Edward (“Ted”) Callahan, Jr.
Our Students
Edward (“Ted”) Callahan, Jr.
Matriculated September 2003
Edward Callahan is studying a group of 1,000 pastoral nomads who live in two separate communities (geographically, politically, and economically), the Big and Little Pamir. Since these two areas are separated by a week’s travel across several 15,000-foot passes, he has hitherto concentrated on the Little Pamir, the larger of the two communities (population 630), over the course of (in total) 15 months of research. During the upcoming four months of research, he will focus my attention on the Big Pamir, the smaller community (est. population 330). It should be mentioned that he has visited this Big Pamir community several times already, but never for any prolonged period.
Since his work is partially a re-study of work done in the 1970s, he has to some degree been forced to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and to consider the Afghan Kyrgyz as a single entity, rather than as two separate ones. Hence his need to research both communities, in the Big and Little Pamir, rather than one or the other.
Finally, his study site (in both Pamir) lies at an average elevation of 13,600 feet and is one of the remotest parts of Afghanistan, utterly lacking in roads, electricity, and the like. For this reason, research in the Pamir is slow going at best. A total of 19 months of fieldwork is in line with that of the two previous ethnographers of the Kyrgyz (Shahrani and Dor).
View Ted Callahan’s research paper, “The Kyrgyz of the Afghan Pamir Ride On”.
See a great slideshow of pictures from Central Asia that gives a good sense of the place, especially Kyrgyzstan.
Links to the Wildlife Conservation Project in Afghanistan: