McFate, who is at the very least the voice (and leader) of HTS is an anthropologist and has been in the center of the conflict within the discipline. Although I am a political scientist (my wife says that is an oxymoron - and she is one too), I was trained in part by anthropologists and make use of their methods in much of my field research.

My concern is that in a totally male dominated culture like that of many of the tribes of Afghanistan, female anthropologists are unlikely to be able to establish any kind of rapport with the male leaders in the villages. I worked in Latin America and it was easier for me to gain access and rapport with the male leaders because I am male than it was for my female counterparts although it was not impossible. Still, Latin America is a Western culture and was changing significantly in the 1960s in the same directions that the US was going but at a slower pace. Given that, is it any wonder that the HTS anthropologists who were killed (cited in the article by Gezari) were women?

As to whether rapport is necessary - if one wishes to really comprehend a culture - to see it through the eyes of its members - than rapport is an essential step. The need to comprehend a culture in this way for military operators is the ability to predict behavior.

Cheers

JohnT