Crafting masculine selves: culture, war, and psychodynamics in Afghanistan

Based on five years of ethnographic research among Pashtun men in Afghanistan, this text presents a psychological study of adjustment and adaptation (or lack thereof) to cultural norms and rules of masculinity, and of how social expectations impact the subjectivity and inner lives of the protagonists. It chronicles Afghan Pashtun men's private conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalences just as much as it shows how three decades of continuous conflict have exacerbated and deepened the place and role of violence in Pashtun society, where what was considerate legitimate and justifiable behaviour in the battlefield has spilled over into everyday life among non-combatants.

Historical and ethnographic background -- Rohullah: shifting subjectivities and the crafting of a private masculinity -- Umar: the making, and un-making, of a religious militant -- Baryalay: between cultural and personal representational worlds -- Rahmat: the dilemmas of a "perfect" Pashtun -- Between what "was" and what "is": four tales -- Conclusion: the search for "meaning" within a shared psychic reality.

Based on five years of ethnographic research among Pashtun men in Afghanistan, this book presents a psychological study of adjustment and adaptation (or lack thereof) to cultural norms and rules of masculinity, and of how social expectations impact the subjectivity and inner lives of the protagonists. It chronicles Afghan Pashtun men's private conflicts, contradictions, and ambivalences just as much as it shows how three decades of continuous conflict have exacerbated and deepened the place and role of violence in Pashtun society, where what was considerate legitimate and justifiable behavior in the battlefield has spilled over into everyday life among non-combatants.