Address
Department of Anthropology                                            Telephone: (617) 353-5028
Boston University                                                             Fax: (617) 353-2610
232 Bay State Road #103C                                                      e-mail: barfield@bu.edu
Boston, MA  02215

Academic Interests
Pastoral nomadism in the Near East and Central Eurasia, political economy, cultural ecology, ethno-archaeology, anthropological approaches to historical method, indigenous domestic architecture, ethnicity. 

Employment

Boston University, Department of Anthropology, Professor, 2007 - present

Boston University, Department of Anthropology, Professor and Chairman, 1989-2006
Harvard University, Department of Anthropology, Associate Professor, 1986-89
Harvard University, Department of Anthropology, Assistant Professor, 1982-85
Wellesley College, Department of Anthropology, Visiting Assistant Professor, 1981-82

Education
Ph.D. (Anthropology) Harvard University, 1978 
M.A.  (Anthropology) Harvard University, 1974 
B.A.  University of Pennsylvania, 1972 

Publications--Books and Monographs
1997 (executive editor) The Dictionary of Anthropology. Oxford: Blackwell.
1993 The Nomadic Alternative. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 
1991 (and Albert Szabo) Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture.  
          Austin: University of Texas Press. 
1989 The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China. Oxford: Blackwell. 
1981 The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan: Pastoral Nomadism in Transition. Austin:
          University of Texas Press.

Publications--Selected Articles and Book Chapters
2003  “Archaeology as Anthropology of the Long Term.”  In Archaeology is Anthropology,
  edited by Susan Gillespie and Deborah Nichols.  Archaeological Papers of the
  American Anthropological Association, #13, pp. 41-50. .
2002 "Turk, Persian and Arab: Changing Relationships between Tribes and State in Iran
  and along its Frontiers." In Iran and the Surrounding World: Interactions in Culture and
  Cultural Politics, edited by Nikki Keddie. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp.
   61-88.
2001 "Idol Threats." Religion in the News 4(2):4-7.
2001 "The Shadow Empires: Imperial State Formation along the Chinese-Nomad
  Frontier." In Empires, edited by Susan E. Alcock, Terence N. D'Altroy, Kathleen D.
  Morrison, Carla M. Sinopoli. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11-41.
1996 "The Afghan Morass." Current History 95(597): 38-43.
1994 "The Devil's Horsemen: Steppe Nomadic Warfare in Historical Perspective." In
  Studying War: Anthropological Perspectives, edited by S.P. Reyna and R.E. Downs.
  Amsterdam: Gordon and Breach, pp. 157-182.
1991 "Tribe and State Relations: The Inner Asian Perspective." In Tribes and State
  Formation in the Middle East, edited by Philip Khoury and Joseph Kostiner. Berkeley:
  University of California Press, pp. 153-185. 
1984 "Weak Links on a Rusty Chain: Structural Weaknesses in Afghanistan's Provincial 
  Government."  In Revolutions and Rebellions in Afghanistan, edited by Nazif Shahrani
  and Robert Canfield.  Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, #57, pp. 170-183.
1984 "Introduction: NOMADS--Stopped in their Tracks?" Cultural Survival Quarterly
  8/1:2-5.
1981 "The Hsiung-nu Imperial Confederacy: Organization and Foreign Policy." Journal of
  Asian Studies 41:45-61.