Dress and Ornaments

Dress and Ornaments

Folk music and instruments

Life Cycle in Afghanistan
Birth and Childhood
Marriage
Death and Inheritance
Sports and Games
Diet
Dress and ornaments

The inward looking society

In all societies, literate and non-literate, clothing serves symbolic as well as practical purposes. Also, all societies adopt non-functional clothing from outsiders, which identifies them as members of a developing class, usually literate.

In a pluralistic society like the United States, much overlap occurs at all levels, and clothing habits change throughout the lives of individuals and groups, but in Afghanistan ethnic pride leads toward acceptance of a specific mode of dress for group identification. Much of the clothing, however, remains similar because of similar individual work-patterns: peasant-farmer, nomad or town artisan.

In north Afghanistan, among the Turkic-speaking Uzbak, Turkoman, Kirghiz, and Persian-speaking Tajik, Hazara, and Aimaq, men shave each other's heads about once a month. Each man has his own razor, and squats patiently while a friend scrapes the bristles from his scalp, and then reciprocates. Some villages have part-time barbers who perform the services to a specific clientele in return for cash or kind.

South of the Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, men generally prefer long hair, cut neat and square at the level of the earlobe, a kind of masculine bob. When they perform the atan (the so-called national dance, but primarily Pushtun), their long, often oiled, black hair whips and swirls with the exciting savagery of the dance.

In the remoter parts of Nuristan some men and most boys still leave a lock of hair on the back of the head, which facilitated the taking of heads or scalps in pre-Muslim days.

Full beards are still popular outside the major cities, as signs of manhood, and as the beard whitens, so does the venerability of the man: rish-i-safid (white beard) refers to an elder, rish-i-safidan, the informal village council. Among the urban literates, mustaches are preferred, sometimes accompanied by a compromise goatee.

In some areas, young boys have their heads shaven except for a forelock by which, according to tradition, the boys may be snatched to Paradise if they die young.

Women seldom cut their hair, except in mourning, when some shave their entire heads. Body hair, including pubic hair, however, is painfully plucked with a looped string. Although girls go through no official puberty rites, this type of depilation may echo some such pre-Muslim ritual.

Afghan women wear their hair in various braided pigtail combinations, one, two, or several, at times straight, at other times coiled, the mode varying with the ethnic group. Among some Pushtun, unmarried girls wear their hair in two braids which hang down their backs. Other groups have three or several braids hanging on the back, decorated with embroidered cloth woven through the braids. When married, a woman will braid her hair into many braids toward the back of the head to indicate marital status. Among the upper and middle classes, the popularity of Western hairstyles of all varieties has led to a proliferation of modern hairdressing salons, particularly in Kabul.

Most Afghans dress similarly from the neck down according to sex. However, young boys sometimes wear dresses until shortly after they learn to walk (or even older), which facilitates toilet training.

Headgear, however, varies from group to group, and is the last piece of traditional clothing to go as a man becomes westernized. Evenliterate religious leaders may adapt Western dress, but they usually retain their distinctive turbans. Specific types of turban caps (kolah) and Ways of tying the turban cloth (Iungi or dastar) identify various groups among the Pushtun, Tajik, Hazara, Aimaq, Baluch, and Uzbak. White used to be the favorite turban cloth, although many, particularly among nomads, used black, a color which hides dirt. The post-World War II influx of cheap multicolored Indian and Japanese textiles made more colorful lungi popular in all groups.

The longer the Iungi, the more fashionable. Often, a man's turban cloth will be mere meters long than he is tall. All but the Pushtun groups usually tuck the ends of their turban cloths into the turban; the Pushtun leaves one end dangling over the shoulder, a pattern being adopted by others. The turban cloth has many functions. It protects

the head from blows, intended or accidental; the end can be pulled across the face for protection against sand and snow storms. It can be used to transport small objects (eggs, sugar, rice, tea, etc.). The turban cloth is used in certain games such as high jumping. Snacks (qrut or raisins) can be tied in the loose end, to be eaten as desired. Afghans also utilize the turban cloth to lift objects from one level to another.

