https://journal.asi.org.ir/ Iranian Journal Of Antheropology en daily 1 Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0330 Sat, 23 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0330 https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733675.html This editorial is written at a moment when Iran, in the aftermath of the events of January 2026, is immersed in mourning and anger, and the country’s future appears more uncertain than ever. The question, then, is how a journal committed to scholarly standards can situate—or place—itself under such conditions. Scientific research requires degrees of composure and distance in order to make reflection and the exercise of critical thinking possible: a measured withdrawal from emotions that might otherwise render scholarly work hasty or biased and push it beyond the bounds of rigorous inquiry. Scholarly work is never a “pure” activity that can be carried out simply by ignoring affect and emotion. It must remain deeply connected to all dimensions of human life in order to maintain its relevance to human concerns, while at the same time relying on evidence to make visible the subtleties of the human condition. It is precisely these shared human concerns that undoubtedly drive the production of credible and meaningful scholarship. This seemingly paradoxical condition of both engagement with and distancing from emotion in the research process is one that every experienced researcher has encountered. Pierre Bourdieu, in his interview with Philippe Mangeot published under the title Against the Slope, remarks: “In scientific work, controlled impatience is a fundamental principle. One must be angry in order to work. But anger is not enough; one must also strive to control it.”[i] It therefore becomes necessary for a scholarly platform to champion such an approach—an endeavor that, in times of turmoil and unrest, is akin to walking on a razor’s edge.From another perspective, under such circumstances the promotion of a scientific outlook may itself be understood as the responsibility entrusted to a scholarly platform: to stand against despair and the erosion of rationality. This is not a heroic responsibility, but rather a modest and unassuming act of resistance against the forgetting of critical thought.The articles published in this issue each seek, in their own way, to address questions that, while rooted in broader concerns, pursue their answers through close examinations of both large-scale and everyday human behaviors and experiences—from cosmologies of paranormal healing to quotidian life in markets and apartment buildings, and from the pursuits of treasure seekers to literary efforts aimed at the formation of a hegemonic discourse.At this critical juncture, the journal understands itself not as an individual tribune, but as a shared home for anthropologists—a home whose credibility and independence can be sustained only through the active participation, responsible critique, and professional commitment of the scholarly community. The continuation of this path is an invitation to collaboration in safeguarding a space that keeps alive the possibility of scientific reflection on the human condition, even in times marked by disruption and rupture.Mehrdad Arabestani,Editor, Journal of AnthropologyJanuary 30, 2026[i] Mangeot, Philippe. À contre-pente: entretien avec Pierre Bourdieu. Vacarme 14.1 (2001): 4-14. https://vacarme.org/article224.html https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733895.html To understand healing experiences in rituals such as the Zār, it is necessary to examine the worldview of their practitioners, a task best approached through the cosmological study of healing rites. In theological and anthropological research, the human subject—its needs and, in particular, the process of healing—has been extensively addressed. By contrast, art studies have largely overlooked the relationship between healing rituals and their artistic expressions. This article addresses this gap by examining the Zār rite, a widely practiced healing ritual known under different names across a broad geographical area extending from Central Asia to Africa and Iran. Drawing on the field of religious studies, the analysis employs Mircea Eliade’s perspective, which views the human being as fundamentally oriented toward the sacred and understands ritual, myth, and religion as key components in the formation of cosmological systems. Since myth and religion play a central role in shaping both cosmologies and rituals, they constitute essential analytical frameworks for this study. The research adopts a documentary and analytical methodology, reviewing a wide range of books, academic articles, and documentary materials related to the Zār rite. By integrating these interpretive approaches, the study seeks to offer a deeper understanding of the healing mechanisms and artistic forms embedded in Zār rituals. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733896.html This article presents an anthropological investigation of symbols and cultural signs embedded in ritual foods and ceremonial tables among the Zoroastrian community of Kerman, understood as forms of intangible cultural heritage. The study is grounded in an interpretivist paradigm and adopts an inductive, qualitative research design. Methodologically, it combines ethnographic fieldwork with content analysis to examine both lived practices and their symbolic dimensions.The research is based on fieldwork conducted within the Zoroastrian community of Kerman and draws on data collected through thirty-seven in-depth interviews with knowledgeable community members, participant observation, and the analysis of relevant documents. The findings reveal that Zoroastrian ritual foods are rich in symbolic meanings and cultural values. Among these meanings, the sensory dimension—particularly smell—occupies a central place. Participants emphasized that the fragrance of ritual food is not merely incidental but constitutes the primary purpose of ritual cooking. The aroma is believed to generate happiness, purity, and blessing, especially for the souls of the deceased.Beyond their religious significance, ritual foods are also expected to be nourishing and wholesome. Moreover, the collective preparation and communal consumption of these foods during rituals and gatherings play a crucial social role. These practices reinforce social cohesion, strengthen communal bonds, and sustain a shared sense of identity within the Zoroastrian community as a religious minority. Through the lens of food, ritual, and sensory experience, the study highlights the interrelation between belief, embodiment, and social life in Zoroastrian cultural practices. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733905.html One of the most significant cultural and intellectual configurations during Iran’s second Pahlavi period was the emergence of leftist and Marxist-oriented intellectuals who systematically rewrote fairy tales. This phenomenon was not unique to Iran; comparable processes unfolded in twentieth-century Marxist contexts such as the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, where fairy tales were reconfigured as political instruments for revolutionary pedagogy, ideological socialization, and moral instruction.Adopting a comparative anthropological approach, this article examines revolutionary fairy-tale rewritings across these four contexts and analyzes their relationship to classical fairy-tale structures and rites of passage. The study focuses on the concept of ideological enculturation and explores how political ideology is embedded within narrative structures, symbolic oppositions, character typologies, and moral resolutions. Particular attention is devoted to the Iranian case, where writers and poets played a decisive role in shaping revolutionary consciousness in the decades preceding the 1979 Revolution.The theoretical framework draws on Victor Turner’s concept of liminality, Max Gluckman’s theory of rite of rebellion, Jack Zipes’s critical analyses of fairy tales and ideology, and Walter Benjamin’s reflections on storytelling and collective imagination. From the perspective of fairy-tale morphology and classification, the study also employs the analytical models developed by Vladimir Propp, Stith Thompson, and Hans-Jörg Uther. Methodologically, the research applies Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis to identify shared discursive patterns as well as context-specific variations in revolutionary fairy-tale literature. Through this comparative lens, the article demonstrates how fairy tales are transformed from heteroglossic narrative forms into monologic ideological instruments in revolutionary contexts. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733900.html This article examines the complex interactions between humans and nonhuman species in Iran’s forest ecosystems through an interspecies approach. Moving beyond a strictly anthropocentric perspective, it conceptualizes the forest as a dynamic network of agencies shaped by reciprocal relations among humans, plants, animals, and fungi. Rather than treating the forest as a passive reservoir of resources, the study foregrounds its role as an active system of communication, meaning-making, and co-production.The research draws on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews with local communities possessing extensive indigenous ecological knowledge, and close observation of multispecies interactions within forest environments. These observations encompass not only visible practices such as hunting, foraging, and animal behavior, but also semiotic processes, including chemical signaling among plants and fungi, structural transformations in vegetation, and patterned animal responses to environmental change.The findings demonstrate that forests continuously generate and exchange biosemiotic signals—such as fungal scents, plant stress responses, and animal movements—that regulate ecological processes and sustain multispecies life. For local human communities, these signs carry practical and symbolic significance. Over generations, inhabitants have learned to interpret and respond to them, integrating this knowledge into livelihood strategies, healing practices, and forms of sustainable forest management.The article concludes by arguing that adopting an interspecies perspective is essential for rethinking conservation and management policies in Iran’s forest ecosystems. Recognizing nonhuman agency and semiotic participation enables a shift away from top-down, technocratic models toward participatory, community-based approaches that enhance ecological resilience and long-term sustainability. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733901.html Traditional markets in Iran have mostly been studied as spaces that are purely economic, physical, or historical, while the everyday rhythms and the pulse of life flowing through these markets have received less attention in research. This study aims to achieve an in-depth understanding of the rhythms of the Shahzadeh Fazel traditional market in Yazd, using an ethnographic approach. To gain direct insights, data were collected over four months of continuous and immersive presence in the field through participant observation and in-depth interviews. Data analysis followed James Spradley’s systematic method, employing domain analysis, taxonomic analysis, and componential analysis to reveal underlying layers of meaning. To interpret the findings, Bourdieu’s concept of field and Lefebvre’s notion of spatial rhythms were employed.According to the results, the rhythm of Shahzadeh Fazel market emerges from the complex interplay and synchronization of bodily rhythms, movement patterns, spatial structure, sensory perceptions, temporal cycles, language use, diversity of actors, social relations, and echoes of the past. These rhythms not only regulate the patterns of movement and timing within the market but also contribute to its continuous reproduction as a dynamic social space and a field of everyday interactions. A wide range of actors including shopkeepers, customers, tourists, guild inspectors, and traffic controller shape the market’s rhythm through their varied habitus. