Indigenous Values for Pure Living in Afghan Society: A Comparative-Historical Study

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES: The concept of pure living represents a core yet insufficiently theorized element of Afghan indigenous governance thought. Drawing on three interconnected traditions, this study develops a five-dimensional framework of pure living comprising moral integrity, social harmony, environmental stewardship, spiritual authenticity, and intergenerational accountability. The analysis explicitly treats indigenous institutions as internally heterogeneous rather than uniformly beneficial, examining their exclusionary, gender-discriminatory, and conflict-generating dimensions alongside their integrative functions. Despite significant political and institutional transformations across eight governmental periods, indigenous governance institutions, including the Jirga (council), Pashtunwali (Pashtun tribal code), Ulema (scholars) networks, and Ashar (communal cooperation), have demonstrated remarkable resilience. The study examines the conditions under which these institutions have either supported or undermined pure living and human dignity, and identifies which components of which institutions are most closely associated with each outcome.METHOD & FINDING: Using a qualitative comparative-historical approach, the research combines process tracing, comparative analysis, critical juncture assessment, qualitative content analysis, and thematic coding. Evidence was triangulated from official documents, ۲۸ semi-structured interviews, and authoritative secondary sources. Analysis revealed six indigenous values consistently linked to pure living—consensual decision-making through Jirga, the Pashtunwali principles of hospitality and sanctuary, communal solidarity, moderate Ulema authority, environmental stewardship, and intergenerational knowledge transmission—and, concurrently, identified specific components of the same institutions (ethnically bounded Pashtunwali authority, Badal , Namus) that have functioned as mechanisms of exclusion, retaliatory violence, and gender subordination. These values proved most effective during periods of constructive, safeguarded cooperation between state and indigenous institutions, particularly under the Zahir Shah administration and the National Solidarity Program during the Karzai era.CONCLUSION: Indigenous values remain active governance resources whose effects on legitimacy, social cohesion, and human dignity are conditional rather than uniform: the same institutions that sustained cooperation and welfare provision have also been used to justify ethnic hierarchy, gender subordination, and cycles of retaliatory violence. The quality and safeguarding of interaction between formal administrative systems and indigenous institutions emerges as the strongest predictor of governance performance across all periods. To promote sustainable governance, the study proposes a four-tier Hybrid Public Service Model based on institutional recognition, procedural integration, value codification, and explicit safeguards against the exclusionary uses of the same institutions. It also establishes pure living as a legitimate, but internally contested, criterion for evaluating governance quality alongside conventional administrative measures.

کلیدواژه ها:

Indigenous Values ، Pure Living ، Afghan Society ، Comparative-Historical Method ، Public Administration ، Jirga ، Pashtunwali