Social organization of the Tajiks of Andarab Valley, Afghanistan
type: CreativeWork
description: The thesis is a description of the social organization of the Persian-speaking peasantry and part-pastoralists of a highland district in the central Hindu Kush of Afghanistan. Andarab district, with an estimated population of 33,000 souls, constitutes a geographical as well as governmental entity, and, as the people are orthodox Muslims, it is also a small segment of the cosmopolitan Islamic fraternity. The thesis falls into two parts, which are separated by a statement of the methods of fieldwork (Chapter III) employed in the prevailing political and local circumstances. The first part (Chapter II) attempts a comprehensive report of Adarab. After an account of the geographical, ecological and demographic background, it describes the division of the population into individual autocephalous households, either simple or polygynous, and grouped into village communities on the basis of patrilocal domicile. The factors of socio-economic stratification are specified. An examination of the boundaries of the four "electoral wards" into which Andarab is divided, suggests that a system of competitive oppositions is the main theme in political activity. The second part of the thesis presents exploratory material on the local community, the Afghan state, and Islam. Chapter IV suggests that, in the absence of corporate estates and succession by descent, the dynamic of the individual's life-career in his local community derives from the cycle of domestic development and his position vis-a-vis his coparceners as well as other kin relations. The Koranic rules of marriage and inheritance are given, and followed by an examination of their characteristic patterns among clusters of close collateral agnates, which are the only factional groups within the local community. An illustrative case of a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage within one village, shows that competitive opposition comes to a head over questions of marriage bestowal and bridewealth. Chapter V describes the system of l…
abstract: The thesis is a description of the social organization of the Persian-speaking peasantry and part-pastoralists of a highland district in the central Hindu Kush of Afghanistan. Andarab district, with an estimated population of 33,000 souls, constitutes a geographical as well as governmental entity, and, as the people are orthodox Muslims, it is also a small segment of the cosmopolitan Islamic fraternity. The thesis falls into two parts, which are separated by a statement of the methods of fieldwork (Chapter III) employed in the prevailing political and local circumstances. The first part (Chapter II) attempts a comprehensive report of Adarab. After an account of the geographical, ecological and demographic background, it describes the division of the population into individual autocephalous households, either simple or polygynous, and grouped into village communities on the basis of patrilocal domicile. The factors of socio-economic stratification are specified. An examination of the boundaries of the four "electoral wards" into which Andarab is divided, suggests that a system of competitive oppositions is the main theme in political activity. The second part of the thesis presents exploratory material on the local community, the Afghan state, and Islam. Chapter IV suggests that, in the absence of corporate estates and succession by descent, the dynamic of the individual's life-career in his local community derives from the cycle of domestic development and his position vis-a-vis his coparceners as well as other kin relations. The Koranic rules of marriage and inheritance are given, and followed by an examination of their characteristic patterns among clusters of close collateral agnates, which are the only factional groups within the local community. An illustrative case of a matrilateral cross-cousin marriage within one village, shows that competitive opposition comes to a head over questions of marriage bestowal and bridewealth. Chapter V describes the system of l…
author: Uberoi, J. P. Singh
language: en_AU
date published: 1964
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:54:54Z
provider: Australian National University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Australian National University

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/1885/11245