Publication:
Blood for Bread: Kurdish Kolbers, State Violence, and Another Call for Militant Anthropology. (A Dissertation Portfolio)

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dc.contributor.advisorJacqueline Urla
dc.contributor.advisorKrista Harper
dc.contributor.advisorDavid Mednicoff
dc.contributor.authorMohammadpour, Ahmad
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst, Anthropology
dc.date2024-03-28T16:33:08.000
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T15:50:50Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T15:50:50Z
dc.date.issued2022-02
dc.date.submitted2022-02
dc.description.abstractAs a stateless nation, geopolitically dispersed across various states (Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey), the Kurds are known mainly in the West as excellent soldiers/fighters and political revolutionaries. But amid the devastation of war and political unrest, most Kurds are struggling for economic survival. This is especially true for the Kurds living under the rule of Iran’s ethno-theocratic state. The Kurds refer to the part of Kurdistan under the Iranian state’s control as Rojhelat or Eastern Kurdistan, as it comprises the eastern part of the greater Kurdistan territory. The modern Iranian state has subjected the Rojhelaties or Eastern Kurds to decades of hostile ‘de-development’ policies that have undermined their traditional forms of livelihood, such as agriculture, animal husbandry, and natural resources. They have seen their lands confiscated and their access to capital, educational mobility, and resources severely restricted. In addition, under the rule of the Iranian Perso-Shia state, Kurds have been culturally and economically under a regime of internal colonialism that has eroded their capacity for economic survival. In this context, Rojhelati Kurds find few options for sustaining their lives: either join the central government’s repressive security apparatus in the region or become Kolber (cross-border worker, in Kurdish). This research seeks to provide a socio-political and ethnographic understanding of the work and experience of the Kurdish Kolber's. These workers engage in the transport of goods across the Iranian and Iraqi borders. Drawing on interviews with current and past kolbers and the existing data from social media and a human rights organization, I seek to understand who enters this work, why they engage in kolberi, and their strategies for internal survival networks and mutual support. Finally, this study argues that kolberi is an embodiment of systematic exclusion and it is accompanying structural inequalities tailored along with the ethno-religious lines by the Iranian state. I will try to put the Kolber lived experiences of the labor as well as their narratives of violence within the larger context of Perso-Shia nationalist discourse which defines the very human and human rights on the metrics of language and religion. my research will discuss kolberi as an ethnicized and racialized labor and as a natural outcome of a systematic and systemic exclusion of Kurds due to their ethnic and religious background. Keywords: State, Sovereignty, Violence, Kolberi, Militant Anthropology, Eastern Kurdistan, Iran
dc.description.degreeDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.description.departmentAnthropology
dc.identifier.doi10.7275/27928041
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-7768-4653
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/18749
dc.relation.urlhttps://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3568&context=dissertations_2&unstamped=1
dc.source.statuspublished
dc.subjectState
dc.subjectSovereignty
dc.subjectViolence
dc.subjectKolberi
dc.subjectEastern Kurdistan
dc.subjectIran
dc.subjectAnthropology
dc.subjectArchaeological Anthropology
dc.subjectDevelopment Studies
dc.subjectEnvironmental Studies
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectPolitical Science
dc.subjectSocial and Behavioral Sciences
dc.titleBlood for Bread: Kurdish Kolbers, State Violence, and Another Call for Militant Anthropology. (A Dissertation Portfolio)
dc.typecampusfive
dc.typedissertation
digcom.contributor.authorisAuthorOfPublication|email:amohammadpou@umass.edu|institution:University of Massachusetts Amherst|Mohammadpour, Ahmad
digcom.identifierdissertations_2/2421
digcom.identifier.contextkey27928041
digcom.identifier.submissionpathdissertations_2/2421
dspace.entity.typePublication
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