USSR – ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Pearls before Swine

Pearls, in the Parish of St. Andrew’s, Grenada, just up the road from the main town of Grenville, is a unique place that sits at the intersection of two of the main themes of my research career: the cultures and histories of Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean, and the political economy of US imperialist interventions. Both […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

The Kursk Disaster: Facts Sunk Beneath Waves of Drama

At the turn of the millennium a trilogy of disasters gained a high profile in the international media. First, in July of 2000 the fiery crash of Air France’s Concorde flight 4590 from Paris to New York ended not just many lives (109 persons), but also the plane’s career. Second, on August 12, 2000, there […]

by Donnchadh Mac an Ghoill

25 Years without the Berlin Wall

Needless to say, the end of foreign imposed partition is an occasion of joy for any country. Here in Ireland, we look forward to the day when the British occupation will be lifted, and our land returned to native rule. Koreans also look forward to the day when Anglo-Saxon forces leave their land, and allow […]

by Maximilian C. Forte

Withdrawing from Afghanistan: Three Movies on the Soviet Occupation

Imperial Brains Blown Out When you’re wounded an’ left on Afghanistan’s plains An’ the women come out to cut up your remains Jus’ roll to your rifle an’ blow out your brains An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.–Rudyard Kipling Last night Senator John McCain tweeted, “I believe the President’s artificial date for withdrawal […]

by M. Jamil Hanifi

Causes and Consequences of the Destabilization of Afghanistan

Over the last 30 years, the polity of Afghanistan has undergone several overlapping transformations. The structure of power at the center has collapsed, causing the center-periphery relationship to evaporate. The movement of economic and human resources from various regions of Afghanistan to locations across international borders, especially in Iran and Pakistan, has intensified. Ethnic, sectarian, […]

by M. Jamil Hanifi

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 […]

by M. Jamil Hanifi

Afghanistan and the Emergence of the Taliban: Reviewed Works

A previous article on this site quoted sections of Ahmed Rashid’s TALIBAN: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), a partial copy of which is available here. The following is a review by M. Jamil Hanifi published in The Middle East Journal, with details of the history of […]