User talk:HamidHemat

History of the Craft
Embedded in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains, Kafiristan (“Land of the Infidels”) was long an isolated region. Cut off from the world courtesy of its deep mountain gorges and fierce warriors, the communities’ local, paganistic religions were supplanted by Islam in 1896 by Abdur Rahman Khan, over a millennium after the neighbouring regions. Renamed Nuristan (“Land of Light”), the valleys’ occupants adjusted their belief-systems to the new religion.

The historical evidence for the period pre-1896 is scant. The communities did not have an alphabet of their own, meaning written sources from their perspective are non-existent. Besides the occasional passing reference to them from outsiders (usually hostile to the Kafiristani’s existence, such as Tamerlane) there is little evidence with which to piece together their past. The result is that despite the many speculations made regarding their origin the truth is unknown.



The community of practitioners
The traditional Kafiristani artisans were from the ‘bari’ class. They were without social privilege, not deemed to be members of Kafiristani society, and bought and sold as slaves. Furthermore, they were even deemed to be ethnically different and inferior to the ‘Atrozhen’, making social mobility virtually impossible. (Klimburg: 69) Up until fairly recently it was not at all uncommon for the upper-class farmers to refer to the craftsmen not by their names but simply the term ‘bari’. (Edelberg: XII)

Indeed, despite the skill, transmitted from father to son, with which the ‘bari’ would carve their deep-ridged designs, they were not respected as citizens of the community. They were not granted the privilege of decorating their houses, which were usually located further down the valley for protection against Muslim incursions, with woodcarving designs.

Symbolism
It is inevitable that the symbolic meanings of specific motifs used in a culture’s artistic expression change over time with relation to the evolving social context of their society. Thus, it was, and is, with Nuristani woodcarving. A couple of reservations with discussing the craft’s symbolism must be highlighted.--HamidHemat (talk) 06:56, 19 October 2020 (UTC)--HamidHemat (talk) 06:56, 19 October 2020 (UTC)--HamidHemat (talk) 06:56, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Firstly, Nuristan is comprised of fairly distinct communities with their own languages and cultures. Not enough is known about the historical intra-Nuristan interaction and the extent to which the communities identified as part of a broader social group. Given that in the past it would have been very time consuming to travel between the villages (and at some points in the year virtually impossible), and recognising the cultural and linguistic differences, it is unlikely that the local communities would have seen themselves as part of a single Kafiristani or Nuristani culture and society - this geographical nomenclature itself was imposed from the outside. There may be some commonalities between the different cultures’ artistic symbolism, therefore, but broad generalisations will inevitably be pockmarked with errors.

Moreover, the local cultures underwent a serious disruption in 1896 as a result of the conversion from the pagan Kafir religions to the nation-wide Islam. Unfortunately, our understanding of the Kafir symbolism is severely hampered by the scarce remains of pre- Nuristan woodcarving. Much of this cultural heritage was destroyed, especially if there were anthropomorphic depictions which contravened Islamic custom. It is possible to have a rough idea of the symbols used from the artefacts preserved in the Kabul Museum and elsewhere, but once again a comprehensive understanding is beyond our reach.