Village

Village

Folk music and instruments

The inward looking society

The terms keley (Pashto) and qaryah (Dari) are usually used to mean village. Deh also means village, but today it is particularly used to compound names to refer to specific villages. e.g., Deh Morasi, Qadzi Deh.

Two types of completely sedentary village settlement-patterns exist:

linear and nuclear. The linear type, common in Southeast Asia, occurs along the major rivers, clinging to the watercourses. The nuclear pattern, in which villages cluster about a town, and several village-town clusters surround a city, is more common in Afghanistan. Villages usually grew in response to needs for water and defense.

The villages, generally self-sufficient subsistence units, must obtain certain items (tea, sugar, salt, iron implements, cloth, mirrors, trinkets,. kerosene. lamps and lamp chimneys, matches, etc.) from either a town bazaar or itinerant peddlers. Until recently, the Afghan village had two interesting peculiarities when compared to other Asian villages: no bazaars and no wheels. Therefore, few- full-time specialists live in the village. A man is a farmer first and foremost, although- some farmers do function as part-time specialists: carpenters, masons, bricklayers, butchers, shoemakers, and mullah. These men practice their subspecialties after completing their daily or annual farm work. Occasionally, regional part-time specialists seasonally travel from area to area on the off-agricultural season; the Andar Pushtun, for example, are experts in constructing and repairing the qanat in winter; some Wardak Pushtun travel to eastern Afghanistan to construct qal’ah (Dari fortress-residences with watchtowers; called kalah in Pashto). In the West most people spend their days as professional specialists or technicians, but Afghans on the whole are generalists, following diurnal and annual ecological cycles.

The wheel, primarily on bicycles, now appears in some villages within the infrastructured zones of easy accessibility. But the pre-World War II Afghan village had no wheels for transport. The only wheel in the countryside was the potter’s wheel usually in the towns and city bazaars. Even today small groups of semi-sedentary or semi-nomadic potters pause seasonally in various villages.

The principal manner of transport has always been on foot (most common) or on horses donkeys and camels. Some villagers, particularly among the sedentary Pushtun, use cattle as beasts of burden to haul logs and to bring reaped cereals from the fields to the threshing and winnowing areas.

The Afghans use hand-drawn ferries extensively to cross-rivers and streams, but only the Sayyad Baluch of the Sistan Basin regularly use dugout or plank boats and canoes (turin) constructed from the reeds which grow in the swamps. They also make huts of the reeds.

House types vary with terrain and available building material, but almost always occupy non-productive land (Alberts and Dupree, ms.). The most common house type in high, dry Afghanistan is square or rectangular, made of sun-dried brick covered with a mud and straw plaster. The bricks are made in wooden molds, then placed on the ground to dry. Flat roofs of rammed earth interlaced with twigs are supported on mat-covered beams. Stone foundations commonly occur in mountainous areas. Although slanted tin roofs are becoming more popular in Kabul, most Afghan houses continue to have fiat mud roofs, which must be shoveled free of snow in the winter and remudded every fall or they will leak.

In the west, both in the Turkestan Plains and along the Irano—Afghan border, a squarish dome-roof variant exists, possibly related to the conical beehive dwellings found in central Anatolia and northern Syria. A roof opening (badgir) admits air and light and expels smoke. Many villages in western Afghanistan consist of such interconnected beehive huts, and the villagers construct additional segments as new nuclear families come into being. A post-World War II variant in southwestern Afghanistan extends into Iranian and Pakistani Baluchistan and has a rectangular floor plan with a tunnel-vault roof and with or without frame windows; In Baluchistan, semi-circular reed huts are made by some Baluch and Brahui groups, particularly semi-nomadic and semi-sedentary peoples. They do not plant trees and bend them over, as described in some of the literature (Fairservis 1961). Or rather they do not do so ill modern times. They may have done so in the past. They do however use chapari (mars spread over poles) as temporary huts.

Particularly south and west of the Hindu Kush, crushed limestone or gypsum arc first fired and then mixed with water to form gatch, an adequate plaster used in construction.