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733904.html In contemporary Iran, sport functions as a socio-symbolic field where ethnic identities are constructed and redefined through embodiment and fan culture. This study offers an anthropological analysis of how symbolic boundaries of identity are drawn and maintained among three ethnic groups in Northern Iran: the Turkmen, Mazandaranis, and Gilaks. Adopting an interpretive-descriptive approach, the research utilizes multi-sited ethnography rooted in participant observation, in-depth interviews, and a semiotic analysis of the symbolic meanings embedded in sporting events. The theoretical framework builds upon Fredrik Barth’s concept of ethnic boundaries, Marcel Mauss’s "techniques of the body," and the theory of symbolic performance.The findings reveal that specific athletic traditions—volleyball and equestrianism among the Turkmen, wrestling in Mazandaran, and football in Gilan—function as "symbolic repertoires" that facilitate public displays of ethnic belonging and the symbolic differentiation between "us" and "the other." These bodily and ritualized actions channel ethnic differences away from violent confrontation toward regulated, meaningful competition, providing "thick descriptions" of identity. The study concludes that the sporting field in Northern Iran plays a pivotal role in the symbolic management of ethnic diversity. By transforming potential tensions into controlled rivalries, it fosters an environment of coexistence and tolerance, ultimately facilitating the integration of ethnic identities within a broader national framework. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733902.html This qualitative study examines the goals, motivations, and lived experiences of female students at Ilam University through semi-structured interviews with seventeen participants. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that entering university is perceived by most participants as a “certain and obvious” stage of life. Beyond its educational function, the university serves additional roles, including the acquisition of social prestige, the experience of individual independence, identity formation, and the enhancement of self-confidence. However, structural constraints in the labor market and the widespread unemployment of educated women render future career prospects uncertain and, for many students, discouraging.For many participants, the university functions as a “window for social participation” and the expansion of interpersonal relationships. Experiences within dormitory life and involvement in student organizations have contributed significantly to both individual and social development. At the same time, the university, as a mixed-gender space, offers many female students their first sustained interactions with the opposite sex. This experience, however, is shaped by official gender segregation policies and conservative social norms, which generate pressures, restrictions, and the reproduction of gender stereotypes.Overall, despite these constraints, the university emerges as a significant platform for the redefinition of female gender roles and identities. Simultaneously, it exposes the persistent tension between the university’s emancipatory potential and its role in reproducing mechanisms of gender inequality. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733897.html In recent decades, population growth, limited urban land, and rising housing prices have contributed to the expansion of high-rise residential development in major metropolises. In Tehran, this trend has intensified due to urban sprawl and density-selling policies. The present study aims to examine the impact of the earliest high-rise residential complexes on the transformation of residents’ lifestyles in Tehran. It employs a descriptive–analytical historical approach and is categorized as an applied research study. The case studies include residential complexes built during the initial decades of high-rise development in Tehran, selected through the snowball sampling method. Data collection was conducted through documentary studies, field observations, and spatial–morphological analysis. The results indicate that the spatial organization of these complexes — including the design of shared spaces, service and recreational facilities — has introduced new patterns of urban living, transforming concepts such as privacy, neighborly interaction, and place identity within the residents’ social fabric. The study concludes that Tehran’s first high-rise residential complexes, beyond merely altering architectural form, served as catalysts for cultural, social, and spatial shifts in urban lifestyles and modes of habitation. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733899.html This study, focusing on a historical and institutional analysis of literary patronage systems in Iran, seeks to elucidate the mechanisms that have shaped and consolidated both classical and modern Persian poetics. The central research question concerns how networks of patrons- including the state, universities, the press, political parties, and international institutions- have directed the course of Persian literary transformation over the past century, and what factors have determined the dominance or marginalization of different literary movements. The study aims to reveal the relationship between institutional support and the formation of competing poetics, demonstrating that the evolution of modern poetry and fiction is not merely the result of individual creativity but rather the product of complex interactions among social, cultural, and ideological forces.Grounded in André Lefevere’s theoretical framework, the research employs an institutional reading of literary rewritings and historical reflections. Data were gathered from analyses of literary texts, journals, literary histories, critical essays, and cultural policy documents, and examined through a comparative study spanning from the Qajar era to the post-revolutionary period. The findings indicate that official patronage systems in various periods, through budgetary allocations, publishing regulations, and censorship mechanisms, have continually reproduced cultural legitimacy models favoring classical poetics. Conversely, independent journals, the Tudeh Party, intellectual circles, the Writers’ Association, and diasporic networks emerged as alternative patrons, supporting Nimaic poetry (so-called New Poem, attributed to Nima Yooshij), modern realist fiction, and a socially committed, often left-oriented, critical literature—thus fostering the rise of a distinctly modern Persian poetics. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733898.html In recent years, pedestrianization has emerged as an innovative approach in urban space planning, aiming to enhance quality of life and strengthen citizens’ social presence. This study assesses the socio-cultural impacts of the pedestrianization of Taleghani Street in Ilam on citizens’ urban spatial experience. Using an ethnographic and qualitative field approach—including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and documentation of lived narratives—the research explores the transformations in citizens’ experiences before and after the pedestrian project.Findings reveal that prior to pedestrianization, Taleghani Street functioned primarily as a vehicle-oriented passageway, where people’s presence was limited to quick transit and brief shopping. The lack of collective spaces, congestion, and poor amenities contributed to a negative spatial experience. Following the project, the street has become a lively, interaction-centered, and sensory environment. Features such as paving, lighting, cafés, benches, and aesthetic enhancements have increased social interaction, prolonged public presence, and strengthened the sense of place attachment. However, variations in spatial experience among different groups—such as the elderly and low-income residents—reflect ongoing inequalities in spatial accessibility. Furthermore, tensions among motorcyclists, street vendors, and pedestrians, as well as between spatial modernity and local culture, persist as key challenges.Overall, the study concludes that pedestrianization has improved urban experience and social belonging, yet its full success depends on cultural management, regulation of informal activities, enhancement of amenities, and responsiveness to diverse social groups. Taleghani Street thus exemplifies an urban space in transition—balancing between local life-worlds and the modern logic of urban design. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733906.html Belief in the existence of hidden treasure—commonly understood as valuable objects such as gold or jewelry buried or concealed in the past—is widespread across cultures, though its forms and meanings vary by context. In Mazandaran, northern Iran, such beliefs are particularly prevalent. The region’s dense concentration of historical sites and sacred places, including shrines of saints, contributes to the perception of these locations as likely repositories of hidden treasure, a belief that can pose risks to tangible cultural heritage through unauthorized excavation.A significant dimension of treasure beliefs in Mazandaran involves supernatural elements, including the protection of treasure by jinn, spirits, snakes, or talismans, as well as the necessity of prayers or magical rituals to access it. Drawing on Marcel Mauss’s theories on the nature and social functions of magic, this study conceptualizes these beliefs within a broader framework of magical thinking and examines how they reflect and shape aspects of local social life.The research is based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with twenty-eight individuals from Mazandaran who hold beliefs in the existence of treasure. Participants were selected from diverse geographical areas across the province, ranging from Kiasar and Sari in the east to Motel Ghoo in the west, and included men and women aged between twenty-one and seventy-one. The findings indicate that supernatural explanations surrounding treasure not only serve to rationalize repeated failures and losses experienced by treasure seekers, but also function paradoxically as protective mechanisms. From the perspective of believers, magical forces are activated in situations such as hiding the location of the treasure, moving treasure before the diggers reach it, harming the diggers when they discover the treasure, and ultimately being a bad omen if the treasure is extracted and used. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_733903.html Proto-Elamite tablets from Susa are often interpreted as evidence of a centralized, state-oriented administrative system. Focusing on tablets that record tribute payments, this study questions whether the apparent concentration in recording practices necessarily indicates a centralized bureaucracy and formal tributary extraction, or whether it instead reflects mechanisms of economic regulation within a pre-state, network-based framework. The study examines the logic governing the registration of payments and asks whether differences in recorded commodities correspond to distinct economic logics or merely to variations in accounting procedures. Methodologically, it presents a detailed contextual and content-based analysis of two tablets from Susa (MDP 26:118 and MDP 06:353), including the re-examination of signs, numerical units, headings, and accounting structures, as well as a comparison between storable agricultural products and non-storable livestock payments. Adopting a structural–comparative approach and moving beyond state-centric assumptions, the analysis shows that both tablets operate through a modular, individual-based logic of registration. The observed concentration reflects standardized procedures of recording, calculation, and verification rather than institutional or political centralization. Differences between cereal and livestock accounts derive from operational accounting needs, not from fundamentally distinct economic systems. These findings suggest that Proto-Elamite Susa functioned within a fluid, network-based economy composed of relatively autonomous units linked through temporary recording practices rather than a centralized state apparatus. