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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2022
A Multi-Volume, Multi-Author Encyclopaedia Such as this is a Desktop library; but, more than any library, it represents a set of conscious editorial decisions. The basis of these decisions (if, as is common, the editors do not make it explicit to the reader) may be inferred not just from the choice of topics, but from the balance between them, and from the length and nature of entries. In every case, choice and balance must be largely determined by the availability of previous research: if someone is known to be the world expert on X, then it makes sense to invite them to give a reasonable summary of their findings, even if in the grander political and cultural scheme it might be hard to justify. Bizarre—but delightful—anomalies are bound to result: among many in this encyclopedia, I would single out Willem Floor's two-page entry on DUNG; it is shorter, more approachable, and more inviting to the casual reader than, for example, the anomalous chapter on lizards that occupies a full 70 pages of the first volume of The Cambridge History of Iran.
1. Anderson, S. C. “Zoogeographic analysis of the lizard fauna of Iran,” in Fisher, W. B. ed., The Land of Iran (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), 305-71.Google Scholar
2. Barth, Fredrik Nomads of South Persia (London: Allen and Unwin, 1961).Google Scholar As Spooner notes, there were several earlier studies, all on tribal peoples, including Barth's books on Iraqi Kurds and on Swat Pathans.
3. In an inaccurate and distorted review of a limited section of the ethnographic literature, Brian Street (“Orientalist discourse in the anthropology of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan,” in Fardon, Richard ed., Localizing Strategies: Regional Traditions of Ethnographic Writing, [Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, and Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990])Google Scholar focuses on a concern with “the segmentary lineage principle” as the dominant issue; see Barth's response, “Method in our critique of anthropology,” Man 27, 175-77Google Scholar, and comment by Salzman, Philip Carl “Understanding tribes in Iran and beyond,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 1, 399-403.Google Scholar
4. As for stereotypes of the social and political structures of “tribes” in these countries, that is another story: and not one that has yet been successfully tackled in the EIr. See articles on ᶜAŠĀYER (F. Towfīq) and AFGHANISTAN iv. Ethnography (L. Dupree), both discussed briefly below. For further comment on “tribes” in Iran, see the discussion in my Frontier nomads of Iran: A political and social history of the Shahsevan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, chapter 1).Google Scholar
5. Barfield, Thomas J. The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Beck, Lois The Qashqai of Iran (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986)Google Scholar and Nomad: a Year in the Life of a Qashqaᵓi Tribesman in Iran (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Black-Michaud, Jacob Sheep and Land: the Economics of Power in a Tribal Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, and Paris: Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, 1986)Google Scholar; Bradburd, Daniel Ambiguous Relations: Kin, Class and Conflict among Komachi Pastoralists (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1990)Google Scholar; Tapper, Nancy Bartered Brides: Politics, Gender, and Marriage in an Afghan Tribal Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6. Mortensen, Inge Demant Nomads of Luristan: History, Material Culture, and Pastoralism in Western Iran (London: Thames and Hudson, 1993)Google Scholar; Pedersen, Gorm Afghan Nomads in Transition: A Century of Change among the Zala Khan Khel (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994)Google Scholar; Olesen, Asta Afghan Craftsmen: Cultures of Three Itinerant Communities (London: Thames and Hudson, 1994)Google Scholar; Frederiksen, Birthe Caravans and Trade in Afghanistan: the Changing Life of the Nomadic Hazarbuz (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996).Google Scholar
7. Whitney Azoy, G. Buzkashi: Game and Power in Afghanistan (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982)Google Scholar; Beeman, William O. Language, Status and Power in Iran (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Fischer, Michael M. J. Iran: from Religious Dispute to Revolution (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Fischer, Michael M. J. and Abedi, Mehdi Debating Muslims: Cultural Dialogues in Postmodernity and Tradition (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Haeri, Shahla Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Iran (Syracuse University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; Mir-Hosseini, Ziba Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law (London: I. B. Tauris, 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8. Field, Henry Contributions to the Anthropology of Iran (Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History, 1939).Google Scholar
9. Afshar-Sistani, Iraj Īl-hā, Chādir-neshīnān va tavāyef-e ᶜashāyerī-ye-Īrān, (Private, 1366/1987).Google Scholar
10. Eickelman, Dale F. The Middle East: an Anthropological Approach, 2nd edition (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1989), 39Google Scholar, referring to Smith, William Robertson Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia (Boston: Beacon Press, 1967, orig. 1885).Google Scholar