Just as the lungi can be distinctly tied to identify a group, the turban cap (kolah) is even more distinctive (Centlivres and Centlivres, 1968) Each ethnic group or region embroiders easily recognizable designs onto the semicylindrical or rounded caps, usually made by women in the home. Some, particularly in the west among the Persian-speaking villagers (Farsiwan) or in the north among some of the Turkic-speaking peoples, wear caps of bare felt. Other caps, however, are elaborately decorated, particularly among the Uzbak and Tajik. One of the more highly prized kolah, cylindrical and richly embroidered with gold and silver thread and sequins, is made by male bazaar specialists in Qandahar. Women in the Qandahar region now produce and peddle kolah decorated with brightly colored Pakistani glass beads. Some eastern Pushtun (Afridi, Mohmand, Mahmund) wear pointed turban caps. Others, farther south, like the Mangal and Jadran (sometimes spelled (Zadran), wear tall, cylindrical straw kolah.

Most farmers wear turban caps in the field, although some prefer to wind a turban cloth without a cap around their heads as protection against heat and dust. Boys usually wear turban caps until circumcised, and then proudly display their first Iungi, which, like their rifle and dagger, is a symbol of manhood.

Turkomen wear distinctive tall, trapezoidal qarakul caps. The Kirghiz in the Pamir wear felt skull caps Under fur-trimmed, floppy-eared quilted hats.

Another regional piece of headgear is the flat, pork-pie Nuristani cap (pawkul), commonly called the Chitrali cap, for most are brought into Nuristan from Chitral. The pawkul looks like a rolled up paper bag in summer, and can be roiled down in winter to protect the ears.

The modified cylindrical qarakuli (now popular in certain American urban centers) is the prestige headgear for all who can afford them.

The uniVersal head-covering for women is the shawl (or chadar), which, like the lungi, performs many functions. The shawl keeps the dust from the hair, and permits the woman a modicum of modesty, for she can clutch a corner between her teeth when a stranger passes, thus partly covering the face. Babies can be wrapped and fed in the privacy of one end of the chadar. Small items can be tied in a corner and transported. At times women wear turban caps under the chadar, particularly for ceremonies and festivals.

Turkoman women wear the most distinctive hats in all Afghanistan, tall and covered with silver ornaments. Some hats, usually worn on special occasions, are often one and a half to two feet high. For daily work activities, Turkoman women wear peaked cloth turbans or head shawls in summer, but the same floppy quilted hats as the men in winter. Women's hats in Nuristan are sometimes covered with cowrie sheels, which served as a medium of exchange until the early twentieth century.

Most Afghan males wear slipover, loosely fitting, long-tailed cotton shirts, which reach the knees (or lower) and are buttoned at one shoulder. The shirt-tail flaps outside the baggy trousers, but can be tucked up inside the waist drawstring while the farmer works in the field. Qandahar specializes in white and brightly embroidered (small mirrors often sewn into the design) shirts for both men (ghara) and women (ghangai).

The horseriding groups of the north (particularly Turkoman, Uzbak, Tajik, Kirghiz) wear more form-fitting trousers, which befits horsemen. Fitted trousers probably originated in the plains of Central Asia and Mongolia in response to the development of horseback riding.

Nuristani men wear heavy wool, V-necked shirts and kilt-like shorts which often end just below the knee. The shorts have a drawstring.

Most Afghan males wear a sleeveless waskat (waistcoat or vest) over the shirt. Although the waskat is usually locally made and distinctly embroidered, many Afghans with access to town bazaars prefer to buy second hand American or European items, often locally embroidered. Quite a bit of the second-hand clothing of the United States ends up in Afro-Asia. The sale of second-hand clothes has become big business in the U.S.A. since World War II. Several American factories also reweave the old clothes to meet the peculiar or particular tastes of certain developing countries, but tons of unaltered second-hand clothing of all types turns up in Afghanistan. American businessmen buy the clothing by the warehouse-load from various charitable organizations, which collect old clothes from contributors. The organizations use the resulting funds for operational and charitable purposes, so everyone benefits:

The major city bazaars in Afghanistan all have large sections which handle second-hand clothing, and when a new shipment arrives, men and women rush from far and wide to a veritable paradise of old clothes. Labels appear from reputable, and sometimes fashionable, American clothing stores. World War II military tunics are especially popular with the martial Afghan males, who often dress in the traditional way, with the exception of an 8th Air Force tunic complete with embroidered captain's bars, silver wings, the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross), Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, plus the ETO (European Theater of Operations) ribbon, with battle stars. Another Afghan will sport an army "Big Red One" (First Infantry Division) jacket; others wear the First Marine Division tunic. I have seen West Point capes, R.A.F. greatcoats, United States Merchant Manne Academy "blues," and even a tunic from Fishburne Academy, a private military school in Virginia.

