Thomas Barfield Book order (chronological)

This work explores the historic struggles and evolving political authority in a volatile region, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. The author highlights the diverse tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, illustrating what unites them as Afghans despite their regional, cultural, and political differences. He explains that governing these peoples was manageable when power resided in a small dynastic elite, but this fragile order collapsed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as rulers mobilized rural militias to expel the British and later the Soviets. While armed insurgency effectively resisted foreign occupiers, it simultaneously weakened the Afghan government's authority, complicating governance over time. The narrative details how armed factions led the country into civil war, resulting in Taliban rule and Afghanistan's global isolation. The author analyzes the swift American invasion post-September 11 that toppled the Taliban, cautioning that this quick victory misled the U.S. into believing a stable state could be easily established. This examination sheds light on how Afghanistan, long dominated by foreign powers, became known as the "graveyard of empires," and offers insights into what the U.S. must do to avoid a similar outcome.

Designed to become the standard reference guide to the discipline of social and cultural anthropology, this dictionary consists of substantial analytical articles focusing on key anthropological concepts, theories and methodologies. It draws on contributions from some 120 distinguished American and British anthropologists.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 focused international attention on this country for the first time in nearly a century. The need for reliable information has only become been greater. Because of their traditional xenophobia toward the West, successive Afghan governments have restricted the number of scholars permitted to undertake extensive fieldwork. For this reason Thomas Barfield's study of the Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan is a welcome addition to the literature, a literature which is not likely to grow in the coming years as war, domestic unrest and restrictive travel policies continue to make the research environment in Afghanistan unfavorable. The Central Asian Arabs are a little-known people of northeastern Afghanistan. This book is an account of the changes that have taken place in their way of life over the twentieth century as they switched from a form of subsistence pastoralism to a cash economy. Barfield's research constitutes a substantial revision of the standard hypothesis on the economic and social status of nomadic pastoralists, as originally posited by Fredrik Barth. One of Barfield's main purposes is to provide a case study that illustrates the wide-ranging complexity of pastoral nomadism, its integration into a regional economy, and how structural changes have occurred within the pastoral economy itself.