Researching Performing Arts in Badakhshan

Abstract

Relatively few academic studies have commented on Badakhshan Province in northern Afghanistan. During the period of the political 'Great Game' between Tsarist Russian-Central Asia and British India in the 19th century, British and Russian adventure-style officers occasionally returned with reports. Last century, a number of German, Russian, Austrian, Swiss, as well as a few Danish, French, American and Afghan researchers discussed Badakhshan in terms of various academic fields ranging from history, anthropology, ethnomusicology, geography, and linguistics, to geology, botany, and mountaineering. All of these accounts refer to conditions prior to the Communist coup in April 1978. Recent fieldwork experiences in Badakhshan (1998 and 1999) have allowed an examination of the impact of Afghanistan's civil war upon cultural traditions, particularly those involving performance, notably music and dance.