jihad – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Pamphleteer Anthropology and the Production of Knowledge about Afghanistan

The military occupation of Afghanistan by the United States and its partners has spawned floods of popular and academic writings and visual effects about the culture, history and politics of the country. A leading contributor to these stores of information about Afghanistan is Thomas Jefferson Barfield, currently professor of anthropology at Boston University and president […]

Anthropology and the Representation of Migrations from Afghanistan

[This is a paper that was originally published under the title of “Anthropology and the Representation of Recent Migrations from Afghanistan,” as it appeared in Rethinking Refuge and Displacement: Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants, Volume VIII, 2000. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association. Eds. E. M. Godziak and D. J. Shandy. Pp. 291-321. Given the […]

Marketing the Martyr: Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale…Paula Loyd

This post refers to three recent articles in the mainstream “news” media: Constable, Pamela. (2009). A terrain’s tragic shift: Researcher’s death intensifies scrutiny of U.S. cultural program in Afghanistan. Washington Post, February 18. Alpert, Bruce. (2009). Family of Afghan victim seeks to help her avenger. The Times-Picayune, February 14. Stockman, Farah. (2009). Anthropologist’s war death […]