Mud walls of varying heights line meandering lanes and enclose the small compounds of the houses. Sonic newer houses in villages do not have compound walls, but these are rare. Traditionally, walls ensured privacy, and corralled the livestock at night. The compound usually includes storage sheds, animal pens, cooking areas, a general area for family work and play and sometimes a small pool or juy (artificial stream. small canal), for ablutions and washing dishes or clothing. Women and girls often transport water home several times a day from a local stream. juy, or well, in porous pottery jugs which cool water by evaporation. The trip to communal sources of water gives the women a chance to leave the compound to socialize with each other, and to flirt with the men. Various size tin cans up to five-gallon kerosene tins increase annually in popularity for water collecting and storage.

Typically, a village residence has two or three rooms, carpeted with rugs, or gelim, if the owner can afford them. Most villages have guest rooms or guest houses for the traveler. The village mosque often serves this function, as well as being the jirgah meeting place and seasonal school. At other times, villages hold meetings under large trees in open communal gardens. Household furnishings consist mainly of cooking utensils, pots, cups, and saucers, religious mementos, inherited heirlooms (guns, sword, old basins. aftabah, etc.), storage chests and containers stone or clay lamps, alekan (kerosene lamps) or gazlamp (new "Persian" words) and samovars among the more affluent.

Grains are often stored in large pottery bins, which sit off the floor on sturdy pottery legs to keep insects and chickens from raiding the food supply. The cloth stopper commonly used to seal the opening at the lower end proves ineffective, however, and I have seen chickens casually peck out the stopper and cat their fill. Prehistoric designs identical to those on steatite and copper seals from Deh Morasi Ghundai (L. Dupree, l963a) and Mundigak (Casal, D.A.F.A. xvii, 1961), have been deeply incised on the outside of most storage jars.

Occasionally, a villager will own a charpayi (rope or string bed with wooden frame), but in most places rolls of mattress-bedding, stacked neatly during the day arc laid out nightly: The flat rooftops usually serve for summer sleeping drying fruits and vegetables, and as auxiliary work areas. At times a tamped-earth platform in front of the hut is similarly utilized. If weather permits, cooking takes place outside the huts. Charcoal, busah (or butah, oily roots and branches), and dung patties are the chief fuels. Women and children gather all animal refuse and the women shape it into cakes about ten or twelve inches in diameter. They slap the dung patties, each with a handprint in the middle, onto the outside of the house or onto flat rock surfaces to dry.

In some areas, smoke holes are pierced through the center of lhe roof or in a corner of the room. In other areas (such as Nuristan), smoke holes seldom exist, and eyes smart as the thick smoke seeks an exit.

Many village huts, particularly south of the Hindu Kush (Kabul Valley, Maidan, Logar, Ghazni, Ningrahar), have a type of forced hot-air, tunneled, heating system (tawkhanah) under the floor. A busah fire built at one end quickly heats the floor. Nightime winter chill dissipates and sleep comes more comfortably. The villagers carefully control the fires to prevent their spreading.

Afghans place small, low, wooden tables over n2anghal’ (charcoal braziers), and spread a blanket out over the table so that it drapes to the floOr. Then whole families sit around the sandali (as the system is called), covering legs. arms, and much of their bodies under the blanket to absorb the heat. Bukhari, Central Asian style wood-, charcoal- and sawdust-burning stoves, are popular in urban centers.

Numerous departures from these general characteristics exist. In both north and south,, as one moves from the plains up the mountainous valleys, stone gradually replaces mud-brick and pisé (pressed mud) construction. For example, north of Charikar in the Panjsher Valley, we first encounter foundations of stone. Moving up the valley the transition is gradual, and the stone walls creep slowly up from the foundation until, at Kotal-i-Khawak on the lower slopes of the Hindu Kush, all four walls consist of stone, often rounded river boulders, chinked with mud plaster. Most houses in the Panjsher have two stories, and in the winter, animals sleep inside on the ground floor. As the heat rises from their bodies, the upper floor becomes warmer.

A peculiar type of Structure (called sayagi khana/i in Kohistan north of Kabul and kishmisfi khanah around Qandahar) dries green grapes into raisins. These mud-brick buildings have rectangular loop-holes for air circulation, and often look like block houses. Inside, bunches of grapes hang from wooden poles. Grapes dried outside in the sun become red raisins.

