Fall 2009
Cancelled

SOCS 643
The Anthropology of the Afghan War: Power, Authority, and Charisma Along the Afghan Frontier

Keiser,R. Lincoln

09/14/2009 - 12/18/2009
To be announced -

This course examines how anthropology helps in understanding the war along the Afghan/Pakistan border. It begins by surveying the recent history of the war. Next, the course identifies the basic anthropological perspective. Its aim is to provide students with the conceptual tools necessary to understand current events in the Hindu-Kush Mountains. The course then moves to ethnographic studies of the region itself, including South Waziristan, Dir Kohistan, the Pech Valley and Northern Afghanistan. This section focuses first, on the principles of indigenous political organization, and then on the cultural conflicts among notions of honor, tribal allegiances and Islam. How these conflicts shape the armed struggle between Western forces and the Taliban is the primary focus of the course.

Course tuition: $2022.


Lincoln Keiser (B.A., Lawrence University; M.A., Northwestern University; M.A.A., Wesleyan University; Ph.D., University of Rochester) is professor of anthropology. Click here for more information about Lincoln Keiser.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 18

Texts to purchase for this course:
Akbar Ahmed, RELIGION AND POLITICS IN A MUSLIM SOCIETY (Cambridge University Press), Hardcover

Whitney Azoy, BUZKASHI: GAME AND POWER IN AFGHANISTAN (Waveland Press)

David Edwards, HEROES OF THE AGE (University of California Press), Paperback

Lincoln Keiser, FRIEND BY DAY, ENEMY BY NIGHT (Harcourt Brace), Paperback

David Kilcullen, THE ACCIDENTAL GUERRILLA (Oxford University Press)

Ahmed Rashid, DESCENT INTO CHAOS (Penguin), Paperback

READING MATERIALS ARE AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online

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