"Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History" - Thomas Barfield

Thomas Barfield introduced the audience to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He showed how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly described how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily.
Thomas Barfield is professor of anthropology at Boston University. His books include The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China, 221 BC to AD 1757; The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan; and Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture.

[@tariq-thenighttraveller2585]

Thomas Barfield has amazing command on this subject and his humorous way of presentation keeps you enthralled.

[@ventsyv]

48:26

[@MrMikkyn]

I’ve seen so many documentaries about afghanistan, the Taliban, ISIS, the war with russia, the communist rebellion, and am currently reading a book called “The Taliban Reader, Islam and Politics in Their Own Words” and now I am watching this lecture. I’m starting to get a better understanding of the country now. I really like the mentality of the Afghan people, very God focused, Sufi influenced and the tribal legal system is so interesting and different the any other legal system that I’ve ever encountered.

[@leopard6554]

I'm an Afghan but it seems like he knows more than me about Afghanistan. Awesome.

[@nazirr8148]

Brilliant!! He said all this 12years ago, the country collapsed in 2021 exactly how he touched on issues!

[@bjrnryrvik3498]

37.27 "It was more complicated than that." History in a nutshell.

[@jacobzaranyika9334]

Thank you 🙏 for your support Boston University

[@nightoftheworld]

6:16

[@nyhammer1]

48:15

[@andrewedris2800]

Wow. In this 10-year-old lecture are most of the cultural and historical insights required to understand the August 2021 collapse of the Afghan state and national armed forces. I will be plugging this to everyone I can reach.

[@JCResDoc94]

45:44

[@elliri3012]

When he speaks of development, much of what's happening now makes sense; it's like the Great Game, played out between India and Iran vs. China and Pakistan.

[@willh1970]

One of the best things that I have seen regarding Afghanistan. Ever. Its a pity that more decision makers haven't listened to Thomas, maybe things would have been very different.

[@LeotheOrangeCat]

this explains a bit about the speed of recent events

[@abdrahmanabdaziz319]

An honest and sincere talk on Afghanistan.

[@padshahbaytaaj6560]

Wonderful

[@uldos3193]

Brilliant. Actually whole of central asia and stans are very specific and unique in tbeir perception.

[@krassos]

Mark Hamil, Anthropologist.

[@danieldifranco9322]

May the force be with you

[@rsp7029]

"Side switch; the most radical Communists join forces with the most radical Islamists." This dude can tell the future!!! Said Ishmael Khan as he joined the Taliban in 2021.