Village women usually wear white or colorful cotton (cloth of Indian, Japanese, or local manufacture) shirts, baggy trousers, or ankle-length skirts. The more affluent and leisurely inclined the woman, the more cloth used in the pleated trousers, often up to twenty meters. Women in the north prefer the brightly colored tie-dyed silks, or Russian cotton chintz with gay, bold, flowered designs.

Among some Pushtun nomads, unmarried girls wear long cotton black kamis, kamiz, or gamis (also called payran or payrahan; a long, loose shirt) and a red shatwar (Dari; tomban or yizar, Pashto) or baggy pantaloons, to indicate their status. Married women wear a kamis which reaches to. within six inches of the ankle, flowing blue pantaloons, a head covering called parvani in Dari or poraney in Pashto, and often leggings (paychah).

Wives and daughters of maldar (wealthy nomads) dress in bright wine and green velvet, heavily embroidered in gold. Coins of various denominations and ages (some as old as the lndo-Bactrian dynasties) sewn or woven into the garments worn by nomadic women make these creatures walking banks. Much of the family money surplus is literally tied up in women's clothing. Woman-stealing, still a favorite pastime among the nomadic Pushtun, is as much for fiscal as sexual reasons.

Nuristani women wear heavily embroidered blouses and full skirts, and, more rarely, narrower pantaloons thin those worn by women of other ethnic groups.

In colder weather Afghans wear one of several heavy coats: pustin (dressed. sheepskin, worn with fleece inside, often embroidered); pustinchah (1eeveless waistcoat made like pustin); kusay (short-sleeved coat of white raw wool, elaborately embroidered in Paktya); paysawoi (long cloak with sleeves blocked; worn draped over shoulders); chapan (quilted cloak of many colors made in the north, but now exported to major Afghan cities for sale); gopichah (mainly Uzbak, a pullover cloak buttoned at one shoulder, quilted for winter wear). A short chapan is worn while riding. The Kirghizahd Kazakh of the high Pamir wear cloaks heavily padded with wool and fur. Even on the hottest summer days, village Afghans visiting the city wear heavy coats, chapan, or kusay, with Western suit coats and vests.

Afghan terms for types of Western clothing have been, interestingly shifted from original meanings. For example, jampar refers to a lady's blouse or, at times, a man's or woman's sweater; jaket (with stress on second syllable) refers to either a sweater, a sport coat, or a business-suit coat. Often a karnarband (cloth belt of varying widths and thicknesses) encompasses the outer coat; the Afghans seldom support their baggy pants with anything but a drawstring.

Afghans sleep in their clothing. Some males strip to the waist when engaging in hard labor, but most remain fully clothed. When bathing in a stream, men will remove the long shirt, and loosen their baggy trousers to wash their private parts. Modesty is still the pattern. Pajama (a Hindi word referring to the baggy trousers and long shirts of Asia), usually of Western manufacture, are worn in urban centers. Many wear gaudy pajama, considered in good taste, in the street during warm weather.

Footgear varies from place to place and with the season. Open-toed and open-heeled leather or straw (nyi grass) sandals (often with tire-rubber soles) are the more popular footgear with villagers and nomads in the plains and foothills south of the Hindu Kush. Straw sandals occur mainly in Paktya, where large quantities of nyi grass can be collected. Other areas of nyi exist in the valleys leading into the Amu Darya west of Badakhshan. The usual term for sandal is chapli. In Kabul and other urban centers, cheap colorful plastic sandals from Pakistan, India, and Japan are growing in popularity.

Northern Afghans, particularly the Turkic-speaking horseback riders of the Turkestan plains and foothills, wear various types of boots. For walking and working, many wear open, boat-shaped, leather, shepherd's shoes (borrna), laced with homemade string or leather thongs. Two kinds of walking boots called maksis exist, which can be either one quarter or one-half leg in height: one has hard leather sole and heel, the other soft leather. In urban areas and some rural areas, Russian, Czech, Indian, or Pakistani manufactured rubber overshoes have replaced the leather sole-covers worn over the soft-soled boots when walking outside but removed on entering the home. Some wear rubber over shoes on bare feet. Another calf-high boot, chamus, has a soft sole. A popular knee-high boot (muza) with hard sole and high heel for hooking in stirrups is also worn.

