To what extent is political and social life in afghanistan t ally organized, with loyalties divided between the pashtun plurality and the tajik u Uzbek and hasara minorities? And to what degree are other forces at work? I think the first thing to say on this is that the since the formation of ganistan in the eighteenth century as a federation of tribes, the structure was as largely tribal rather than ethnic. It's still not registered in the census. Whenever they take a census of the country, it's always afran afrand citizens. They don't say paston or taje or hasaras or sumni or shea. That is never