Modes of Subsistence

Afghans have developed a number of different strategies to wrest a living from their difficult, often marginal environment. Some pastoralist groups live a primarily nomadic existence, while in other herding communities migration is less frequent. Often groups combine animal husbandry with farming. Other agriculturists rely much less heavily on livestock. These subsistence patterns are to some extent fluid, pastoralists changing their degree of reliance on agriculture and agriculturists moving toward pastoralism, depending on ecological, economic, and political factors.

Pastoralism

Pastoral nomads have long been subject to romantic stereotyping. Barfield, in a satiric vein, offers a description of pastoral nomads: "In good legendary style, the pure Central Asian nomads eat only meat, marrow, and milk products (preferably fermented). They despise farmers, farming, and grain, and move great distances with their portable dwellings, wreaking havoc and destruction everywhere, but always with great elan. They are always hospitable and never pay taxes." In fact, few if any nomadic pastoralists in Afghanistan are "pure" nomads; pastoralists usually farm for at least a small portion of the year. Because nomadism is also only one available subsistence strategy and families and groups often move from pastoralism to agriculture and vice versa, the stereotype is seldom, if ever, valid. In late 1985 it was unknown how warfare had affected
migration routes and to what extent pastoral nomadism continued to be a viable subsistence strategy.
The nomad-agricultural continuum appears to allow movement in either direction, and scholars have reported on groups all along the continuum, as well as on the processes of nomadization and sedentarization. Barfield describes Afghan Arabs as relying heavily on nomadism in the past. The Wakhan Corridor Kirghiz also practice nomadic pastoralism. Other nomads include the Durrani in the western and north﷓central portions of Afghanistan. In the past the Gardez Khel Ahmadzai Pashtuns in the eastern part of the country were nomads, although many have become fully sedentary since the early 1970s as a result of changing political and economic factors. Groups invest heavily in the nomadic-pastoralist adaptation for a reason: Usually circumstances preclude agriculture. The high altitudes at which the Kirghiz live, for example, render farming impossible. The poverty of the soil in the Durrani nomads' area will not sustain rain-fed farming. The agriculturists in the area practice irrigation and do not welcome nomads' intrusions into irrigated oases. 

Pastoral nomads herd animals and produce animal products. The nomads' diet includes grain and other agricultural products, but they must purchase or trade for these from agriculturists. There is, therefore, always contact between sedentary or semisedentary farmers and nomads. Nomads have often supplemented pastoralism with other economic activities suited to their migratory life-style, e.g., trading, smuggling, and transporting animals and goods.
Migration routes, with the exception of the Kirghiz, take nomads through various ecozones so that pasture is available for the animals year-round. Pastoralists' migrations make them ideal disseminators of news, for they cover long distances and pass among many different groups. Governments have always distrusted such citizens who live a peripatetic life because this makes them difficult to control. Moreover, nomads tend to seek pasturage irrespective of national borders. Scholars note that before the borders of countries in the region were closed in 1961, the migration routes of pastoralists in the southern part of the country took them into Pakistan and, in earlier days, to British India. Those in the north regularly traveled to and from China and the Soviet Union. In 1985 unconfirmed reports suggested that nomads smuggled guns for the mujahidiin.

Among pastoralists, men and boys herd large animals. Children are often responsible for caring for immature ani
mals. Women's duties include milking and making milk products, such as yogurt, butter, clarified butter, curds, and dried curds. They may also be responsible for feltmaking. Because the duties of both sexes are indispensable to an independent nomadic existence, the married couple is the nucleus of nomadic adaptation. Unlike settled agricultural groups, where a parent and her or his children is an uncommon but feasible household unit, such a family does not constitute a productive unit in nomadic pastoralist society.