Mountain peoples, particularly the Hazara and Aimaq, knit knee-length, thick wool stockings (with traditional designs) to wear inside boots in winter. The Hazara also knit and sell gloves with the same designs. In the high mountains of the Hindu Kush and the Pamir, people often wear fur-lined boots.

The Tajik make and export high wooden clogs to wear in mud. The clogs are carved with traditional designs (Andreev, 1927, 1932).

Nuristani men and women, in keeping with their cultural uniqueness, wear distinctive woolen leggings (kutpula’un in the Waigali dialect; paitawah in Dari) up to twenty feet long, tied with twisted wool string. (Elsewhere Afghans wear shorter paitawah, not only around the ankles but to support wrists.) Often the Nuristani goes barefoot, even in winter snows, but always wears leggings to protect his or her legs from the thick undergrowth. The Bari artisans of Nuristan also make a buskintype boot of cowhide for winter wear. Dried grass and straw packed inside the boot help keep it dry. Goatskin jackets or heavy serape-like cloaks (kucha’ok), fastened around the waist with a silver-studded dagger belt, are also worn by Nuristanis in winter. Women wear.a long cloak (sanah), gathered at the waist by a narrow, fifteen foot long Kamarband, called jagori in Waigal. The total configuration of Nuristani clothing possibly relates to those of a belt of Eurasian mountaineers stretching from the Carpathians of Central Europe to Chitral.

In addition to the ta’wiz all Afghans, men and women, are fond of ornaments. Patai’s (1952) discussion of the importance of the aesthetic in the daily life of the Middle East especially applies to Afghanistan. The monotonous life of the village peasant and the mobile immobility of the nomad are constantly enlivened by manmade sights and noises. A seasonally drab landscape and repetitive ecological calendar breed a mania for contrasting color and design which extends beyond individual clothing. Probably the love of colorful flowers relates to this. Nomads with rifles slung at the ready will have several flowers in their turbans or in the lapels of their waistcoats, and often flowers burst forth from rifle barrels. Villagers, in town on bazaar day, pick and sniff flower as they pass a garden. Artists paint truck body-panels with gaudy, colorful scenes of fountains, mountains, mosques, lions, horsemen, flowers, guns, locomotives, trains, a hand on a telephone, a jet or - conventionally powered aircraft. Horses wear elaborate trappings and colorful blankets, particularly in the north. In the urban centers, horse-drawn two wheeled gawdi roll colorfully and noisily down the street, the horses gaily bedecked with crimson pornpoms, bells, and yak-tail fly whisks. The proud maldar (wealthy nomad) dresses his camels with gaudy trimmings.

‘The Ban artisans are considered inferior by the mountain shepherd-cattlemen of Nunjstan, and until World War IT, many Ban lived as virtual slaves. Even today, Ban find it difficult to move from one village to another without the consent of the dominant Nuristanis.

Jewelers, silversmiths, and goldsmiths laboriously manufacture items for individual use. Customers give face-to-face orders, the future owner approves the plans, and the artisan executes the job with an individualistic flair. The emphasis on individual skills and the artisan’s pride in the artistics as well as function reminds one (at least superficially) of the mana (impersonal power), which is transmitted from the artisan to his tool and then on to the object in Oceania (Malinowskj, 1954). The Afghan artisan also does more than make an artifact; he incorporates a part of himself into it.

Paradoxically, emphasis on individual artisan effort does not produce perfect end-products. Since only Allah is. perfect, everything made by man is imperfect, so even the most be4utiful Mawri Turkoman rugs, Uzbak saddlebags, Istalif blue-glazed pottery, and Kabuli silverware will .have at least one flaw purposely constructed into the design. In addition, increasing urbanization and the demands which follow this process always find quality deteriorating in favor of quantity, a growing problem among Afghan artisans.

Women (or their husbands), even after marriage, purchase as much gold, silver, and brass jewelry as they can afford, some set with precious or semi-precious stones (lapis lazuli, carnelian, etc.), but often just colored glass. The Turkoman women of the north wear the most distinctive and elaborate gilded silver jewelry in Afghanistan. The well-dressed Turkoman lady will be bejeweled from head to toe: front and back headbands and plaques which hang from the headdress, armbands, bracelets (some with a ring and a thimble for each finger), breast and back plaques (rectangular, square, and triangular), rings, necklaces, and anklets.

