Content area
Full Text
I am a cultural anthropologist, and I have focused a large part of my research on Afghanistan populations. To my surprise, and despite the international attention given to this country in the last three decades, I have noted the absence of significant genetic studies intended to depict its complex population history. Available articles mainly concern those ethnic groups located across the borders, meaning that any conclusion about Afghanistan is an indirect inference, as only few Afghans living in Afghanistan or recently emigrated from Afghanistan, have been sampled (Agarwal et al. 1976; Rahimi et al. 1977; Goedde et al. 1977a and 1977b; Hirth et al. 1979 and 1982; Benkmann et al. 1980; Berti et al. 2005; Hohoff et al. 2006; Lacau et al. 2011).
Afghanistan is at the crossroad of many civilizations, where Central Asian and Indo-European populations (coming from the Iranian plateau and the Indian sub-continent) have met and sometimes admixed (Bruk 1955; Orywal 1983 and 1986; Barfield 2011).
As Afghanistan has been practically isolated from all neighboring regions from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century, more than anywhere else today, spoken languages well identify existing ethnic groups that are fully conscious of their identity. Therefore, linguistic diversity can be used as an excellent proxy to ethnic identity. In total, there are at least thirty-two different languages and dialects in Afghanistan, belonging to four different linguistic families. Twelve languages are specific to this country: Parachi; Munji, Sangleshi-Eshkashimi (Badakhshan province); Kati, Askuni, Waigali, Prasuni (Nurestan province); Pashayi; Ningalami, Watapuri, Sawi, Tirahi (Farhadi 1969 and 1970). For more details, the generally accurate guide "The Ethnologue" can be consulted, and to this end, I will report their capitalized three-letter accession code used at the beginning of each section (Lewis 2009).
Generally, the definition of Afghan ethnic groups corresponds to usual ethnological criteria: a specific political or social organization, a marked preference for endogamous marriages, the feeling of sharing a common culture, values, and memories, and a marked geographic continuity of the territory each group inhabits (Dupaigne and Rossignol 2002).
Before moving on to a systematic description of the ethnic groups living in the country, I would like to highlight that traditionally it was possible to marry a woman of a group considered as inferior,...