Equal Time: Bleuer on Jones
Michael Innes of CTlab dropped by to strongly recommend this post by Afghan expert Christian Bleuer of Ghosts of Alexander, where Bleuer takes issue with the Seth Jones op-ed in the WSJ. So, in the interest of equal time, here you go:
The Mystery of the Wall Street Journal and the Absentee Afghanists
….There is a lot in the article to choke on, especially his comments on tribes, arbakai and jirgas. But this comment is what got me:
…outside of some anthropologists, few people have bothered to examine Afghanistan’s stable periods.
That’s right. These scholars are missing in action. Perhaps off studying other areas? If only we had more material on “Afghanistan’s stable periods”….
Let’s start with anthropologists: “some”? I’ll stick to those anthropologists who did pre-1979 work. I came up with these, in a rather hasty manner, in no particular order:
- Louis Dupree
- Robert L. Canfield
- M. Nazif Shahrani
- Alef Shah Zadran
- Audrey Shalinsky
- Elizabeth Bacon
- Pierre Cenlivres
- Micheline Centlivres-Demont
- Richard Tapper
- Nancy Tapper (Lindisfarne)
- David J. Katz
- Yusuf Nuristani
- Erwyn Orywal
- Thomas Barfield
- Willi Steul
- Jon Anderson
- Inger Boeson
- A. Christensen
- Ashraf Ghani
- Takeshi Matsui
- Jeffrey Evans-von Krbek
- Ingeborg Baldauf (also a linguistic)
- Richard Strand (also a linguist)
- Khadiya Khashimbekov
- Erhard Franz
- Shuyler Jones
- Jan Ovesen
- Lincoln Keiser
- Michelle Poulton
- Robin Poulton
- J.P.S. Uberoi
- K. Wutt
- H.F. Shurman
- Aparna Rao
- R.T. Rashidov
- Carl-Johan Charpentier
- Etc….
This is getting tiring….
Read the rest here.
Also noteworthy, is Bleuer’s Afghanistan recommended reading list, in which I know many readers here would be interested.
August 16th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I’d also recommend Froust’s post on Jones’s article (which Christian links to in the above-mentioned post) and the sharp exchanges between Froust and commentators that ensued, esp. "Njarl".
August 16th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
[…] via A Children’s Treasury of Worthless Experts — Registan.net. Tip of the hat to commentor on Zen […]
August 16th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Very cool book list. I collect such things … .