The fish (at times with wings), a common fertility symbol, appears frequently in jewelry (Cammann, 1957). Other important prehistoric symbols are the sun-bird (phoenix) and the tree of life, found not only on jewelry but woven into the rugs of Afghanistan.

Men often wear one or more rings. Urban non-literates usually have their personal seals or script spellings of their names on a ring which substitutes for signatures, Afghan soldiers use such rings to sign official military documents. One interesting ornament pinned to many a male peasant and nomad contains five functioning toiletry tools: nose-hair cutter, fingernail clipper, ear-wax cleaner, toothpick, and fingernail cleaner.

Some men wear a gold ring on one earlobe or the other, usually the result of a parental committment when a child is deathly ill. The parents. pray and ask Allah to save the child’s life. If the child lives, the parents place a gold earring on his ear as a reminder of Allah’s compassion. Some - Afghans, however, state they wear a gold earring because it is sexy. Others insist it identifies practicing homosexuals.

Wristwatches serve many non-Iiterates simply as status items, for sometimes the conspicuously worn watches are broken. Some nonliterates also sport fountain-pen tops in their waistcoat pockets for the same reason.

The custom of tattooing (using copper sulphate, charcoal, and pin pricks) women among certain Pushtun nomadic groups has never been adequately explained. Cammann (1957) reports that tattooing may occur at weddings, but he expresses doubts of this custom as reported, and I can only echo his distrust. Rather, from what I have been able to gather, the tattoos on forehead, forearms, sometimes hands, and even breasts relate more to tribal property symbols. Similar signs, often a type of stylized bird, occur on camels and horses.

Cosmetics used by most women include the so-called ha ft-rang (seven colors): khinah (henna) for hands and feet; wasniah (indigo) for the eyes; sorkhi (red powder) for the face; safidah (white powder) for the face; sormah or kohl (purplish-black paste) for eye-liner; zarnik (gold dot for the forehead); gha!ya (musk, ambergris, oi1) for the body.

Modern trends in dress include exchanges of clothing types by overlapping groups in ethnic gray zones. Mushwani Pushtun, for example, dress like their Nuristani neighbors, except for their long-tailed Pushtun shirt; at many places in north Afghanistan, Tajik and Uzbak live in the same valley and wear each other’s headgear types, where at one time distinctive kolah existed for the different groups. Other current trends are the gradual Westernization of dress in the major cities, and the movement of the chadri (or borq’a) from the city to the town.

The chadri, though still present, began to disappear from Kabul in 1959, particularly among the literate class where .Western clothing, sometimes from Paris and Rome, had dominated underneath the chadri since at least World War II. The chadri, a sack-like garment of pleated, colored silk or rayon, covers the entire body from head to toe, with

an embroidered lattice-work eye-mask to permit limited vision. The women who came out of the veil in 1959 first wore a uniform consisting of a scarf, dark sunglasses, heavy coats, gloves, and cotton stockings. I Nylon hosiery soon replaced the cotton stockings, the gloves, and sun- I glasses gradually disappeared, and the coat was made of thinner and I thinner material until it, too, was discarded. Today even the scarf is being left at home and miniskirts, worn by pert school girls, blossom on the streets of- Kabul and on the Kabul University campus. Upper-class women still import high fashions from the West, but a number of Afghan ladies, trained as dressmakers in Europe, have opened salons and cater to an ever-growing middle-class clientele. Underwear and brassieres have been introduced into many general stores in Kabul.

Women in the cities continue to come out of purdah (pardah) and remove the veil, but a strange reversal of attitudes has occurred in villages becoming towns, brought about by the massive shifts of the transport and communication networks in the 1960s. Village and nomadic women seldom wore the chadri in the past because it would have interfered with their many daily economic functions. Now, however, if a village grows to’ town status, complete with a bazaar, and a man gains enough wealth to hire servants, his wife often insists on wearing a chadri, for she believes the custom to be sophisticated and citified-not realizing her city cousins have opposite attitudes. In addition, many young girls in the cities and towns wear the chadri briefly after puberty - to indicate they have become bona fide women, ready for marriage.

Actually, the chadri originally had two functions: it put all women in public on an equal basis (a plain chadri could cover the most inexpensive clothing) and it kept women (i.e., personal property) from being coveted by other men. However, some chadri were ‘made in the richest silks and also used for clandestine assignations, thus defeating the original purposes.