Mixed Subsistence Patterns

Mixtures of pastoralism with limited migration and agriculture are very common. The Nuristanis, the Gardez Khel Ahmadzai (since the early 1970s), some Durrani, the Lakenkhel Pashtuns of northeastern Afghanistan, and the Hazaras studied by Canfield all practice such a subsistence strategy. Several possible options exist for pursuing mixed subsistence modes. In some groups virtually everyone moves from their agricultural village or "winter camp" to a summer camp where they reside in tents and devote themselves to animal husbandry. Elsewhere, the mixed economy is an intrafamilial adaptation. These groups tend to be arranged in extended or fraternal joint families that constitute one unit of production. One or more brothers and their wives and children will live the life of the nomadic pastoralist with the family's livestock, while the other brother(s) will remain in the village or winter camp to farm the family land. An agricultural pastoralist strategy increases options in difficult times, such as periods of drought or disease. 

Pastoralism, as well as the mixed alternative, may sometimes be unstable. Several authors comment on the sedentarization of nomadic populations with whom they lived. Fredrik Barth, a Norwegian anthropologist, proposed a now classic theory to explain the sedentarization of nomads. According to Barth, the wealthiest and the poorest nomads will settle on the land, dropping out of the nomadic migratory cycle. The well-off invest their surpluses in land, which they eventually must oversee as they acquire more and more acreage. Those with little or no surplus go into debt during times of crisis or when sudden expenses must be met. Eventually they may lose their herds in the process of repaying debts. They then have no recourse but to become dependents of wealthier nomads or to settle on the land. Observers in Afghanistan have noted both processes at work.

Glatzer describes processes of nomadization as well as sedentarization among the Durrani in western Afghanistan. Sedentarization proceeds largely according to Barth's model. Nomadization of the sedentary population also occurs. Farmers practice a mixed subsistence strategy, keeping some livestock. Only irrigated land is arable in the region because of dryness and the poor quality of the soil, and irrigated land is at a premium. Therefore, farmers producing a surplus tend to invest this in increasing their stock. Livestock soon overgraze the arid land surrounding the irrigated oases and must be kept moving so that they have new sources of food. Farmers often contract with nomads to shepherd their herds, but for a sizable herd this is unsatisfactory. Nomads must oversee their own animals as well, and this takes precedence over their duties to the contracting farmer. Agriculturists with relatively large herds will then assign nomadic pastoralist duties to a younger brother and his family, who form part of the farmer's joint household (or to a son in the case of an extended family). In time, the ties between nomadic and settled relatives weaken as the pastoralist and settled brothers come to have different interests. When the head of the household dies, the pastoralist component of the household often elects to remain nomadic and to relinquish inheritance of land in favor of livestock ownership. Similarly, those who have remained on the land may have little interest in retaining control of the family herd. A new nomad family is thus born, although the process may take more than one generation. Former nomads may also return to nomadism if, after being forced through poverty to give up herding, they manage to earn enough to start another herd. Both pastoral nomadism and sedentary agriculture, then, are not necessarily permanent adaptations. The extremely varied ecology helps to determine which option is most viable in a given place at a given time.

Agriculture
Anderson details the fully agricultural subsistence pattern of the Ghilzai. In most areas the Ghilzai water their fields through an irrigation system dependent upon underground water channels that are dug and maintained by hand. These channels carry water from the mountains surrounding the plain on which the Ghilzai live. Settlements may locate only where the channels surface. Such an elaborate adaptation is extremely labor﷓intensive and requires a sedentary life.

All producers, whether nomads or farmers, are tied to a market economy. Animals and animal products, such as wool, are sold for cash, as are agricultural products. Improved roads have facilitated access to markets (see Infrastructure, ch. 3). Reports in late 1985 indicated that foodstuffs from northern Afghanistan reached Kabul markets by truck, but the situation in the remainder of the country was largely unknown.

Urban Subsistence Patterns

Little appears in the literature on urban subsistence patterns. Cities have never been as important in Afghanistan as they have been in the Middle East or in South Asia. Erika Knabe, an observer of Afghan women, notes that in the late 1970s upper﷓and middle﷓class urban women were employed in the wage labor force in kabul. She reports that in the late 1970s the state was the largest employer in the country. With the influx of so many Soviet citizens and the migration of well over 1 million Afghans to the capital, urban modes of subsistence must have changed greatly since 1979.

This page maintained by Luke Griffin and last updated on 01/14/2002 .