Windmills in western Afghanistan sit along the Iranian frontier from north of Herat all the way into Sistan. (N. Wolfe, 1966, 44. See also Ferdinand, 1963b, 1966—67; Wulf, 1966.)

Windmills have been a part of Herat’s landscape since the seventh century when they were first described by Arab geographers. From these sources we know that the entire area around and along the eastern borders of Iran, the area, that is, of ancient Khorasan, was liberally dotted with windmills. Furthermore, early twentieth-century travelers also describe ruined windmills around Kabul and Ghazni and as Far East as the Indus River. But even then they were but relics of the past. Though these first windmills antedate the appearance of windmills in Europe and China, the question as to whether the latter were inspired by those of Khorasan, or whether they were independently invented, has not been settled with absolute certainty. Many, however, -are firmly convinced that the windmills of ancient Khorasan were indeed the source of inspiration.

The windmills of Herat operate only during the period locally referred to as ‘the time of the 120 days’. wind which normally blows from June to September. This is also the time of the wheat harvest. During this period the mills work day and night. -

Outside Herat the mills are built singly or in pairs, but in other parts of the province, as for instance at Ghorian, it is not uncommon to find a line of ten to twelve mills adjoining each other. Early twentieth-century reports record as many as 50 and 75 mills built together in single long rows. These mills are at first not readily recognizable to the Western eye for they do not have the huge wheeled arms with which Don Quixote fenced. The lower half consists of a square mud-walled room. Here one finds the millstones which are fed by means of a wooden feeder from a larger hopper built into the side wall. Resting against the upper millstone and the feeder there is a small rod known as the vibrator-stick. The movement of the turning stone vibrates this rod which in turn shakes -the grain from the feeder. Against the other wall there is a long trough for the collection of the milled flour after it is thrown out from between the two millstones.

The mill-shaft is made from white poplar and rises from the center of the millstones through the arched roof of the mill-house. To this shaft are attached six sails to each of which two reed mats are affixed. These sails spin between walls on two sides forming a well, which aids in funneling the wind. At Herat the outer edges of this well are attractively stepped. (Quoted from N. Wolfe, 1966).

Pigeon towers to collect droppings are at least five hundred years old in the Iranian plateau (Beazley, 1966), the manure being used for fertilizer and tanning. The towers are mainly found in western Afghanistan, but some exist near Kabul and other major cities.

Only in the relatively heavily forested areas of Nuristan and Paktya do complicated wooden houses exist. A special class - of artisans called Ban build the Nuristani houses, which perch on high mountain slopes, the dwellings strung together like a DNA helix. One man’s roof is another man’s work and play area. The Ban artisans perform all their complicated carpentry using adzes and knives.

Mountain-dwelling Pushtun in Paktya often build two-story mud-brick and stone houses, roofed with slate, staggered one on top of the other, much like the Pueblo dwellings in the southwestern United States. Ladders must be used to climb from roof to roof.

In flatter areas, however, men stand atop circular watchtowers overlooking the vineyards, orchards, and grain fields, which surround most Pushtun villages, and give warning of approaching raiders, bandits, or animal predators. Often, individual compounds have their own watchtowers.

Some sedentary cave-dwellers exist in Afghanistan, particularly in the Hazarajat, where the people build large sun-dried brick and pisé structures inside the openings of- large rock shelters found along the river terraces.

Although I previously decried the lack of adequate statistics available for Afghanistan. we do have several general censuses which help clarify the sedentary vs. non-sedentary picture at least in the gross quantitative sense.

Basically agricultural production in Afghanistan involves five elements: land, water, seed, animal or mechanical power and human labor. Theoretically whoever contributes one of the elements receives one-fifth of the resulting crop. Land and water rights often go together. Usually, the landowner also supplies the seed. Animal or tractor power for plowing and cultivation may be provided by the landlord, the cultivator, or a professional oxen or water buffalo owner. In many instances, the individual who plows, plants, weeds, tends, reaps, and winnows the crop receives only the one-fifth due for labor. With this, he supports his family and usually dreams unfulfilled dreams of buying his own farm.

Land ownership often, though not always, leads to a higher standard of living and increased political power.

