That was what defined Afghanistan: You had a Turkish civilization to the north, India to the south, Persia to the west.
It was the place where all this overlapped, the place you had to pass through. In many periods of its history, other cultures have gone through and dropped things off. They've found buried cities near Kabul with glass from Egypt , artifacts from China and carvings from Siberia , all these different things.
After the s or so, when the West began its rise, the oceans became the highways of the world. Places like Afghanistan were far away from anything. After becoming a really cosmopolitan place, it transformed into this remote spot that no one ever went to until the British and Russians showed up over the past years.
Then it was back in play again. It's a Grand Central that it's everyone has to pass through to get somewhere else. That's been both a blessing and a curse. That makes it seem like such a fascinating story, doesn't it? It sounds like a whole lot of fun: "It's lighthearted, a great game! Good game, old chap! Q: You write that another game, called Buzkashi, provides insight into an Afghanistan culture that's so mystified outsiders. It's still immensely popular today. How was this ancient game, which requires men to push a goat carcass across a goal, played in the past?
It's a game of northern Afghanistan and across the river into the lower states of Central Asia. Sometimes the field would stretch for miles, or it might be a few hundred feet. There was a goal post at one end and another at the other end. There was any number of players, and there weren't teams. No place was out of bounds, and there were no spectators. Instead, it was a platform for individuals to gain prestige, manifest their charisma and gain followers.
It was about how you'd handled yourself during the game, manifesting your manliness, your courage, your honor. In Afghan society, there was a similar process going on, in which people who emerged into power positions and became authorities and leaders as if they were playing a game of Buzkashi. There were no rules. By manifesting their great qualities, they would acquire followers and bound their followers through a complicated unwritten ritual of being generous and incurring obligations.
From the very beginning, and in a way it continues to this day, the West has evolved toward a civil society with a bureaucracy. In our world, the things that count are the titles that people hold. If you take a guy out of the job and put some other guy in the job, then he plays that role.
Q: Like when we change from one president to another. To borrow a phrase from history, "The king is dead, long live the king," right? The assumption of the people from the outside is that if you establish one man on the throne and make him king, you can control the country. But he's not king because he wears that crown. It's only if he's gone through that leadership process, which is never settled because people rise a little and drop a little.
One day they are more of a leader, and one day they are less. Q: What does this tell us about Hamid Karzai , the president of Afghanistan? To me, it seems that even as all the elections are going on, as cabinet ministers are being appointed, there's a whole other system, a kind of alternative universe. He's not just discharging his duties.
He's busy politicking in the old Afghan way, building his network. He's trying to establish himself as a leader in that other sense. They see how Western people operate: that they have money, they're efficient, they get things done and they don't squander a lot of time managing social relations in every interaction.
But they don't get that the West has all these unwritten hidden rules that we don't even think about. There are do's and don'ts, and we know what they are. But when a man from that society comes to this society and sees women on the streets, not being covered up and dressed to be attractive, they think that means they're available and there are no rules.
We know that's not the case. Our sense of gender relations is based on a long evolution of a concept of individuality. Shakespeare and Spenser have gave their names to two very different forms of sonnet. These forms allow their practitioners to approach a theme in very different ways. Spenser reflects on this theme during the first two quatrains octave of his sonnet; he then takes a whole sestet to explain his solution, namely, that poetry confers immortality.
And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;. Which erst from heat did canopy the herd,. Save breed to brave him when he takes thee hence. Writers experimented and played with the poetic form across numerous sonnets, producing narratives and elaborating on complex themes.
For example, some wrote:. Competitive Play. A verse form consisting of pentameters of ten syllables comprising five iambic feet. Sir Philip Sidney 30 November — 17 October was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.
Rules of the Game Amy Tan. Transform this Plot Summary into a Study Guide. Waverly becomes an unexpected chess champion, and her mother's possessive pride in her accomplishments causes a rift between them. The story contains many vivid details of life in San Francisco's Chinatown, where it is set. For instance, one day when Waverly is six years old and accompanying her mother to market, she pleads with her mother for some salted plums.
Her mother sharply denies her. However, the next time she accompanies her mother to market, Waverly is silent and controlled — and her mother rewards her with the plums. This episode, besides demonstrating what her mother considers the art of invisible strength, also illustrates the fraught power dynamic between equally willful mother and daughter.
At a Christmas party at their local Baptist Church, Waverly's brother receives a chess set.
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