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_735721.html This research, based on interdisciplinary approaches of anthropology and sociology in archaeological analysis, investigates the process of cultural hegemony formation and the mechanisms of producing order and legitimacy through coercive power and consent during the Seleucids period. The Seleucids period coincided with political and cultural confrontation between Greeks and Iranian societies, as well as deep social, intellectual, and religious transformations in Iran, which can be observed and interpreted through material data such as architecture, statues of Gods, coins, pottery, and burial practices. During this period, the spread of Hellenic culture led to the decline of many elements of the Achaemenid culture, and a new model called “Hellenic culture” emerged with distinct social and cultural traditions. The replacement of Achaemenid architectural styles with Greek elements and decorations, the spread of temples and statues related to Greek Gods, and the emergence of new types of pottery and changes in burial rituals are among the most significant manifestations of this cultural transformation. The reflection of this cultural hegemony is particularly visible in western Iran. In this context, the city of Nahavand, due to its diverse Hellenistic archaeological data—including Greek inscriptions, architectural elements, and burial structures (tumuli)—holds a prominent position in the study of this phenomenon. Therefore, this research focuses on this region to analyze the dimensions of Hellenic hegemony. The research methodology is based on combined field and library studies, and the data have been analyzed using a historical-analytical approach. The fieldwork focuses on excavation findings in the Dokhaharan district and the Naqqārechi Tumulus in Nahavand. The results show that the presence of Hellenic cultural traditions reflects the social and political transformations in western Iran during the post-Achaemenid period. These findings indicate the establishment and consolidation of Greek political and cultural power mechanisms from the time of Alexander and his successors in Iranian society. This phenomenon can be explained within the framework of "Hellenic hegemony." The effects of this hegemony continued at least until the Parthian period and laid the groundwork for cultural developments before the emergence of the Sasanian society. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_735722.html A disaster is an event—whether natural or human-made, sudden or prolonged—that disrupts Disasters may be natural or human-made, sudden or prolonged. In the aftermath of such events, societies attempt to preserve individuals’ lived experiences and coping practices. Cultural memory plays a significant role in shaping how people respond to disasters, engage in coping strategies, and accept relief assistance. The city of Sarpol-e Zahab has experienced two major disasters: a human-made disaster, the Iran–Iraq War (1980–1988), and a natural disaster, the 2017 earthquake. Since relatively few studies have examined the role of cultural memory in reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience, further research in this area is essential.This study addresses questions such as: What forms do the tangible and intangible cultural memories of the war and the earthquake take among the people of Sarpol-e Zahab? To what extent have these memories functioned as resources for strengthening resilience and facilitating recovery? The aim of this research is to examine the role of cultural memory in disaster response through the lived experiences of the people of Sarpol-e Zahab, using a phenomenological approach.Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 individuals who had experienced both the war and the earthquake and who were selected through purposive sampling. The data were analyzed by identifying significant statements and clustering them into thematic categories. The findings indicate that the cultural memory of the war had a direct influence on how the people of Sarpol-e Zahab responded to the earthquake, increasing their level of resilience. For these individuals, the cultural memory of war functioned as a resource that enabled them to demonstrate greater adaptability and to complete the recovery and reconstruction process more rapidly after the earthquake. The study concludes that cultural memory can serve as a valuable resource for reducing vulnerability and improving the management of future disasters. https://journal.asi.org.ir/article_735723.html This article examines cognitive ethnography as an interdisciplinary methodological approach that expands the analytical scope of anthropology by shifting attention from narrated meanings and retrospective interpretations toward cognition in action. While interpretive anthropology has significantly contributed to the understanding of culture through symbols, narratives, and systems of meaning, many cultural practices depend on tacit, embodied, and situated cognitive processes that cannot be fully captured through interviews or verbal accounts alone. Cognitive ethnography addresses this limitation by conceptualizing cognition as a distributed process emerging through the interaction of bodies, tools, environments, spatial arrangements, and social relations. The article argues that cognitive ethnography bridges interpretive ethnography and laboratory-based cognitive approaches. It preserves the complexity of real social contexts while enabling a more systematic analysis of cultural cognition. Drawing on the concepts of distributed cognition, situated learning, and cultural technologies, the study demonstrates that cognition emerges through the dynamic relationship among body, mind, environment, and social interaction rather than residing solely within the individual mind. Using theoretical discussion and examples from Iranian cultural contexts—including carpet weaving, Ta’zieh performance, and the Zār ritual—the article illustrates how cultural meaning is produced through embodied coordination, sensory regulation, spatial organization, and interactional sequencing. It also explains how the Modification–Taxonomy–Queuing (MTQ) analytical process enhances the transparency and rigor of ethnographic interpretation by reconstructing the sequential organization of action and decision-making. Finally, the discussion addresses the methodological and ethical limitations of cognitive ethnography, including the risks of cognitive reductionism and the use of observational technologies. The article concludes that cognitive ethnography should be understood as a complementary approach that offers new analytical perspectives on the relationship among culture, cognition, embodiment, and social action.