Little beyond the landlord’s own personal integrity curbs his exploitive tendencies. Largely immune to social pressures and far from being restrained by Islamic ethics (as interpreted by conservative religious leaders), he often uses them to manage more efficiently his Godfearing, predeterministically-oriented tenants. In addition, many religious leaders themselves are large landowners.

Absentee ownership, an outgrowth of the land tenure system, fosters and perpetuates certain abuses. The large owner normally controls holdings through resident lieutenants often referred to as headmen (malik) or overseers (arbab; at times refers to actual owners), with some loyalty to both owner and tenants. At times, the rent collector-headman takes advantage of his position and extorts unreasonably high shares from the tenants. The landlord seldom visits his villages, inspects the overseer’s accounts, or questions his methods as long as he delivers the proper quotas. The landlord tends to become remote and the peasant. more subject to abuses when village lands are leased or sub-leased to speculators, who install their own professional overseers.

Many ask why the peasant docilely accepts his condition. Several factors reinforce the status quo: the failure of periodic revolts; the peasant’s belief in the predeterministic aspects of a man’s existence; and such peasant traits as strong individualism and non-cooperation outside the family, skepticism, and suspicion of neighbors as well as outsiders, pride and vanity, all preclude easy mobilization of the villagers for concerted non-religiously oriented action.

Other factors, which help keep the peasant in line include the relative lack of mobility within the class system, the lack of positive alternatives, and the threat of expulsion or economic sanctions. Many landlords rotate tenants periodically to frustrate the formation of local clique alignments.

However, all landlords should not be stereotyped as mercenary tyrants. Viewed from within the total cultural milieu, the landlord becomes a major entrepreneur juggling extensive operations and tremendous capital, understandably wishing to advance the interests of his class and leave his son or sons a worthy inheritance.

The relationship between landlord and tenant, landlord and overseer, and overseer and tenant involves much give and take, however. Many landlords in Afghanistan take a paternalistic interest in their peasants. The wise landlord or overseer listens to the recommendations of the community’s respected rish-i-sofidan ("white beards" or elders) in minor matters. Such permissiveness usually does not indicate weakness on the landlord’s part, however, and he would not hesitate to drive a recalcitrant peasant from one of his villages.

In fact, peasants are seldom as docile as they appear to outsiders. Generations of exploitation have taught them many survival techniques not obvious to the casual eye. Laxity, stubbornness, stealing, false reporting of productivity, hiding a part of the crop, and conniving with the overseer against the owner constitute but a few methods of a not-so-passive resistance to a lopsided land tenure system.

In any event, kinship, peer-group affiliations, territorial identification, and common grievances tend to cement the, peasantry psychologically, if not physically, and generate an esprit de corps which neither landlord nor his agent can stifle without the risk of upheaval or, more important, declining profits.

On the positive side, landlords and agents serve as buffers between the state and the peasant, who still prefers to remain as remote as possible from any government institution. Simple land reform, or giving the land to the peasant, is not the answer. Integrated approaches must be taken so that when the peasant does receive land of his own, he can adequately cope with outside as well as inside pressures, which, build up to deprive him’ of his newly acquired land:

Land reforms, without adequate ‘protective measures, lead to another type of land ownership in which city opportunists will lend money to the peasant and very shortly gain the land, or traveling nomads, with relatively great wealth, will do the same. In addition sharp peasants living in. the village will themselves take over land from their less technically efficient peers.

Land reform can occur by accident. For example, after the December, 1959, Qandahar land-tax riots in Afghanistan. the Government surreptitiously released rumors that land. reforms would follow shortly, and that no one could own more than 30 jerib (1.5 acres). Many large landholders immediately began to sell land to their land less peasants, and land reform by rumor was accomplished. Generally speaking, only the more competent and energetic peasants who had been able to save large sums of capital over the years were able to purchase land. Few of these new landowners, gaining land through a competitive system, have lost their land. Most peasant sharecroppers still remain perpetually in debt to landlords and moneylenders. Actually, a major absentee landlord problem does not exist in Afghanistan, and according to 1968 estimates, fairly reliable 1 think, only about 30 individuals in Afghanistan own over 1,000 jerib of land.