.
“Before WWII, it was not highly stratified,” said Robert Canfield, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Canfield has a PhD in anthropology and did nine years of field work in Afghanistan. “Classes, in Marxist terms, did not develop in Afghanistan.”
The most recent war with Russia left the countryside peppered with landmines and many monuments and minarets reduced to rubble. The poverty left in the war's wake has taken an impossible human toll. But before the war, Afghanistan was very different.
“Before WWII, it was not highly stratified,” said Robert Canfield, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Canfield has a PhD in anthropology and did nine years of field work in Afghanistan. “Classes, in Marxist terms, did not develop in Afghanistan.”
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