Stop Trying to Bribe the Tribes

Joshua Foust has a great new op-ed about the prevalence of a media meme that does not in any way reflect the sociological structure and norms of Afghanistan. There are many great parts:

"Despite three horrible, bloody wars that killed tens of thousands of British citizens (not just soldiers, but their families as well), [pundits] claim the [19th century] British policy 'worked adequately.' ... Then again, we already tried that. It didn’t work, in part because in Afghanistan the word “tribe” is so ambiguous as to have almost no meaning. ...It’s been decades since anthropologists really thought of 'tribe' as a useful descriptor for Afghan communities—'tribe' is a flexible concept, with identical names applying to different levels of genealogy. It also implies a hierarchy where none exists—if you know someone is from a 'tribe' that is 'higher' than his neighbor’s 'clan,' will that give you any tools for leveraging influence or power? I assure you, it will not."

The persistence of this meme is depressingly familiar. Many harmful ideas about the Arab world from Raphael Patai's outdated and almost completely fraudulent text The Arab Mind migrated into public discourse after 9/11. But even crediting many writers about the "Arab street" and "Muslim World" with having read a book is too great a compliment.

Comments

[PurpleSlog]

Why would Patai's book apply to Afghanistan anyways?

[A.E.]

I was making a reference to another meme (the "Arab street")

[PurpleSlog]

Gotcha.